Fairtrade and Climate Change

Many people, as part of their commitment to live lightly, make a commitment not to buy exotic produce transported from the other side of the globe. But how bad is Fairtrade food for the environment? Is it all flown here? Is it worse than local food? Is it worse than anything bought in a supermarket?

Try this quick True or False Quiz to find out more ... 

True or False

Q1/ Most Fairtrade products are transported by air.

A1/ False

Fresh flowers are the only Fairtrade product to be routinely transported by air. All other Fairtrade certified products are shipped, not flown. Per mile, international shipping emits less carbon than trucking within the UK.

Q2/ Food miles are the biggest element of a products carbon footprint.

A2/ False

Transportation is a small proportion of the overall carbon footprint of a product. The carbon footprint includes the method of growing and production, how and where it is sold, the customer journey, the packaging, preparation for consumption (such as cooking), and final disposal.  Air freight is 0.1% of total UK carbon emissions, and transportation of Fairtrade products in 2005 was estimated to be just 0.03% of UK food mile emissions.

Q3/ Buying locally is always better for the environment.

A3/ False

Whilst buying in season from sustainable local producers can be a very positive way of reducing impact on the climate, it's important to consider not just where a product comes from, but how it has been produced, including use of land, chemicals, hothouses or natural resources. Research has found that a flower grown in Kenya and flown into the UK emits five times less carbon than one that has been industrially hot-housed in the Netherlands! Many everyday items such as sugar cane, cotton, bananas, cocoa, coffee and tea are grown in tropical climates of developing countries with minimal use of carbon-producing energy.

Q4/ Buying Fairtrade products can help to tackle climate change.

A4/ True

Buying products directly from cooperatives of farmers in developing countries boosts their economic and social development. Fairtrade pays ‘premiums' to fund community development projects and many of these are spent on environmental protection and improvements. With the premiums from Fairtrade, farmers implement environmental protection programmes. Coffee farmers in Costa Rica have invested in replanting native trees to prevent soil erosion and have purchased environmentally friendly ovens that are fuelled by recycled coffee hulls and the dried shells of macadamia nuts. In India, tea farmers have invested part of the Fairtrade premium in a solar panelled heating system for the local health centre, replacing the wood burning one. On another Fairtrade certified tea estate, workers have created their own communal compost heap which all families maintain and which the estate purchases as organic fertiliser for the tea bushes.  These may be examples, not a defining rule of Fairtrade standards, but the ethics of local sustainability are embedded which is what inspires this kind of action in countless growing and production situations.

Q5/ Fairtrade products benefit people but not the environment.

A5/ False

Fairtrade production standards include sustainable agriculture and protection of the environment because they are essential components of sustainable business. The Fairtrade social premium, a payment that the producer group receives in addition to the Fairtrade price, which must be invested in community development, is often invested in environmental projects. Here are some examples of how Fairtrade producer groups are improving and protecting the environment.

  • Banana farmers in Colombia have been working on an extensive environmental programme funded by their social premium. They have swapped herbicides for manual weeding, switched to organic fertilizers and reforested the riverbanks. A community rubbish clearance programme run by local women has also been established to collect and recycle the discarded plastic bags which are used by all farmers to protect bananas growing on the trees.

  • In order to improve the quality of their coffee crop, farmers in Ethiopia have attended workshops run by their cooperative on composting the by-products of coffee production and utilizing shade trees and natural fertilizers to enrich the soil. They have also learnt to inter-crop their coffee plants with citrus and bananas to improve soil quality, protect it from soil erosion, improve biodiversity and increase food security.

  • Increased income from Fairtrade sales of their cotton is helping Indian farmers develop organic programmes. Farmers produce much of their organic fertiliser from the manure of their own cows and pesticide sprays are made from the oil of crushed Neem tree kernels.

  • Projects funded by the social premium of an organic tea growers co-operative in Sri Lanka include the purchase of cows and goats. As well as generating extra income for the farmers from the sale of milk, the dung is crucial to organic agriculture as it forms that basis of the organic compost used to fertilise the tea bushes and other crops.