Endangered Foods | Fairtrade Fortnight
Fairtrade Fortnight 2023 took place from 27 February – 12 March 2023.
The 2023 campaign highlights the urgent threat to the future of the foods we love and the livelihoods of the people who grow them.
Did you know coffee and chocolate could soon be much more difficult to find on our shelves?
Climate change is making crops like these harder and harder to grow. Combined with deeply unfair trade, communities growing these crops are being pushed to the brink.
The Future of Chocolate
80 percent of the world’s food comes from 500 million family farms, where people are increasingly facing the worst effects of the climate crisis.
Furthermore, small-scale family farmers often lack access to the resources they need to adapt to a changing climate.
Farmers in key cocoa growing regions in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire are likely to experience challenging climatic changes which require them to adapt their farming methods.
These changes include both more days with heavy precipitation, as well as increased risk of heatwaves and drought in some areas.
We hear from Saddick, a Fairtrade cocoa farmer from Ghana, who, with the help of his Fairtrade cooperative, was able to invest in adapting to the climate and cost of farming crisis.
Meet The Farmer | SADDICK ABANGA
39, Fairtrade cocoa farmer, Ghana
"I didn’t know I was punishing the land, now because of this project I’ve seen the benefits, there are more nutrients in the soil."
Saddick farms nine acres of land for cocoa. He’s been doing this for 18 years and it’s getting increasingly difficult due to the climate crisis. Part of his farm lies high on a rocky, steep hillside, unfriendly terrain for cocoa plants. Saddick’s working on gradually surrounding it with shade trees. This is a technique he discovered after joining an agro-forestry project, which offers farmers training in methods to adapt to climate change by improving soil, planting for shade and attracting biodiversity.
Saddick was able to join because he is part of a Fairtrade co-operative, where in addition to projects like this, farmers can choose to invest their Premium in adapting to the climate and cost of farming crises.
