‘Before you finish eating breakfast, you’ve depended on more than half the world.’ Martin Luther King
This Fairtrade Fortnight we are thinking about the producers who make the products we love. We rely on people in different countries, all over the world, every day of our lives, often without even realising it! We rely on other countries for the clothes we wear, the food we eat and the technology we use. What goes on in other countries affects us more than we might think! Are all the products we use produced fairly?
The people involved in making or harvesting the products you have used may not always get a fair pay or the rights they deserve. There are also environmental costs in shipping the products overseas. What does it take to be a Global Citizen and how can we make a difference? Should we stand up for human and children’s rights? Support charities like UNICEF? Choose Fairtrade? Be Eco – reduce, reuse recycle! What about shipping our products and food miles? There are lots of things that are important when thinking about Global Citizenship – I want to know your thoughts!
I think that all the farmers should get a fair pay because it’s not fair that they put so much effort into the product and they hardly get any income on it. I think when you are in the supermarket doing your shopping you should try and get at least some Fairtrade products. As for rights I think some major companies need to remember that the farmers have the same rights as them and they need to try and be fairer with the pay they give the farmers. If we are all global citizens I think just before we have our meal or play with something think about the people who made it.
It’s easy to take all our food , clothes and entertainment for granted, allot of the farmers that do most of the work in growing some of the ingredients to our food and cotton don’t get paid as well as they should. which is why there are organizations like Unicef and Fairtrade so that they can have their rights met and get paid fairly. It really is surprising how many of these poor farmers aren’t getting paid enough.
William, you make a great point. I think we all take things for granted most of the time, even things like running water or electricity! It’s important to think about people in other countries who are producing the products we use everyday. Andrew you are right to question the ‘big companies’. Sometimes we forget about the origin of our products but we can make a difference by thinking about our everyday choices. Knowledge is power!
I think that all of the farmers around the world should get a fair price. I think that more people should support other things like Unicef to make sure children don’t need to work if they don’t want to. I agree with Martin Luther King because you might try to see how many things you use from other countries like oranges, TV’s, juice and other things. I find it quite hard to believe that so many people that work so hard around the world are not getting the money to help them make more of their product. This could come into place if you bought a 30p, non-fairtrade banana, the worker might only get 1p whereas the retailer (TESCO, Morrisons, ect.) get 13p. I find this very unfair because the retailers make millions each year and the farmers don’t meaning that they don’t have the money to make their product anymore.
I think that Fairtrade is a fab idea, whoever started up Fairtrade is a star! It helps farmers all around the world to get a better pay and that is what being a global citizen is. I try very hard to buy Fairtrade products when I go to Tesco for the shopping, you buy your everyday products like bananas, chocolate, cotton, well why not buy them Fairtrade? Another fab awareness charity is UNICEF which makes sure that children all over the world get their rights which I BELIEVE is right. These charities have helped millions of people all around the world and that is what a global citizen is !!!!
I agree with William, we take most things for granted food,water,electricity and a safe place to live but not everyone has that which Isn’t fair because that’s part of your rights. Fairtrade is also a great thing. Buying a product with the fairtrade logo on it changes lives, it’s as simple as that! I always try and buy fairtrade when I’m in the shops. Child rights is a big part of being a global citizen too and there’s an organisation for called unicef who make sure everyone gets what they need (there’s a difference between wants and needs) so yes a global citizen is important.
I think that the Fairtrade farmers should get a fair pay because all the stuff they make we take for granted like food, clothes and technology. they don’t get to send there kids to school because of the money they get, all the retailers that sell the food and clothes get more money for just selling it and for the farmers they only get 1p for each thing the retailers sell.
this is a quote by Martin Luther King JR.
If you can’t fly, then run,
If you can’t run, then walk,
If you can’t walk, then crawl,
but whatever you do,
you have to keep moving forward.
Being a Global citizen is good.We respect other countries around the world, some of them are very poor and live in poverty. For example Africa makes cocoa,cotton, and much more, and some people are very poor despite their nation being a lot bigger than ours. You would expect the farmers in Africa to get a lot of money because they do a lot of work, but they actually get the least, but lucky for them there is a foundation called Fair trade that helps farmers in need. For it to work we’re the ones that have to buy Fair trade items, its definitely worth it so that Farmers get fair pay.
I think it’s easy to take stuff like Xbox, tv, clothes and food to take for granted that’s why there are organisation like UNICEF and fair trade. For me being a global citizen is helping these organisations grow so all framers have a better life and all people revive their rights to make everyone happy.
I agree that children should never be forced to work, although hundreds of thousands of children have no other choice but to work to earn tiny little amounts of money for their families, just so they can get enough food to survive on. The conditions they work in are terrible with no protective gear and no thought for their own saftey/ no shoes no hats no gloves and no breathing masks… jobs they could do from looking through rubbish piles for stuff to sell for money. This means that they can have no chance of going to school as they have to help their family to survive! It means no time to play with friends and learn all the amazing things that we learn at school today. We are very lucky to have a life like we do, like we can earn pocket money doing chores, for our mums and dads like taking out the bins. The money we earn from doing a chore would take a child worker in another part of the world days if not weeks to earn.
I think that all farmers should get a fair pay because its unfair that they have put all that work into planting, growing, looking after,picking and then sending it away to get the least of the money! We dont think much about all the hard work that these farmers have put into the food we eat everyday, if it wasnt for them we wouldnt have this food. Its not just food that the people from these poor countries grow, some of the clothes we wear were made from cotten that has been farmed by people in other countries like africa! I think that we shouldnt take for granted the food we have and give a little money to people that dont have any, that means we all live happy and we all have money to buy the things we need! 🙂 🙂 🙂
I think that all farmers should get a fair pay because it’s not fair that they put so much hard work into the clothes, gadgets and food we get and all we do is take it for granted. It is important that we think about the other people from other countries that have worked day and night for us so that we can get the things we need and maybe want too. We can help these people by looking out for the Fairtrade symbol in shops and bakery stores, but if we don’t use Fairtrade then all of these farmers will not be able to look after there families or by fresh food or water. So that’s why being a global citizen helps other farmers and their families. 🙂
Being a Global citizen is when we respect other people from other countrys. Also we take a lot of things for granted and we forget about it a lot of the time. There’s a big amount of farmers that get cotton, cocoa and more. This is hard work and the bad thing about it is they don’t get paid enough so that’s why there is an organization called Fairtrade. They give farmers in places like Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan fair pay so they can get more crops and clean water. So when you go to the shops ask if you can get Fairtrade products.
I think the farmers should get a fair pay because it is not fair how much effort they put into it and they get paid hardly anything. Some people only get paid 1p and that is not fair. People all over in this country could get paid £700 pounds. Please help other people and their families. We need to think about people in other countries.
I agree with Martin Luther king because whatever you use in your life has been produced by these people around the world and its not fair for them not to get a fair amount of money. UNICEF and fair trade are working hard to make sure that these people get paid well. This specific topic has made me realise just how much we take for granted. Hopefully people can realise just how much these farmers have done for us. And loads of children are being forced to work not just because of the person that’s making them do this, sometimes it’s because that is their only way of getting their things they need for their lives. I heard a quote from someone and they said:
We need to change our thoughts into actions.
I completely agree with the statement they made because maybe a little thing like a toothbrush. If we send that over to countries like Africa, that wouldn’t be enough to make their lives exactly like ours. What fairtrade and unicefare doing is they are fundraising so that we can send big amounts of supplies to these countries and that is what will help them.
There are loads of questions people want to know the answer to. Like poverty. Why is poverty a thing, a very common thing? Its not fair how the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. Good thing people like UNICEF and Fairtrade are in place or things could be a lot worse. UNICEF and Fairtrade are creating fundraisers to help who is in need. They need their rights restored to them. One day we will beat poverty.
A global citizen is someone who understands that there are people around the world who are not as lucky as them, and will do their best to help them live a happy, healthy and fair lifestyle. They will do this by supporting organizations like Fairtrade and Unicef, or taking part in charity events like Comic Relief or even just a charity race at their local park. Being a global citizen can also be, when we are old enough, choosing to vote for a government that treat your country fairly. I like to think of myself as a global citizen as I am in the Fairtrade group in school and I always try to choose the Fairtrade option at the shop, I believe that everyone should be equal, no matter what religion, colour of skin or language, everybody everywhere deserves rights.
I think it is easy to take Xbox, food, clothes, football and TV for granted and not thinking about the other people who make it.by being a global citizen you will help a lot of people get a fair pay. You should also support charities like fair trade and unicef.
I’m very grateful for the things I get like clothes, games, football and chocolate we might not have these thing if it wasn’t for people in Cameroon, Africa , the Philippines and in poverty because they would only get a few pence for making a football but shops sell them for more which is just not very fair.
I like everything that I get but I don’t think I need it like ps4, ipad and much much more. I don’t really think about food, I get food every day but I should think about it because some people don’t get any food.
A global citizen is someone how under stands how Luke we are and some people are not so Luke as we are and some people are in the freezing cold and in the rein and so hunger and have no cloves and have abola and so meny people are ded with in one minite they are little children and adilts
Being a global citizen is buying Fairtrade and giving people their rights. We take every thing for granted when in fact we need all these farmers. Without them we would have no chocolate not as much fruit and it would not be good. That’s why being a global citizen will help the world.
Abbie you make an interesting point about choosing who you vote for when you are older.I am really impressed with your answers P7, particularly that you can discuss so many different countries. I believe you have definitely proved that you are all global citizens 🙂