According to a survey in The Grocer magazine, three-quarters of Brits “care about fair trade”. The FAIRTRADE (all caps) certification system is governed by Fairtrade International, which includes the UK’s Fairtrade Foundation. They ensure compliance with internationally agreed standards and guarantee a minimum fair price. ‘Fair Trade’ (two words, capital F, capital T) applies to companies which follow less stringent principles. Other spellings, including ‘fair-trade’, ‘fairtrade’ and ‘FairTrade’, have no legal standing… and join words such as ‘fresh’, ‘pure’, ‘natural’, 'healthy', ‘home-made’ and ‘traditional’ in meaning whatever a food producer decides that they mean.
The supermarkets have gone a step further, by promoting fantasy foods from fictional farms. Tesco invented ‘Boswell Farm’ and ‘Woodside Farm’ to promote foods (and their ‘Rosedene Farms’ brand sells apples from the UK, pears from Belgium, strawberries from Spain and blueberries from Chile). Aldi uses ‘Ashfield Farm’ as an invented supplier for its meat, while Lidl opts for ‘Birchwood Farm’ and ‘Strathvale Farm’. Retailers believe that using farm names appeals to shoppers at a time when people want to know more about the origins of their food (while cynically denying them that option)…
Licenced today: eco-houses at Findhorn in Scotland…
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