It was York’s turn to host the annual Fairtrade Yorkshire Regional Conference this year, and attendance was the highest ever with over 70 supporters turning up. The conference took place on Saturday 19 September at the Priory Street Centre, and was a mix of talks and worshops culminating in a panel discussion with the opportunity to ask questions from the floor.

It was good to see both York’s local MPs (Julian Sturdy for York Outer and Rachael Maskell for York Central) supporting Fairtrade in York and Yorkshire by making short opening speeches. It was especially welcome to hear Rachael talk about the need to address the problems of inequality throughout the world – something which is at the heart of the Fairtrade movement.

Unfortunately the keynote speaker, Alexia Ludford, was unable to come due to illness, so Linda McAvan, Labour MEP for our region and a big supporter of Fairtrade, spoke in her place. There was also a very interesting talk from Barbara Crowther of the Fairtrade Foundation about the wider impacts of the Fairtrade movement, for example in addressing issues such as the rights of girls and women and the local impact of climate change in Tunisia, where Fairtrade dates are being grown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Workshops were held both before and after the delicious vegetarian lunch, on subjects such as the history of the Fairtrade movement, church action in Fairtrade, maintaining momentum in Fairtrade campaigning, Fairtrade in schools and Fairtrade consumption in the Global South. These were ably led by Mark Dawson, Barbara Crowther, Rachael Sweet, Hannah Langdana, Dr Sara Parker and Professor Bob Doherty. Karen Palframan was re-elected as National Campaigner Committee member for the Yorkshire region, and following that the panel discussion, Where Next for Fairtrade/Fair Trade? raised interesting comments and questions from the delegates.

Delegates enjoyed browsing the various stalls during the breaks, chatting about Fairtrade issues of all kinds and discussing effective ways of campaigning. The whole day was ably hosted by Mark Dawson and the Fairtrade Yorkshire team – Hannah Langdana, Richard Lane and Helen Robinson. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet and spend time with like-minded people from across Yorkshire, and many of us continued the social time well into the evening by adjourning to Brigantes. Congratulations to Fairtrade Yorkshire on a very successful Regional Conference (read more on their site here).