Gisela Stuart MPWorking hard for Bartley Green, Edgbaston, Harborne and Quinton

Choose Fairtrade // February 22nd, 2010 // Constituency News

Buy Fairtrade products during this Fairtrade Fortnight (22^rd February - 7^th March) Gisela Stuart tells shoppers in her constituency.

Gisela welcomed the Government’s plan to boost funding for the Fairtrade labelling system and urged shoppers in the constituency to look for the Fairtrade Mark on food, gifts and other products in the shops.

Over 4,500 products have been licensed to carry the Fairtrade Mark and there are over 460 producer organisations selling to the UK, representing more than 1.5 million farmers and workers in developing countries. Labour’s latest investment will bring another 1 million producers into the scheme and enable 7 million more people in poor countries to benefit from a better deal offered by Fairtrade.

Gisela said;

“Small changes in our shopping habits can make a big difference to the world’s poorest people. By buying food, gifts and other products from developing countries we will help grow their economies and reduce poverty.

“When consumers and retailers act together to promote and buy goods from developing countries, we can make a real difference to the lives of some of the world’s poorest people.”

To back the campaign for a law to guarantee international aid go to: www.globalpovertypromise.com

Since 1997, aid increases and debt cancellation have helped to get 40 million more children into school, while the number of people with access to AIDS treatment has increased from just 100,000 to over 4 million. The proportion of the world’s population living in poverty has fallen from a third to a quarter thanks to a combination of both aid and trade.

For more on Labour’s international development policy, go to: www.labour.org.uk/international_development1

Last year alone, Labour’s Department for International Development helped train over 100,000 teachers, vaccinate more than three million children against measles, provide a million people with clean water, protect seven million people with anti-malaria bednets and give more than 12 million people access to better sanitation.

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