The global food crisis is having a serious impact on small farmers and poor communities across the world.

The conference, hosted on the 19 February by the Fairtrade Foundation and chaired by George Alagiah, explored the effects of the crisis on small-scale producers, discussed whether current responses are adequate and examined the role of Fairtrade in supporting solutions.   

Fairtrade Foundation report

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The global food crisis and Fairtrade: Small farmers, big solutions? Executive Summary (PDF) Report  (PDF)

Speakers' presentations

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Watch a selection of film clips from the conference

Speakers and agenda 

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Speaker biographies

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Malcolm Bruce MP

Bruce was elected MP for the Aberdeenshire seat of Gordon in June 1983.He has held a held a number of high profile spokesmanships for the Liberal Democrats in Westminster including: Trade and Industry, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Treasury.

He is currently Chair of the International Development Select Committee- a position he has held since 2005.  The Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for International Development and its associated public bodies. 

Recent reports have examined: maternal health, sanitation and water, the World Bank, HIV/Aids as well as looking at Development programmes in various regions including: Afghanistan, the Palestinian Occupied Territories, Uganda, Vietnam and the Thai-Burmese border region.  In 2007 the Committee published their report on Fair Trade and Development (2007, HC 356)

Malcolm was made a Privy Councillor in 2006 by invitation of Her Majesty the Queen.  

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Constantino Casasbuenas
Trade Policy Advisor, Latin America and Caribbean
Oxfam GB

Constantino Casasbuenas Morales is a Colombian/British Policy Adviser in Oxfam GB’s Economic Justice team where he works on agriculture, trade and climate change.

Before joining Oxfam he was an engineer. Along with other Latin Americans he collected cotton in Chinandega, and learnt about coffee in Matagalpa. He also worked with civil society organisations in Colombian urban developments. From 1988-1992 he lived in the Netherlands, where he worked for Novib in its Central America programme.

From 1992-1996 he was Director of Education for El Taller in Tunisia and from 1996-1997 he directed Equipo Pueblo’s Citizens Diplomacy Programme in México.

Since joining Oxfam in 1999 as the Country Programme Manager for Oxfam Colombia, his focus has been on Latin America and the Caribbean.

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Mark Curtis
Author, Journalist and Consultant

Mark Curtis is an independent author, journalist and consultant.

Previously he was a Research Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), Director of the World Development Movement and Head of Policy/Advocacy at Christian Aid and ActionAid.

He is the author of several recent reports for NGOs on issues such as the food crisis and mining, involving extensive field research, mainly in Africa. He has written five books on British and US foreign policies and international development and trade issues. 

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Patricia R. Francis
Executive Director
International Trade Centre

Patricia Francis, an award-winning leader and business facilitator, joined the International Trade Centre as Executive Director in June 2006.

ITC is a joint agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization that enables small business export success in developing countries. It provides, with its partners, trade development solutions to the private sector, trade support institutions and policymakers.

Ms Francis comes to ITC from Jamaica Trade and Invest, where she served as President since 1995. She was also a member of Jamaica’s Cabinet Committee for Development. During her tenure Jamaica attracted more than US$ 5 billion in foreign direct investment.

She served twice as President of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies. She has chaired yhe Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development’s Caribbean Rim Investment Initiative as well as the China-Caribbean Business Council.

She has received awards from the Washington D.C. based Caribbean-Central American Action Council and from the King of Spain for her leadership and support for investment and business advocacy.

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Janice Jiggins
Author, International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development

Janice Jiggins is a social scientist and former Professor of Human Ecology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.  She is currently a guest researcher in Communication and Innovation Studies at Wageningen University Research in The Netherlands.

She has worked and published widely on small farm development in the tropics, extension systems, natural resource management, integrated pest management, gender issues and, within Europe, on the sustainable management of water in the agrarian sector. For the last three years she has contributed intensively to the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (www.agassessment.org) and follow up activities. Recent publications include: Farnworth, Jiggins & Thomas. Eds. 2008. Creating Food Futures. Trade, Ethics and the Environment  (Abingdon. Gower Publishing).

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HE Mr Joseph Muchemi
The Kenya High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Swiss Confederation

After graduating from the University of London, HE Mr Muchemi worked for the East Africa Community where he remained from 1967 to 1977 and was responsible for finance, communication and research.

In 1977 he was made Permanent Secretary to the Government of Kenya and served in several ministries including Foreign Affairs, Public Works and Social Services.

HE Mr Muchemi has a career extending over 30 Years as a public servant and has extensive experience dealing with Heads of States. During this time he has become experienced in the intricacies of multilateral and bilateral negotiations and regional and international organisations.

He has also worked in the private sector as a training consultant and as the head of a financial institution designed to assist to assist indigenous entrepreneurs.

He was appointed High Commissioner to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 2003. He is also accredited to the Republic of Ireland and Switzerland.

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Silver Kasoro-Atwoki
Africa Fairtrade Network

Silver Kasoro-Atwoki is a tea grower and shareholder in the Mabale Growers Tea Factory. He is also a Director and Board member of the factory, and Chairman of its Premium Committee - the elected panel which decides how to invest the Fairtrade premium.

He is a Board member of the Africa Fairtrade Network which represents Fairtrade farmers throughout Africa within Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO), and was elected on to the Board of the Fairtrade Foundation in June 2006 as a representative of African producers.

Until retiring in 2001, he was a professional counsellor and senior psychiatric clinical officer.

Silver grows approximately 3,500kg of green leaf tea a month as well as coffee for the market. Like most tea farmers he also grows much of the family’s food - bananas, beans, cassava, maize and potatoes - a great financial saving and necessity for small-scale tea growers.

While primary education is free in Uganda, parents have to pay for secondary and college education unless their children win a scholarship. The cash income from his tea has been vital in providing his children with a good education.
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Justin King
Chief Executive
Sainsbury’s

Justin King has been Chief Executive of Sainsbury’s since March 2004. Before joining Sainsbury’s, he was Director of Food at Marks & Spencer and prior to that held senior positions at ASDA/Wal-Mart and was Managing Director of Haagen-Dazs UK. His early career was at Mars Confectionery and Pepsi International.

Justin is President of the IGD, a member of the CBI President’s Committee and is a patron of Skillsmart Retail, the national sector skills council for retail.

He sits on the Board of Bath University Management School and is a Visiting Fellow of Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation.He is a non-executive director of Staples Inc.
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Harriet Lamb
Chief Executive Officer
Fairtrade Foundation

Harriet Lamb has been Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation since 2001.

She has guided the Foundation through a period of staggering growth, which has seen estimated sales of Fairtrade products in the UK increase from £30m in her first year to just under £500m in 2007. The number of products carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark has grown from 80 to more than 3,500.

This has contributed to some 7 million farmers and workers in and their families across the world to participate in Fairtrade. A flourishing grassroots social movement has also grown across the UK and contributed to raising levels of awareness of the FAIRTRADE Mark to 70%.
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Tim Lang
Professor of Food Policy
Centre for Food Policy

Tim Lang has been Professor of Food Policy at City University's Centre for Food Policy in London since 2002.

In 2006, he was appointed Natural Resources and Land Use Commissioner on the UK Government’s Sustainable Development Commission where he led the 2008 ‘Green, Healthy and Fair’ report on government’s relations with supermarkets.

From 2005, he worked with the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) on its ‘Food Supply in the 21^st Century’ programme reporting in October 2008. He was an advisor to the Cabinet Office review of Food and Food Policy published in July 2008 and was appointed to Defra’s Council of Food Policy Advisors in December 2008.

He is a Vice President of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health.

He is co-author of ‘Food Wars’, ‘The Atlas of Food’ and ‘The Unmanageable Consumer’. His new book ‘Food Policy’ written with City colleagues David Barling and Martin Caraher is due out from Oxford University Press in spring 2009.

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Dr Daleep Mukarji
Director, Christian Aid

Daleep trained as a medical doctor in India.  In 1977 he established a community development programme at the College in Vellore, and in 1985 was appointed General Secretary of the Christian Medical Association of India.  By coincidence, both were funded by Christian Aid. 

In 1994 he took up the post of Executive Secretary for Health, Community and Justice at the World Council of Churches in Geneva, and he was appointed as Director of Christian Aid in April 1998.

He was Chair of APRODEV and BOAG (the British Overseas Aid Group) as well as Chair of the Trade Justice Movement, and has been a member of the WTO Director General’s NGO Advisory Body since mid 2004.  He is presently a Trustee of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) and Chair of the North Bank Trust of the Methodist Church, UK.

Daleep has studied public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (1975), and social policy for developing countries at the London School of Economics (1976). He has been nominated as one of the 100 most influential Asians in Britain and in 2008 he received the OBE in recognition of a career dedicated to the alleviation of poverty. 

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Robin Murray
Board Member of Twin Trading

Robin Murray is an industrial economist. He was for many years a Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies, at the University of Sussex, working also as a government adviser in many parts of the world. 

While Director of Industry at the Greater London Council in the 1980s, he co-founded Twin Trading, and has served on its Board for the past 20 years, acting as chair for ten of them.

Twin’s goal is to work with small farmers in the South to establish producer controlled supply chains that have direct access to final markets in the North. Over the past 17 years it has established a number of producer co-owned branding and marketing companies, notably Cafedirect, Divine, Agrofair UK, and most recently Liberation Nuts, with all of which Robin has been closely involved.

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David Otieno
Kenya Country Representative
Africa Now

David has 24 years experience working in the international development sector.

David is responsible for the management and delivery of Africa Now’s flagship country programme in Kenya, supporting disadvantaged people to use business as a route out of poverty. 

Current projects in Kenya include introducing smallholder farmers to beekeeping as an additional income generator.  Over 8,000 farmers are now benefiting from the sale of honey and the average household income has more than doubled.  The smallholder flower project is working with 300 famers to enable them to access the growing international market for cut flowers.  Farmers’ incomes have increased up to ten-fold due to this initiative.

The work of David and his team have been well recognised locally, receiving seven UN-HABITAT awards for promoting excellence in local governance and improving the lives of people living in poverty.

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Merling Preza
Latin American Network of Fairtrade Producers

Merling has worked with farming cooperatives in the north of Nicaragua since 1989, overseeing organisational strengthening, training and technical assistance.

Since 1994, she has worked with coffee producer cooperatives to market their coffee to the international market, focusing on the specialty market, and helping define internal and external strategies to position themselves in these markets. The strategy of Calidad Integral (Integrated qulaity) has enabled Prodecoop cooperative to become one of the most successful in the fair trade market.

Merling defends the interests of organised small producers and creates added value for the organisations she participates in. 

She has various roles in Nicaragua beyond her day job as General Manager of Prodecoop Coffee Cooperative and is a Board member of various national institutions that represent farmers and cooperatives.

She also has various roles internationally, including a Board member of the Latin American and The Caribbean small producer network, Chair of the Cooperativa Sin Fronteras, Guardian President of Twin, Board member of the Fairtrade Foundation, Member of the consultative committee on coffee for TransFair US and Board member of OCIA International/USA.

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Renwick Rose
Association of Caribbean Farmers in the Windward Islands

Renwick is the founding member of the local Civil Society Forum and serves on the National Economic Social Development Council in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

He is also the Coordinator of WINFA, which is an Association of Caribbean Farmers in the Windward Islands.  He has pioneered the export of Fairtrade and has recently signed a Sales and Purchase Agreement on behalf of Windward Islands’ Farmers. As Coordinator he has represented the ACP, a civil society organization, and participated in the European Commission Economic and Social Council meetings. He has also been a representative at the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.

On a regional level, he is a Director of the Caribbean Policy Development Centre, and a founder of the Caribbean Reference Group, which is involved in educational and advocacy work on trade.

Renwick’s career has spanned over 30 years as an economic, social and political activist. He has also been a teacher.

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Barbara Stocking
Chief Executive
Oxfam GB

Barbara Stocking joined Oxfam GB as Director in May 2001.  Oxfam is a humanitarian, development and campaigning agency, whose purpose is to work with others to overcome poverty and suffering.  During the last 6 years, Barbara has led Oxfam’s response to humanitarian crises in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, for the Tsunami and the Pakistan Earthquake.  She has strengthened Oxfam’s campaigning (e.g. Make Trade Fair, Education) and pushed for Oxfam’s scale up of development work e.g. on Livelihoods and HIV/Aids. Most recently Oxfam has began campaigning on climate change because of its impact on poor people.

Previously a member of the top management team of the National Health Service, in her eight years with the NHS, Barbara worked as regional director and then as Director of the NHS Modernisation Agency. Barbara has a Masters degree in physiology, and has broad experience of healthcare systems, policy and practice, including periods at the National Academy of Sciences in the USA and with the World Health Organisation in West Africa.

Barbara was awarded a DBE in the 2008 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
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Gareth Thomas MP
Minister of State for Trade and Development

Gareth Thomas was appointed joint Minister of State for the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (DBERR) and UKTI on 5 October 2008. He had previously held the position of Parliament Under-Secretary of State for DFID and DBERR from 29 June 2007.

From 2003 to June 2007 he was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in DFID with responsibility for Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Overseas Dependent Territories. He was also DFID's Green Minister with responsibility for the department's environmental performance in relation to the Sustainable Development in Government Framework and Targets.

Gareth was a Member of the Environmental Audit Select Committee from November 1997 to October 1999. Prior to his appointment as PUSS at DFID, he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the former Secretary of State for Education, Charles Clarke MP.

He was elected Member of Parliament for Harrow West in May 1997.

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Sophi Tranchell
Managing Director
Divine Chocolate Ltd

Sophi is Managing Director of Divine Chocolate Ltd, the pioneering Fairtrade company co-owned by farmers. 

She has a high profile as a champion of the company's mission to improve the lives of smallholder cocoa farmers in West Africa through a fairer trading relationship, and is an innovative marketeer, creating a brand that delights and engages consumers. 

Sophi has also overseen the development of Dubble – a Fairtrade chocolate brand co-founded with Comic Reflief, specially for young people – and is a founding trustee of Trading Visions, an education charity established to build awareness of fair trade issues and to amplify the voices of smallscale producers.

In 2007 Sophi won the Real Business /CBI First Woman award for Retail and Property. She is Chair of the steering committee to make London a Fairtrade City and Director and Vice Chair of Social Enterprise London.  She is also a member of the newly formed Council on Social Action, chaired by the Prime Minister.

Sophi Tranchell graduated in Philosophy and Politics from the University of Warwick in 1986.

Chair biographies

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George Alagiah
Patron
Fairtrade Foundation

George Alagiah has been Patron of the Fairtrade Foundation since 2002.  He has been the sole presenter of the BBC News at Six since December 1997 and has been the main presenter of BBC World News Today since its launch. He is also the main relief presenter of the BBC’s News at Ten.  

When working for the Fairtrade Foundation, George divides his time between meeting activists, supporters and farmers. He has visited Nicaragua and Sri Lanka, where he was born, on behalf of the Fairtrade Foundation and is a fantastic supporter of Fairtrade:

“You know it works because that’s what all the figures show but there is nothing like seeing Fairtrade work on the ground.  I wish I could arrange a trip for every sceptic – you very quickly realize this is not an intellectual debate but about people’s day to day lives.” 

He was awarded the OBE in the 2008 New Years Honours.

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Rosie Boycott
Chair
London Food Board

Rosie Boycott was the first female editor of a broadsheet and daily paper, editing The Independent, The Independent on Sunday and the Daily Express.

She co-founded both the feminist magazine Spare Rib and Virago Press.

She is an author, has chaired numerous literary prizes and is a trustee of the Hay Festival. She is a writer, journalist and contributer to many TV and radio programmes.

On 5^th August 2008 she was appointed as chair of the London Food Board.

Rosie owns a small farm in Somerset.

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Michael Gidney
Director of Policy
Traidcraft

Michael Gidney is Director of Policy at Traidcraft, the UK’s leading Fair Trade Organisation.  Traidcraft has been fighting poverty through trade for thirty years, trading with producer groups in more than 30 developing countries.  Its sister NGO, Traidcraft Exchange, helps poor producers build more sustainable businesses and campaigns for fairer trade rules and practices internationally. 

Michael is a member of the advocacy group of the International Fair Trade Association.  He was previously a Board Director of the Fairtrade Foundation, and Chair (2005-08).  Before joining Traidcraft Michael worked with various international NGOs, including Voluntary Service Overseas, the International Save the Children Alliance and the Child Welfare Society of Kenya. _____________________________________________________________________

Simon Maxwell
Director
Overseas Development Institute

Simon Maxwell became Director of the Overseas Development Institute in 1997. 

He is an economist who began his career working overseas, first in Kenya and India for the UN Development Program, and then in Bolivia for the UK Overseas Development Administration.   He holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University and an MA in Development Economics from the University of Sussex.

Before joining ODI, Simon spent 16 years at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, latterly as Programme Manager for Poverty, Food Security and the Environment. 

He has written extensively on poverty, food security, agricultural development and aid, and his current research interests also include development policy, linking relief and development, global governance and bridging research and policy.

He is a forum fellow of the World Economic Forum and was awarded a CBE in January 2007.