Day 52 of the End to End in 2019 finished in Garstang, the first Fair Trade Town in England. The Fair Trade Town Movement began in Garstang in 2001 and in under 20 years it has been embraced by 20 countries. I’d certainly like to see it become one of the New Normal things about our society post COVID19. There is an initiative called Fair Trade Nation and Wales became the first in 2008. In order to be a Fair Trade Nation we need to
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75% of the population should purchase a Fair Trade product every year.
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40% of people regularly buy Fair Trade products.
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All local authorities have active Fair Trade groups working towards Fair Trade status.
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55% local authority areas with Fair Trade status with 10% annual increase in following years
Learn more about it all here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairtrade_Town
Fair Trade is important to us. In our village we try to buy Fair Trade but it is not so readily stocked in the small shops. We try to buy locally produced items too, and have some delivered from the nearby town as one delivery a week is ‘greener’ than a car drive to a large supermarket.
Being fair is important, in all aspects of life. People should be treated fairly whoever they are. There’s no point in having empty phrases to unite people if they are not lived out in practice.
My reflection on Day 52 last year was based on Psalm 1: Happy are those who reject bad advice, who do not follow the wrong way or join those who say they have no use for God. Instead, they find joy in obedience of God, and they study God’s Way day and night. They are like trees that grow beside a stream, that bear fruit at the right time, and whose leaves do not dry up.
As with a lot of what I wrote then, it seems just as relevant now.
Like well-watered trees, may we thrive in God’s commonwealth,
where trade is fair and equal treatment is the norm for everyone.
Then obedience would come naturally as we’d turn our faces to the sun
and bear fruits in our lives of joy and peace.
May it be so.
JAL: 28.05.2020 in Longdendale.