Have you ever wondered how much of an impact you could make just by switching one everyday item to a Fair Trade equivalent? Well, the Fairtrade Foundation have made it easy for you with this calculator to celebrate 25 years of the Fairtrade Mark. You simply choose your favourite Fairtrade product (I went with coffee!) and let them know how much of it you consume (I have 2 cups, although sometimes a bit more…) and the handy calculator works out just how many bathtubs that would fill in 25 years, and gives you some really interesting information on how your Fair Trade purchase helps farmers and producers. This is what I learned:
Hugo Guerrero is fighting for the future of his family coffee farm. The climate crisis and plummeting coffee prices is making life harder at the Peruvian cooperative his father founded. Extreme weather is making plant diseases more common and more destructive, while market prices for coffee are the lowest in decades.
But thanks to Fairtrade, he is hopeful. ‘Without Fairtrade, we would not be growing coffee. It would not be profitable.’
Cafedirect are one of the companies buying the Guerreros’ beans on Fairtrade terms, meaning they get a much fairer deal and a better price.
Hugo, who studied Agronomy at university, is also introducing new organic farming methods to tackle the climate crisis. And he’s sharing this knowledge with the rest of his cooperative and the local community, leading to positive change across the region.
The Guerrero family can only succeed if we continue to buy Fairtrade coffee – so let’s drink to that!
To celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight, Rainbow Turtle organised two schools conferences. For local primary school pupils, we arranged a visit to St Mirren Park, to hear from 
For secondary school pupils, Rainbow Turtle, in conjunction with the 
Other activities which took place during Fairtrade Fortnight 2019 included a Fairtrade Bake Off at Gryffe High School, which we were lucky enough to be asked to help judge – look at those amazing cakes! The winner (which we don’t have a picture off because it was scoffed too quickly!) was judged to be best because of its delicious taste, its perfect appearance, and most importantly its high quantity of Fairtrade ingredients!