Fair Trade fun

Continuing the theme of 'acting justly' that we're exploring with our church group this summer, we spent the evening tasting and talking about Fair Trade products. I was suprised by how little people knew about what was available considering everyone agreed that Fair Trade is a deeply biblical principle. Well, hopefully this evening changed that, and we'll all be a little more ethically-minded when we're shopping. Mark and I have found that it's easier than it would appear to incorporate Fair Trade products into your shopping without breaking the bank-it's all about strategy! For instance, since we don't drink tea or coffee regularly ourselves we try to buy a fairly-traded brand and it doesn't ruin us financially because it doesn't get used up all that quickly. Also, we never buy anything but fairly-traded wine for communion. Regular but infrequent purchases can be slightly more expensive coz it doesn't eat into your budget every week/month. Anyway, I'll stop preaching! But might I suggest you try the odd thing? Fairtrade doesn't mean lower quality, it just means higher values- and some things don't even cost all that much more. I'd recommend the Co-op own brand chocolate- I don't generally eat anything but milk chocolate, and it has to be Cadbury's usually, but in the last few weeks I've tasted their dark chocolate, and their white chocolate with rice crispie bits, and I was surprised to really enjoy both...