Sunday 15 June 2008

Fair Trade = Fair Price, Fair Wage

Tonight I spoke briefly about Fair Trade at our church. The sermon passage was James 5 v 1-6, where the Apostle Paul gets pretty worked up about injustice served on the poor by the rich. He's not saying that the rich are consequently (because of their riches) evil, but that riches have the tendency to turn their owners to evil-doing.

As we strive to do the right thing in stocking our shops and paying our staff, our pastor asked me to speak briefly about what we do. I also told the story of a community in Rwanda that are now making some of the best coffee in all Africa. Pascal Kalisa, a farmer from the community, was in London at the launch of their new coffee. He was so evidently pleased to be there, but the big thing about it for him, was that his ticket was paid for by the coffee farmers. His plea? "Please buy our coffee. If it's not good coffee, don't buy it."

His desire is to do something good, and be paid a fair price for it.

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