Read the article. What is Fairtrade?
MAKE BANANAS FAIR
Bananas are the most popular fruit in the world. British people love eating bananas, but they don’t grow in the UK and have to be transported. So how it is possible that a banana only costs eleven pence in supermarkets?
1. The reason is that the farmers often get very little because the companies who buy bananas want to make big profits. Life isn’t easy on a banana plantation. The farmers work long hours and can get harmed by dangerous pesticides.
2. Fairtrade is an international movement that tries to help farmers and workers in developing countries. Fairtrade products include items like bananas, coffee, sugar, cocoa and rice. When you buy a product with Fairtrade label, you know the farmers received a fair price and worked in good conditions.
3. Foncho, a Fairtrade banana farmer in Colombia who belongs to a farmers’ co-operative. 'We experienced very difficult times when we weren’t in Fairtrade,’ he says. Today, as a Fairtrade farmer, he gets a minimum price for his bananas and his co-operative also gets the Fairtrade premium. This means he can build his family a house and support them.
4. Therefore, next time you are shopping in the supermarket, look for the Fairtrade label. If enough people choose to buy Fairtrade goods, more companies will pay the farmers a fair price.
Read and listen to the article again. Write true or false. Correct the false sentences.
1. People in the UK don't grow bananas.
2. Some banana farmers don’t earn enough because companies don’t pay a fair price.
3. Fairtrade only helps banana farmers.
4. Foncho buys bananas from farmers and sells them to supermarkets.
5. Thanks to the Fairtrade, Foncho's life is getting better now.
Read paragraphs 1 and 2 of the text quickly to find the words below. What part of speech are they? Explain their meaning in your own words.
| conditions label plantation price profit |
1. The reason is that the farmers often get very little because the companies who buy bananas want to make big profits. Life isn’t easy on a banana plantation. The farmers work long hours and can get harmed by dangerous pesticides.
2. Fairtrade is an international movement that tries to help farmers and workers in developing countries. Fairtrade products include items like bananas, coffee, sugar, cocoa and rice. When you buy a product with Fairtrade label, you know the farmers received a fair price and worked in good conditions.
