Wendy Supports Fairtrade Fortnight

- By Just Eating 4-finger Kit Kats! -

Wendy Alexander MSP is participating in Fairtrade Fortnight, which runs from 22 February to 7 March 2010. This year’s theme is ‘The Big Swap’ - encouraging people to swap their usual product for a Fairtrade alternative.

Wendy’s pledge for ‘The Big Swap’ is to only eat 4 bar Kit Kats in the future!

Wendy has passionately campaigned against the use of human trafficking in chocolate manufacturing in Africa, where the cocoa that makes over a third of the world’s chocolate is harvested. In the cocoa farms of the Ivory Coast, thousands of young children are trafficked, enslaved, and abused.

Tens of thousands of people from all over the world have sent emails and text messages, twittered, facebooked, made phone calls, and most importantly refused to eat anything other than traffick-free (Fair Trade) brands of chocolate. In response, major chocolate companies such as Cadbury and Mars lent their support to the ‘Stop the Traffik’ movement and refused to sell anything other than fair trade chocolate.

But until last summer, Nestle, makers of Kit Kats, have held out against fair trade chocolate. Since then, ‘Stop the Traffik’ campaigners have focused on pressuring Nestle, a global giant with a poor human rights record, to follow in the trend of selling fair trade chocolate.

Last month, there was a victory as Nestle announced that it’s popular four-bar Kit Kat would be fairtrade only. But the two bar Kit Kats are not yet Fair Trade.

Wendy has also become a founder member of the new Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on Fair Trade, officially constituted on March 3rd, 2010. The group hopes to take the necessary steps to become the ‘World’s First Fair Trade Parliament’. The group was established following Bill Butler MSP’s motion to welcome Fairtrade Fortnight to the Scottish Parliament.

The motion applauds the efforts of church groups, charities, schools, and individuals in promoting the benefits of fair trade in Scotland. The motion also notes the continued success of the Scottish Fair Trade Forum, which was established in January 2007, and supports the Forum’s push to make Scotland the world’s second Fair Trade Nation by the end of 2011.

See a photo below of Wendy enjoying 4 bar Kit Kats only with the new manager of Montgomery Court, Tommy Greenhorn in Gallowhill this week!