The FAIRTRADE Mark is a registered certification label for products sourced from producers in developing countries. For a product to display the FAIRTRADE Mark it must meet international Fairtrade standards which are set by the international certification body Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International(FLO). These standards are agreed through a process of research and consultation with key participants in the Fairtrade scheme, including producers themselves, traders, NGOs, academic institutions and labelling organisations such as the Fairtrade Foundation.
“Fairtrade is a strategy for poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Its purpose is to create opportunities for producers and workers who have been economically disadvantaged or marginalized by the conventional trading system. If fair access to markets under better trade conditions would help them to overcome barriers to development, they can join Fairtrade.”
Fairtrade is a tool for development that ensures disadvantaged farmers and workers in developing countries get a better deal through the use of the international FAIRTRADE Mark.
Leviticus 19. 1-10 shows us that God cares about our relationships; with our parents, with our holy God, and with the poor. This whole chapter from the book of Leviticus is concerned with the social responsibilities of God’s people, with verses 9 and 10 dealing with the relationship between he abundance of the harvest and the needs of the poor. In celebrating the harvest God’s people should never forget those who are unable to celebrate.
In our time, this includes not forgetting those people who produce and harvest food for us but who may be badly treated or exploited in the process. The Fairtrade initiative attempts to bring us back into a relationship with the producers of our food, like that we would have had in the past when we grew our own food for ourselves, or knew personally those who grew our food.
Fairtrade gives us the ability to be able to shop for the things we like from around the world, knowing that those who produce those things have been treated fairly. As a result, we could say that Fairtrade shopping is holy shopping!
We have a tendency to think of holiness and being holy as somehow being different from everyday life. These verses in Leviticus remind us that that isn’t so. God’s people back then could show holiness by thinking of others when they collected the harvest. We can show holiness by thinking of those who produce our food when we go shopping for it; by buying Fairtrade. We can show holiness by remembering those who are homeless as we bring our Harvest produce to give to the Redbridge Night Shelter. We can show holiness by growing our own food and sharing any we don’t need with others as a transition initiative which is a response to the challenge of peak oil. We can show holiness by taking environmentally friendly actions in order to care better for God’s creation.
We have the privilege of an abundant food supply – fruit and vegetables in and out of season. Our harvest is abundant therefore we have a responsibility to those food producers around the world and to the environment, both of which make that privilege possible. Buying Fairtrade produce is just one way in which we can show that we take this responsibility seriously and one way in which we can be holy when we shop.
Because we haven’t always done that and because there is a tension between celebrating the abundance of God’s provision and remembering those in need, we now have a time of saying sorry to God for the ways in which we and our society have failed those in need and exploited our environment. So let us pray the following prayer of confession:
Heavenly Father, Lord of the harvest, we confess that we do not always know or even care where our food comes from. We confess that we do not always care for our neighbours or the planet as you taught us to. We confess that we do not always care for the welfare of those who produce our food as we ought to. Help us to take small steps in changing how we shop for our food. Help us to see that how we shop is still part of our worship of you. Help us to worship you with our life choices. Amen.
(Based on ‘Harvest’, The All-Age Service Annual, Vol. 1 2007/08, Scripture Union )
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Martin Smith - You Have Shown Us.
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