Has Fairtrade Asked for Enough?

Contributor(s): Adam Brett, Deborah Doane, Julia Clark, Robin Murray | In this discussion event, a range of speakers look back over 15 years of the Fairtrade Mark and consider whether the movement for a fairer trading system has been ambitious enough. Is Fairtrade catalysing broader social change? Should Fairtrade be working with big corporates and retailers? Is Fairtrade moving producers up the value chain? Is it time to make the rules harder? Adam Brett co-founded Tropical Wholefoods, and is a director of Fullwell Mill, and the Out of this World UK healthfood retailing chain. He has been a self employed entrepreneur since 1990, working on the development of fair trade food businesses in Uganda, Burkina Faso, Pakistan, Zanzibar and Zambia. Deborah Doane is Director of the World Development Movement, which campaigns for justice and equality for the world's poor. Deborah was a founder and trustee of AntiApathy, and has recently joined the Board of the Fairtrade Foundation. Julia Clark is a consultant. As Head of Marketing at Tate & Lyle Sugars, she led the switch of the company's entire retail sugar range to Fairtrade in 2008. At the time this was the largest ever commitment to Fairtrade by any major UK food or drink brand. Robin Murray is an industrial economist and a co-founder and board member of Twin Trading. Twin has established a number of pioneering producer-owned Fairtrade companies, notably Cafédirect, Divine Chocolate, Agrofair UK and Liberation Nuts.