From Fair Isle to Westminster with fair trade message

Traidcraft fair trader Fiona Mitchell is so passionate about fair trade she travelled from Britain's most remote inhabited island to Westminster to tell her MP all about it. And her crofter neighbours on Fair Isle are so equally committed, they helped to pay for the 1600-mile round-trip so Fiona could be among the 12,000 people from around the UK who took part in the Trade Justice Movement mass lobby of Parliament on Wednesday June 19. 

Displaying the Shetland flag, Fiona took her place at the front of the queue and met her MP Alistair Carmichael. She presented him with a petition signed by islanders and summer visitors to Fair Isle. Afterwards, Fiona said: "Although we are a remote community we share the same concerns as everyone else and it was important for us to be seen to be there. Alistair was very sympathetic to our calls for greater justice in international trade.

"I had a really great time. It was wonderful to be part of something so big and to share it with so many committed people from all over the UK. It was great just being there and knowing that I was adding my weight to something that is really important.

Everyone was really nice and people kept coming up to me all day saying: 'Oh, so you're the lady from Fair Isle we've been hearing about.' It was very flattering - and great fun. And I'm glad so many more people know about Fair Isle now!" Fiona, who grew up on Fair Isle, moved back to the island with her husband Robert in 1993 when they took over the only shop and post office. 

Some of the islanders were already buying fair trade goods from Traidcraft's mail order catalogue and at their request, Fiona and Robert began ordering Traidcraft goods for their store. With a population of just 70, the people of Fair Isle are already more than playing their part in supporting fair trade.

Traidcraft's coffee, tea, chocolate, dried fruit, nuts and snacks feature regularly on their shopping lists, along with special orders of crafts, cards and gifts at Christmas. Almost every one of the 27 families on the three-mile by two-mile island has some fairly traded products in their cupboards, making it, arguably, the most fair trade committed community in the UK. 

"Because Fair Isle is a small, unspoiled community, we can empathise with other small communities trying to protect their livelihoods, preserve their way of life and build a better future for themselves and their children," Fiona said. "That's why the fair trade and trade justice message is so appealing, because that's exactly what it offers producer communities in the developing world. 

"We may be remote geographically but we are not indifferent to the same global concerns as everyone else; in fact, in many ways, our understanding of them is sharpened by our physical isolation. 

"Living somewhere like Fair Isle, I'm very aware that what I do has an impact on my neighbour and on the community as a whole. I want to make the big companies, the corporates and the supermarkets, realise that they share the same responsibility to think about and understand the impact they have on the individuals and communities they deal with.

"That's why I'm so passionate about trade justice; that's why I travelled to London - to tell them!" she added. 

Traidcraft chief executive Paul Chandler said: "In many ways the islanders are like the fragile communities which Traidcraft aims to support. Every fair trade purchase makes a difference to producers and farmers in developing countries, so we hope that more people will follow the example of the people of Fair Isle and put fair trade and trade justice on their regular shopping list."

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Fiona Mitchell and her MP Alistair Carmichael in the rickshaw which was used to ferry MPs to meet their constituents among the 12,000 people who took part in the mass lobby.

Fiona Mitchell, MP Alistair Carmichael and Jenny Tonge, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson on International Development outside the entrance to the Houses of Parliament. 

Fiona Mitchell meets her MP Alistair Carmichael outside the Houses of Parliament.The Shetland flag came courtesy of the mail boat skipper who lent it to Fiona on the first leg of her southbound journey.