Two royal honours for Fairtrade pioneers
Bruce Crowther, whose campaigning work on Fairtrade led to the founding of the Fairtrade Towns movement, and Sophi Tranchell, Managing Director of Fairtrade chocolate company Divine Chocolate, have each been awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List. They will receive their awards from a member of the Royal Family at Buckingham Palace some time during 2009.
Bruce Crowther was such a fervent and vocal Fairtrade campaigner that he managed to persuade his fellow residents in the small market town of Garstang in Lancashire where he lived with his family and practised as a vet, to declare itself the world’s first Fairtrade Town in 2000. Bruce went from shop to shop and visited all the local businesses, asking them to make a commitment to Fairtrade. Enthusiasm gathered and the local council signed a pledge to use or sell Fairtrade products where possible, and most of the town’s traders started selling or using Fairtrade products.
Garstang, with its population of just 5,000, inspired the Fairtrade Foundation to develop the Fairtrade Towns campaign and 400 towns and cities to date all over the UK have since received Fairtrade status.
‘I hope by accepting this award on behalf of the mass movement of people it will help to promote even greater awareness of poverty and the part we all play in it.’, says Bruce who now works part-time as the Fairtrade Foundation’s Towns Co-ordinator and continues to work part-time as a vet in Garstang.
The UK example has also spearheaded an international Fairtrade Towns Movement. Globally more than 570 Fairtrade Towns, Cities, Villages, Islands and Boroughs have received Fairtrade status in 17 countries across the world – including London, Dublin, Brussels, Rome and San Francisco. In each of them Fairtrade is sold and served at shops, cafés, workplaces and in other organisations including schools and churches. The local authority will have passed a resolution in favour of Fairtrade and will use Fairtrade hot drinks at all its meetings.
Bruce says the idea for Fairtrade Towns came to him in the middle of the night several years ago. ‘I even dream about Fairtrade,’ Bruce admits. ‘I am inspired by Thomas Clarkson, the man who led the campaign to abolish the slave trade. He kept a candle and a quill pen by the side of his bed so that he could jot down any ideas that came to him to ensure that they were not lost by morning.’
The award also recognises Bruce’s support for Oxfam and the twin town link he created between Garstang and the cocoa farming community of New Koforidua in Ghana.
Bruce’s other honours include being made a sub-chief in New Koforidua, receiving the Beacon prize for creative giving in 2004 and being included in Gordon Brown’s book Britain's Everyday Heroes which is a collection of real life stories about ordinary people whose enthusiastic commitment has made a great difference to their communities through the ‘power of personal relationships’.
Sophi Tranchell’s award recognises her service to the food industry. She has led Divine from an under-capitalised idealistic start up in 1999 to today’s status as a mainstream and popular Fairtrade brand with £12m turnover, and profits shared by the Ghanaian cocoa farmers’ cooperative, Kuapa Kokoo, which own 45% of the company. Sophi has ensured that Divine presented a challenge to the chocolate industry proving it was possible to run a successful large scale business with a more equitable and empowering trading relationship with the growers at the start of the supply chain.
Sophi is delighted that this recognition will mean more people hear about and discover Divine, and through it – an alternative way to do business. ‘It is great to be acknowledged for doing something you love’, she says. ‘Working for the farmers of Kuapa Kokoo has been a privilege but it has also been a constant inspiration to see chocolate lovers here respond to Divine and the farmer-owned Fairtrade proposition. Growing a business in such a competitive environment can be tough – but chocolate invariably makes people smile – and we offer a very big reason to smile.’
She adds, ‘In this challenging economic climate I hope that the success of mission-driven companies like Divine heralds a new era of businesses where decision-making and money ends up in the hands of the many, not of the few.’
Sophi is Chair of the Fairtrade London campaign which was launched in 2003 with the aim of increasing awareness and availability of Fairtrade products in homes, shops, cafés, workplaces, tourist venues, schools and colleges across the capital. London was declared the world’s largest Fairtrade City last year.
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Notes to Editors
1. The FAIRTRADE Mark is a certification mark and a registered trademark of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) of which the Fairtrade Foundation is the UK member. The Fairtrade Foundation is an independent certification body which licenses the use of the FAIRTRADE Mark on products which meet international Fairtrade standards. This independent consumer label is now recognised by 70% of UK consumers and appears on products as a guarantee that disadvantaged producers are getting a better deal. Today, more than 7.5 million people – farmers, workers and their families – across 59 developing countries benefit from the international Fairtrade system.
2. Over 4,500 products have been licensed to carry the FAIRTRADE Mark including coffee, tea, herbal teas, chocolate, cocoa, sugar, bananas, grapes, pineapples, mangoes, avocados, apples, pears, plums, grapefruit, lemons, oranges, satsumas, clementines, mandarins, lychees, coconuts, dried fruit, juices, smoothies, biscuits, cakes & snacks, honey, jams & preserves, chutney & sauces, rice, quinoa, herbs & spices, seeds, nuts & nut oil, wines, beers, rum, confectionary, muesli, cereal bars, yoghurt, ice-cream, flowers, sports balls, sugar body scrub and cotton products including clothing, homeware, cloth toys & cotton wool.
3. The dates for Fairtrade Fortnight 2009 are 23 February to 8 March.