Fair trade foodie

We’re at the end of Fair Trade Fortnight and you could be forgiven for thinking that it never happened. The shops are stuffed to the ceilings with over-priced, over-packaged Easter eggs made with cocoa that the food giants have paid a pittance to the growers for in order to fatten our waistlines and their profit margins.

In Worthing, we’re fortunate to have two supermarkets nearby who actively promote fair trade (Co-op and Waitrose) so that we have a real ethical choice available to us. I’m now happy that the enormous Co-op Fair Trade egg I’ve bought for Emika will produce the inevitable sugar high and chocolatey handprints throughout the house but won’t have the bitter taste of injustice.

Spare a thought for those West African farmers, squeezed into poverty by the food giants. Fairly traded tea, coffee and chocolate are widely available now, as well as sugar, wine, bananas and a growing range of fruit. If you have a Co-op nearby, take advantage of the Fair Trade choice available to you. If you don’t, lobby your local supermarket into action. You can make a difference!

Making space for spring

It’s Easter, and whether you are Christian or not, it’s a time of new life and awakening. Trees are laden with blossom, there are lambs in the fields, grass verges are resplendent in purple and yellow, our daughter is delighting in the caterpillars that have appeared and there’s a new mildness in the air.

This year, spring seems to have arrived very quickly. Only last month, the snow had taken us southerners by surprise. And yet, last weekend, we were treated to temperatures of 20 degrees plus. Inspired by the warm weather, my husband took to the garden. A few hours later, having created bags and bags full of garden waste (his forte), he drove to the council dump only to find that the world and his wife had obviously had the same idea – there was a queue 20 cars long!

Funny how spring triggers an instinctive urge to clear out. Old things, no longer serving any use, have to make way, clearing a space for potential to manifest itself. This is true on many levels, from detoxing our diets to clearing out the loft. Once we have freed ourselves from the anchors of surplus possessions, commitments, weight, weeds(!), or whatever it is, we allow the potential in.

The space we create is magic. Some people are frightened of it and immediately plug the gap with more possessions, or busy-up their time. The real art is to sit in the space and be open to what happens.

My challenge to you this month is to clear some space in your life in as many or as few areas as you feel comfortable. This could be from taking a bag of old clothes to the charity shop, to a complete overhaul of every aspect of your life. Sit with it. Be comfortable in it. See what happens. Let me know how you get on.