Eating organically is about putting your environment and your health first; eating Fairtrade is about putting the health and environment of others first. Last year the life of 19-year-old Marcela Perez from Costa Rica was transformed when her family started producing the world's first Fairtrade pineapples. Forced to leave school in order to keep a roof over her family's heads, now she has a stable job and prospects. The pineapples are sold at the Co-op and are expected to be widely available from July.
Fairtrade products still only account for less than one per cent of the UK food market but since the Fairtrade Foundation was established in 1994, sales and awareness have been gaining momentum, attracting the support of celebrities like Bono, Judi Dench and Chris Martin (above). Green & Black's Maya Gold chocolate was the first Fairtrade product; now shops stock a range of Fairtrade goods produced by 500,000 farmers who receive a price that covers the level of production and a 'premium', advance payments, trade unions, decent housing, and good health and safety standards.
The latest Fairtrade product in the UK is mango. Sainsbury's, Waitrose and the Co-op will sell them for four months from next week.
