Harper Adams awarded Fairtrade Status
Talk about timing – Harper Adams University College has been granted Fairtrade status right in the middle of Fairtrade Fortnight.
Staff across the college, led by General Catering Manager David Nuttall, have been striving for some time to achieve this status, so were delighted when all their hard work finally paid off.
Mr Nuttall said: "Over the past couple of years the catering team has been paying more and more attention to how it sources foodstuffs. As an institution supporting sustainable UK agriculture through our teaching and research, Harper Adams has to be careful to balance its Fairtrade efforts with support for local, British farmers.
"Where food can be produced in Britain, we make sure it travels the shortest possible distance from farm to plate, relying heavily on our own farm and businesses within a 15-mile radius of the campus. And where food must come from abroad, such as bananas, coffee and chocolate, we turn to ethical producers and importers, backed by the Fairtrade movement."
To become a Fairtrade university or college, an institution must adhere to certain rules, including creating a Fairtrade policy, making Fairtrade foods available for sale in all campus shops and using such foods in catering establishments, serving Fairtrade foods at all meetings hosted by the institution and its students’ union, making a commitment to campaign for increase Fairtrade consumption on campus and having a Fairtrade steering group.
During Fairtrade Fortnight (Feb 23 to Mar 8) Harper Adams stepped up its campaign. Fairtrade cakes were baked and sold/raffled, a gladiators contest saw students battle with giant blow-up Fairtrade bananas, wherever staff and students turned they could not fail to see the Fairtrade message, and that message was made even clearer when a Sri Lankan tea farmer talked to a 70-plus crowd.
Bernard Ranaweera is president of the Small Organic Farmers’ Association (SOFA) in Sri Lanka and explained how the Fairtrade movement has helped his co-operative. SOFA was set up in 1997 by Bernard’s brother Dr Sarath Raweera, a scientist who previously worked at the Sri Lanka Tea Research Institute and who knew that small-scale farms in Sri Lanka’s mid-grown tea areas had been abandoned or neglected because of lack of demand and poor prices.
The association’s production of tea (green leaf) was Fairtrade certified in 1998 and was following in 2006 by a range of spices. As the benefits of the project became apparent, more and more farmers applied to join and SOFA now benefits almost 2,000 families.
Bernard says: "Fairtrade is the ideal tool to uplift the living standards of the small farmers…Through the Fairtrade concept we can drive them to actual sustainability, both socially and economically." Bernard was joined at Harper Adams by Ray Gill, from the Bridgnorth Fairtrade Group, and Huw Prior, from the Fairtrade Foundation, Mr Nuttall said: "Bernard’s talk was really informative and it was great to see so many students there, keen to hear what he had to say. Hopefully it will have given them all food for thought."
