We learnt a lot about Fair Trade in October.  We read about how it’s important for farmers, growers and pickers to get fair wages for their work. we learnt all about the Fair Trade logo.

We played the banana game, where we read about 5 major jobs involved in getting the bananas off the trees and into our kitchens : (1) The Picker (2) The Plantation Owner  (3) The Ship Owner  (4) The Storer and Transporter  (5) The Supermarket.  we each had to decide how to divide up 30c among the 5 people. do you divide it evenly, do you give the supermarket more money as its in the market we trade in, do you give the picker more as she is breaking her back day in day out picking bananas. This lead to a very lively discussion around the table, which got quite heated as different pupils had different views. It was great to see such individual thinkers and also they were well able to vocalise their points to their classmates very clearly and firmly.

Clonakilty one of our nearest towns was the first Fair Trade town in Ireland.  we have many Fair Trade foods in our supermarkets.