EDN - Feb 09 issue.indd - St Edward's Church, Eggbuckland ...
EDN - Feb 09 issue.indd - St Edward's Church, Eggbuckland ...
EDN - Feb 09 issue.indd - St Edward's Church, Eggbuckland ...
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Thomas and his wife, Mary, have three children.<br />
There is no state schooling and so they pay for<br />
education and work hard to earn a future for<br />
them.<br />
Both farming families have to adapt to<br />
a changing world. Nine years ago local<br />
Methodist, Lesley Harris, started the Waye<br />
Barton Farm Shop to sell farm produce and<br />
recently she introduced a range of homebaking<br />
from pasties to cakes and bread - all<br />
using local ingredients produced on the farm.<br />
The shop is proving a success and helping to<br />
support the family of six.<br />
In India, Thomas is part of the Sahyadri Tea<br />
Farmers’ Consortium, where small scale tea<br />
farmers work together. Their modern factory<br />
processes their tea and is part of Traidcraft’s<br />
Indian Ocean Blend, shipped to reduce<br />
impact on the environment. As a Fairtrade<br />
co-operative, the farmers not only receive a<br />
fair price for their hard work, they also have<br />
access to credit<br />
loans to help buy<br />
next year’s crops<br />
before payment<br />
for this year has<br />
come in.<br />
Thomas has used<br />
the loan to buy<br />
a cow to provide<br />
his family with<br />
milk and the farm<br />
with manure. The<br />
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY<br />
Read more about fair trade at:<br />
www.exeter.anglican.org/society<br />
co-operative also receives a Fairtrade premium<br />
– a grant for the farmers to use for a local<br />
community project.<br />
We’re a long way from India, but in our kitchens<br />
and on our dining tables, farming families from<br />
Devon and across the world are represented.<br />
None of them are looking for charity but both<br />
deserve our friendship and respect when we<br />
buy their produce. Right from the start Lesley<br />
has stocked Fairtrade alongside local produce.<br />
‘We blame big corporations, but we all vote<br />
with our weekly shopping,’ says Lesley. ‘When<br />
we buy cheap food that doesn’t pay the farmer<br />
in the developing country a living wage, that’s<br />
what we put our name to.’<br />
Waye Barton Farm Shop<br />
01803 813051, open Wednesday – Saturday.<br />
On A381 between Newton Abbot and Totnes.<br />
Indian Ocean Tea Bags<br />
Traidcraft 0845 330 8900<br />
www.traidcraftshop.co.uk<br />
Sally Farrant<br />
Social Responsibility Officer<br />
sally.farrant@exeter.anglican.org<br />
Tea farmer Thomas with family cow, Kerala, India.<br />
Image: Traidcraft<br />
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