您现在的位置是:首页 > 英语听力 > VOA英语听力下载|VOA news > voa标准英语|美国之音常速英语下载|在线收听
正文
VOA常速英语:Fair Trade Campaign Kicks Off in Britain
2010-03-07来源:和谐英语
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.
If it's one thing most Britons cherish it's their cup of tea. So it's not surprising that the "Fairtrade Fortnight" kicked off with a tea ceremony - where hundreds of women dressed as tea ladies, dancing and offering cups of fair trade tea at venues across the country.
But, the campaign is more than tea dances - it seeks to offer farmers in developing countries a guaranteed premium for their products over and above market prices.
Comfort Kumeah has come here from her native Ghana, where she works on a cocoa plantation. She says until a few decades ago, cocoa growers had no choice but to sell their cocoa to the government at whatever price was offered.
"Farmers lives [were] miserable because the money they received was very little," she said.
As a result, 1,500 of these cocoa growers decided to form a co-operative, Kuapa Kokoo, that would sell its own cocoa. The co-operative has grown to include almost 45,000 Ghanaian workers who sell their cocoa to chocolate companies around the world who practice fair trade. And, they are now also the owners of one such company, Divine Chocolate. Kumeah says that turned things around.
"We benefit much from it because we are fair trade certified and on top of the market price we are paid premium and with that premium our lives have really improved," she added. "We've been able to build schools, we've been able to provide good drinking water, we've been able to provide good sanitation for our village communities."
In Britain, during this Fairtrade Fortnight, the humanitarian group, Oxfam is encouraging people to bring in their charity donations into Oxfam shops and they get a box of fair-trade tea in return.
Oxfam's Stuart Foukes explains how buying fair-trade products can make a difference.
"It enables people to use their powers as shoppers to actually support producers in the developing world in a real and practical and a very direct way and what it also means is that consumers can use their powers as shoppers to actually influence the way in which retailers and the way in which business goes about doing things," he noted.
Foukes says almost any purchase could be a fair trade one - pillowcases, chocolates, tea, coffee, flowers or even wine, but he says the campaign must grow and spread further.
"What we would really like to see you know is a commitment that everyone involved in the production of a product from producers and supplier right through to manufacturers until it ends up on the shelf you know is paid a fair wage and is treated the way one would hope they would be," he added.
Foukes says too many workers around the world are still deprived of decent working conditions and decent wages and he says the fair trade movement could make a significant difference for them.
相关文章
- VOA常速英语:日增20万确诊病例,印度疫情失控
- VOA常速英语:美国驱逐10名俄罗斯外交官
- VOA常速英语:US Marks One Year of Pandemic Shutdown with Hope, Concern
- VOA常速英语:US Senate Nears Vote on $1.9 Trillion Biden COVID Aid Package
- VOA常速英语:What Is Clubhouse and Why Did It Get So Popular?
- VOA常速英语:Thermal Water Helps Recovering COVID Patients
- VOA常速英语:Deadly Drug Overdoses Epidemic Rages On
- VOA常速英语:International Women’s Day Marks Year of Increased Hardships for Women Worldwide
- VOA常速英语:US States Relax Restrictions, Health Officials Warn Against It
- VOA常速英语:Virginia Starts Reopening Schools for In-Person Learning