Fairtrade Fortnight 2016 takes place from Monday 29 February and Sunday 13 March. It is swiftly followed by World Fairtrade Day on Monday 14 May.
Why teach about fair trade?
- Through learning about fair trade products and producers, pupils can gain an understanding of where their food has come from and how it's grown.
- They can learn about basic needs and human rights, and discuss what it means for workers to be justly treated and get a decent wage and a fair price for their products.
- They can discover how we are connected to the people who grow, harvest and sell different products around the world, and explore how what we buy has an impact all along the supply chain.
Fairtrade Brazil Nut Ecology
Fairtrade Brazil Nut Ecology presentation Curriculum links: suitable for Geography, Science and Environmental Studies at all Key Stages. This was originally aimed at primary school children, but now I use it with adults as well (as you can see from the picture below). You can adapt your presentation to suit your audience. The presentation explains how producer cooperatives gather Brazil nuts from the Amazon rainforest in Bolivia, at great personal risk (Brazil nut fruits are hard and heavy!) Learn why Brazil nut trees cannot be farmed, due to their dependence on rainforest animals; and later why producers believe it is so important to protect the rainforest. Explore the bigger picture of how the individual species in the rainforest interact at different scales, and how ecosystems in one part of the world affect others. And get a real idea of the immense size of a Brazil nut tree (50m high and 16.5m wide). [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="950"] Using string to show the Bexhill Fairtrade Group the size of a Brazil nut tree![/caption]How do the nuts get to your home?
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300"] Pupils exploring these resources at a Fair and Funky Conference[/caption]How Fairtrade nuts are made activity
Curriculum links: suitable for Key Stage 1 & 2 Citizenship and Geography. Pupils arrange each set of photos in order, to show the different stages of the value chain, and they discuss the lives of the people involved. This activity gets pupils thinking logically about the steps in the process. They see photos of real people employed in nut harvesting and production, and they can imagine what their lives might be like.