Fair Focus: Boosting Supply Chain Climate Resilience — Transcript

Hello and welcome to everyone who's joining us today. I'm delighted to be hosting this webinar during Fairtrade Fortnight. Thank you all so much for attending, and thank you so much to our panelists who I'll introduce in a second. Before we get started, I just need to run over a few housekeeping bits. We are going to be recording this session. Also, if I can ask all participants, attendees, to use the Q&A function at the bottom of your screens to ask any questions. The format is going to be roughly 30 minutes of discussion with our panelists and then time for audience questions at the end. So please do use the Q&A function to ask your questions, and I will get through as many as we can at the end. The focus of today's topic, as you are probably all aware, is the focus of this year's Fairtrade Fortnight, which is climate resilience. We are going to hear today from our panel of experts on how climate change is affecting supply chains and what can be done to boost the resilience of smallholder farmers and workers who are already facing vulnerable working and farming conditions. Currently, farmers and workers are being hit on three fronts: low global commodity prices, the global health COVID-19 pandemic, and also unprecedented changes in weather patterns. This is really affecting farmers' livelihoods and abilities to carry on farming sustainably into the future. 2020 was globally the hottest year on record, and with that, we saw really volatile conditions, including increased risks of hurricanes, droughts, floods, and really weather patterns changing at quite an alarming rate. By 2050, it is predicted by many experts that as much as 50% of the land currently used to grow coffee will be unusable to grow the crop, and that many cocoa-growing regions in West Africa will simply be too hot to continue to farm cocoa. This is really alarming for us, and it is sending a clear signal to everyone that now is the time to act. We need to be talking about what potential impacts these changes in climate could be having on the future of some of the foods that we love at the moment. The reality is that most farmers and producers simply don't have the means to mitigate against and adapt to these changing conditions. Their income levels are such that they don't have the ability to invest in climate-friendly agricultural practices, and they don't have the ability to change to the ever-changing weather patterns and conditions. Higher incomes are a vital tool in the pursuit of changing the future of farmers' livelihoods. We know that by empowering and enabling farmers through higher incomes, they're able to make really good investment decisions when it comes to farming. The farmers and the workers themselves know what is best for their land and know how to invest the money that they receive through Fairtrade. Farmers need to be empowered to make these investment decisions, and that's really what we're all about at Fairtrade. We want to see the farmers and workers being able to take these decisions into their own hands to protect their own environment and to adapt to the changing climate decisions, and really to ensure that they are able to continue farming for this generation and for future generations to come. So that we here in the UK, and I can see that we already have some attendees from other parts of the world as well, are able to continue to enjoy the products that we love at the moment. The message is clear from Fairtrade: we need to act now. We need to come together. We need to find solutions together. This is not a single person problem, and no one person will solve this by themselves. But if we come together, we really believe that now is the time that we can make significant change. The Fairtrade minimum price is a great starting point for that, but we also call on our other actors and other tools at companies' and consumers' disposal to make the difference and the change that we want to see. Without further ado, I will, actually before I introduce our panel, we are going to hear from our audience. So we're going to introduce a poll. I'd like to hear from everyone what they think is the most important issue when thinking about climate-resilient supply chains. If you could just select three of them, then I will follow up on the results throughout the discussion. Also, we will send around the poll afterwards as well. It'd be great if we could hear from you all as to what you think the three most important issues are. I'll just give a couple of minutes. Okay, great. I will now introduce you to our four expert panelists. First of all, we have Anne-Marie Yao. She's the Regional Cocoa Manager at West Africa. Anne-Marie is affectionately known as Mama Coco by the farmers that she works with and is responsible for developing and implementing Fairtrade's cocoa program in West Africa. She works with producers on market demand, on increasing volumes, and creating lasting impact for farmers in their communities. Anne-Marie is also the gender champion for the West Africa region and runs the Women's School of Leadership, which is one of our flagship programs sponsored by the Co-op and by Compass, which looks at empowering women to have alternative skill sets. Next, we have Cheryl Pinto. Cheryl is joining us as the Values-Led Sourcing at Ben and Jerry's. She's joining us from Vermont, so thank you, Cheryl, and a special acknowledgement for the early hour that you are joining us. Cheryl works to advance the social and environmental impact across all of Ben and Jerry's value chains. Cheryl leads the partnership with Fairtrade International on the Producer Development Initiative, which is an innovative approach to empowering small producers and their investments. Cheryl currently sits on the boards of Divine Chocolate and Sustainable Food Labs, so she is well known across the sustainability sector. Our third panelist is John Steele, who's the CEO of Café Direct. John is a business leader and social entrepreneur with a passion for making change and a business as a force for good. Café Direct is one of the UK's leading businesses in social enterprise, and they played a pivotal role in shaping the change agenda. In 2018, Café Direct became the first UK coffee business to be B Corp certified. Finally, I'll introduce Catherine Higgs. Catherine is the Head of Food Policy at the Co-op. She and her team work tirelessly on defining the strategy and implementations across a number of issues, including ethical trade, Fairtrade labeling, health, well-being, sustainability, food waste, and water. Catherine has quite the large portfolio of issues that the Co-op is tackling. She has experience developing customer-facing awareness programs and community initiatives. She is passionate about understanding issues that citizens care about and supporting better understanding of food-related issues. We will start with our questions. First up is for Anne-Marie. Hi, Anne-Marie. Hi, Catherine. Very nice to have you here. Whereabouts are you joining us from? If you'd like to let our audience know. I'm joining you from Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire. So welcome, Anne-Marie. West Africa has been identified as a climate change hotspot. Can you tell us a little bit more about what is affecting farmers in that specific region? Thank you, Katie. Before answering the question, allow me to say something about Fairtrade Africa and also the West Africa region and tell you a bit about how we operate. Fairtrade Africa is a producer network, and we are owned by our members. We currently represent more than 1 million and 5,000 producers across 33 countries in Africa. Our members produce export commodities like coffee, cocoa, corn, banana, mangoes, and other...

a second and before we get started i just need to run over a few housekeeping bits and we are going to be recording this session um and also if i can ask all participants um attendees to use the q a function at

the bottom of your screens to ask any questions so the format is going to be roughly 30 minutes discussion with our panelists and then time for audience questions at the end so please do use the q a function to ask your questions and i

will get through as many as we can at the end and so the focus of today's topic um as you are probably all aware is the focus of this year's fairtrade fortnight which is climate resilience um we were going to hear today from our

panel of experts on how climate change is affecting supply chains and what can be done to boost the resilience of small holder farmers and workers who are already facing vulnerable working and farming conditions currently farmers and workers are being hit on

three fronts um low global commodity prices the global health coving 19 pandemic and also unprecedented changes in weather patterns this is really affecting farmers livelihoods and abilities to carry on farming sustainably into the future 2020 was globally the hottest year on

record and with that we we saw really volatile conditions including increased risks of hurricanes droughts floods and really weather patterns changing at quite an alarming rate by 2050 is predicted by many experts that as much as 50 of the land currently used to grow

coffee will be unusable to grow the crop and that many cocoa growing regions in west africa will simply be too hot and to continue to um to farm cocoa this is this is really alarming for us and it is clear sending a clear signal

to to everyone that that now is the time to act we need to be talking about what potential impacts these changes in climate could be having on the future of some of the foods that we love at the moment

the reality is that most farmers and producers simply don't have the means to mitigate against and adapt to these changing conditions their income levels are such that they don't have the ability to invest in climate-friendly um agricultural practices and

and they don't have the ability to to change to the ever-changing weather and patterns and conditions higher incomes are a vital tool in the in the pursuit of changing the um the future of farmers livelihoods we know that by empowering and enabling

farmers through higher incomes they're able to make really good investment decisions when it comes to farming the farmers and the workers themselves know what is best for their land and know how to invest and the money that they receive through

fair trade farmers need to be empowered to make these investment decisions and that's that's what really what we're all about at fair trade we want to see uh the farmers and workers being able to take these decisions into their own hand

to protect their own environment and to adapt to the changing climate decisions and really to ensure that they are able to continue farming for this generation and for future generations to come and so that we here in in the uk and and

i can see that we already have some attendees from other parts of the world as well that we're able to continue to um to enjoy the products that we love at the moment so the message is clear from fair trade

we need to act now we need to come together we need to find solutions together this is not a single this is not a single person problem and and no one person will solve this by themselves but if we come together we

we really believe that now is the time that we can make significant change the fair trade minimum price is a great starting point for that but we we also call on on our other actors and other tools at

companies and and consumers disposal to uh to make the difference and the change that we want to see so without further ado i will uh actually before i introduce our panel we are going to uh hear from our

audience please so we're going to introduce a poll um i'd like to hear from everyone what they think is the most important issues when when thinking about climate resilient supply chains so if you could just uh select three of

them and then we will uh i'll follow up on the results throughout the discussion and also we will send around um the poll uh afterwards as well but yeah it'd be great if if we could hear from hear from you all as to what

you think the three most important issues are i'll just give a couple of minutes okay great i will now introduce you to our four expert panelists so first of all we have anne-marie yao she's the regional cocoa manager at west

africa anne-marie is affectionately known as as mama coco by the farmers that she works with and is responsible for developing and implementing fairtrade's cocoa program in west africa and she works with producers on market demand on increasing volumes and creating

lasting impact for farmers in their communities and anne-marie is also the gender champion for the west africa region and runs the women's school of leadership which is one of our flagship programs sponsored by the co-op and by compass which looks at

empowering women to have alternative skill sets and next we have cheryl pinto cheryl is joining us as the values led sourcing at ben and jerry she's joining us from vermont so thank you cheryl and a special acknowledgement for the early

hour that you are and that you are joining us cheryl works to advance the social and environmental impact across all of ben and jerry's value chains cheryl leads the partnership with fairtrade international on the producer development initiative which is an

innovative approach to empowering small producers and their investments cheryl currently sits on the boards of divine chocolate and sustainable food labs so well known across the sustainability sector our third panelist is john steele who's the ceo of cafe direct

and john is a business leader and social entrepreneur with a passion for making change and a business of force for good cafe direct is one of the uk's leading businesses in social enterprise and they played a pivotal role in the change in shaping

the change agenda in 2018 cafe direct became the first uk coffee business to be be corp certified and finally i'll introduce catherine higgs catherine is the head of food policy at the co-op her and her team worked tirelessly for

defining um the strategy and implementations across a number of issues including ethical trade fair trade labeling health well-being sustainability uh food waste water yeah catherine has quite quite the large portfolio of issues that the co-op are tackling she

has experience of developing white developing customer-facing awareness programs and community initiatives she is passionate about understanding issues that citizens care about and supporting better understanding of food related issues so we will start with our questions so first up for ann marie

hi emery hi kitty very nice to have you here uh joining us from whereabouts are you joining us from if you'd like to let our audience know i'm joining you from abidjan in codifier abigail i'm in cote d'ivoire so welcome

welcome emery um west africa has been identified as a climate change hotspot can you tell us a little bit more about what is affecting farmers in that specific region thank you katie and before answering the question can we allow me to say something about

fair to africa and also the west africa region and tell you a bit about how we operate fair to africa is a producer network and we are owned by our members and we currently represent more than one 1 million and 5 000 producers

across 33 countries in africa so our members produce export commodities like coffee cocoa corn banana mangoes and other non-commodities product like shea butter in the west africa region we have a key product uh cocoa and we also have bananas

and we record of over 300 certified coco organization and the west african region is composed of a big team of 30 f 31 people providing technical support to farmers and which represent approximately 200 000 individual farmers so in my role i oversee the west africa

cocoa program and other cocoa related projects and since october 2020 i also represent fairtrade africa producer voice in the board of frederick foundation it's an honor to be taking the voice of farmers in this discussion today thank you again for the

opportunity then back to your question yes climate change and its consequences are being felt across the planet it's not only in west africa we have it everywhere and especially in the developing countries in west africa we have recorded a longer

dry season and less rainfall there are new form of pest disease some studies state that approximately 10 to 15 percent of uh cocoa uh cocoa plants are affected by shriland shoot virus disease in cote d'ivoire in ghana and we are quite exposed in in code wa

on about this shaolin shoot virus we also noticed changing growing season for cocoa and also for food crop and there are decrease on our yield the quality is affected indeed temperatures and precipitation play a considerable role in cocoa

production it's established that extreme temperature adversely affect cocoa production so yes we have we are we are really experiencing the effects of climate change uh the increase on on temperature and the declining precipitation trend i'm sure and this is a fear for us will reduce

more and more coco output in the future in codified ghana the current average yield is 40 to 50 no is 400 to 450 kg per hectare it's very low why because uh the farms are old and the climate change effect is

rude we also have the same thing on the food crop which is also a very high risk in term of hunger so this is more or less how the big picture is in west africa and what and can i just touch on a point

that you raised what what is the solution for the um the disease that you mentioned and the fact that that's affecting 10 to 15 percent is that that that all of those crops need to be replaced by disease resistant

variants or can it be managed the challenge should virus is a very difficult virus to deal with most of the cases call for a rehabilitation a full rehabilitation of the farm so far it's the only mean to come across

this disease and i i can imagine that that comes at significant expense for the farmers absolutely the above listed trend or the the thing i mentioned reduce the yield and of course reduction on yield automatically translates into reduction of income for

farmers in their family and as you know we have millions of millions of small scale farmers in west africa that depend on cocoa and the majority of the cocoa is produced by small older so we think that it's huge and to build

our farmers resilience and yeah is the reason why we are happy and delayed to be part of this discussion today great thank you ever so much emery that was really really insightful and cheryl we've heard anne-marie talk about the problems in

west africa um how do ben and jerry's fit into that sure thanks thanks first of all for having me here katie i really uh appreciate being on this panel with uh my colleagues and um it's it's an interesting uh

discussion that you're opening up with anne marie about the challenges around uh rehabilitation and what's happening in cocoa so if i could take a step back and and just share a little bit about ben and jerry's approach to work and then

dive into cocoa so i don't know how many of your attendees know but ben and jerry's is an ice cream company and uh founded in vermont by jerry and ben over 40 years ago and one of the key

uh models we introduced was linked prosperity so we have a three-part mission and we have linked prosperity so the three-part mission is basically making delicious ice cream doing it in an economically responsible way and then we have the social mission

which is about the impact that we have on all those that are in our value chain in the communities where we work where we operate and so with this in mind about oh 10 years ago we made a decision that we

would convert our entire portfolio to fair trade and one of the key reasons for this was because farmers have a voice they're at the table of fair trade with the governance model which was really important there are a lot of different

certification schemes there's a lot of different ways of really doing good in this world and connecting all the players in the value chain and for ben and jerry's having the farmer voice as part of the model was one of the important values for us

so in that spirit when we did the conversion we established a fund with fair trade called the producer development initiative fund a little bit of a mouthful and the reason this fund was really special to us was because it allowed us

to go beyond the fair trade pricing beyond the structure that's already in place with the network and to dive in deeply and establish relationships with co-ops to then at the table discuss what's important to the farmers and move towards that so to pay

additional investment in the practices and projects and most recently last november we made a commitment to pay the living income reference price so it ties to what katie you were saying about the incomes of farmers and what anne marie was saying again about cocoa

revenues and for ben and jerry's it's so important that along with productivity along with diversification along with the professionalization of the co-op all those very important attributes that you have price needs to be in there as well because again tied to yield is the price

so that you get the revenue you need for a dignified livelihood so it's taken years to establish this five years ago ben and jerry's partnered with three four co-ops right now um but three co-ops five years ago we have

four now and so with the pdi which we use broadly for coffee tea sugar etc we focused on cocoa and said let's look at climate resilience let's look at advancing living income and let's look at cooperative strengthening and then it starts with the co-op and

then we again work up the value chain to the point of industry influence and it's been interesting watching how coco has um evolved in our strategy over the last five years because there's been a lot of challenges we

we knew climate change was having a devastating effect and is expected to be worse as anne marie said we know that um the cocoa growing regions are expected to shrink by one-third over the next 30 years so that's a

tremendous change when you think that cocoa has grown around this narrow band around the equator and it's been in play for so many decades and now you're going to see this shift we knew about uh swollen shoe and it's

been an interesting approach because the the ivorian government for example has also taken steps so when it comes to the renovation and the investment that foreign companies can make there's more um there's more structure and governance around this

so to support the farmers we then lean into agroforestry so we are leading into the shade trees to support the cocoa trees because again there's there's different rules and regulations around that recognizing the shifts in precipitation recognizing that the

global north really is driving a lot of the climate change that the global south is experiencing but still looking to introduce ways of mitigating the overall effects so we're working with cook stoves we're working again with um looking at deforestation

and again more broadly because of the living income we feel that by raising farmers incomes and revenues it enables them then to address all the challenges in cocoa child labor the the lack of succession because it's a challenging livelihood for young people

to go into uh you really need to sort of make cocoa growing and being a cocoa farmer um a role that's dignified that provides the quality of lifestyle that so many of us enjoy and so for us the the prime weaver that

we're pulling on is to raise the incomes for farmers because again as ann marie said they know and you said this is located they know what they need to do on their farms it's about providing the opportunity uh

to have the income to have opportunities to invest in and to have the support to make sure those returns on investment come through you provide that full enabling environment and and then you're able to actually succeed but if you pull out

any of those pieces you're setting farmers up for failure and it just propels this vicious cycle so our key role is to sort of try to flip it and do this with other brands and companies there's so many that are in the same space trying

to flip this into a virtuous cycle yeah i think it's such an interesting point you raised about the interconnectivity of these issues and and yes we're here today talking about climate resilience but but we could be talking about another

issue which would which would pull on on matters of of climate and income and uh and uh sustainable livelihoods so so you're right yeah there's there's a there's a web of interconnectivity which we're all trying to um to find our path through so thank you

very much cheryl for that perspective um john please could you tell us a little bit more about um cafe direct's approach to climate change thank you katie um yeah i think uh i think this is probably the most wonderful fair trade fortnite i've

been a part of um i i've been a part of i've been doing this for nine years i've been i've been to a few of them but i think what's wonderful about this one is your focus on um the most

important issue facing us and the fact that you're really helping us to connect that to the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and um you know i think for many years people could have been seeing things separately whilst you're bringing them together so powerfully so

i think that's um a really good thing that fair trade are doing this this fortnight so so well done um i mean cafe direct i think as everybody knows has been you know 100 committed to fair trade since it

we started doing that in 1994 together and um i think you know for us we see climate change through the lens of the smallholder farmer i mean they're you know that they are they are central to the solution and they're also being

most uh negatively affected by as shell suggested um the negative behaviors and impacts of other parts of the globe so i think um it's it's very important to see it through that lens and i think to empower and enable

smallholder farmers to step up and um you know change the landscapes and livelihoods that they have i think um so our commitment to fair trade is is there i think the other thing that's changed significantly for us as we look to have a more kind of

regenerative agricultural policy is our commitment to organic which has been growing exponentially over the last um six or seven years and is now you know nearly at the same level as our 100 fair trade commitment so i think you know you've got our our

position on on certifications and on returning um income to farmers i think the the other thing that we probably don't let people know enough but is becoming more self-evident is you know genuinely putting smallholder farmers at the center of what you do

so you know we're we're very proud to have you know board members you know members of the plc board who are you know farming in both africa and latin america and to have set up 11 years ago a

charity run by farmers for farmers and to continue to donate to that and to increase donations from a number of different actors which i guess is is the point that i think cheryl and um emery was touching on as well is it's

a collaboration it is about us all fighting the biggest issue that we have to fight and um so yeah and i suppose we view it through the the the eyes of the people that we're here to serve which is smallholder farmers

i think that that's great john and it's it's so interesting what you said about um we we have a tendency to put a lot of um a lot of the burden of the solution of climate change on these small producers

and yet actually they are the the ones who are at least contributing to and to the overall global emissions and it's a it's a hard position for us to be putting farmers in to say they need to be making changes when actually they

have been contributing the least yeah yeah we could talk about this for quite a long time couldn't we i mean i think you know it's it's it's the the kind of social injustice of it all as well if

you look at the you know that the difference between smallholder farmers and you know who who on whom we all depend upon and then the the behaviors and attitudes of those that are involved in other parts of the world i

mean that you could get quite cross about it but i think what we need to do is we need to come together and take the kind of action that the fair trade are trying to catalyze in in this fortnight so

great thank you ever so much john um catherine i have a two-part question for you and firstly if you could tell us a bit a little bit about um what the co-op's position on climate change is and then secondly

um if there are any specific initiatives which the co-op are undertaking and to make your supply chains more resilient to climate change hi katie thank you for that two-part question i hope i don't get too excited about the first part and forget the

second part so dude i'll remind you don't worry um so uh just if i may um thank you for inviting me on the panel and it's such an honor to be with such you know leading people in fair trade and to pinch myself to be

here um so just if i may just a very few quick points about the co-op i hope most people know who the co-op are um but if not um we are a a business that has championed fair trade for over 25 years

it's something that um as a co-op members are absolutely passionate about and in fact one of the things i'm most pleased about or proud about is the fact that fairtrade was kind of brought to us by our members

they kind of went this you know absolutely chimes with your values your principles why are you not behind it and 25 years on you know we're really proud to be the kind of leading convenience retailer supporting fair trade and one of the retailers that you

know that we believe kind of helped to mainstream fair trade particularly in the uk when we put fair trade products in each and every one of our shops way back in 1998 which makes me feel very old because i do actually remember that

and so the first part of your question was around what's the cult's position on climate change so um first thing i'd say is that the culture recognized and started to respond to climate change a long time ago 2006 and quite a lot of

time really beyond before quite a few other businesses kind of really started to think about it so as a result we got a bit of a head start and we were able to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from our

operations uh by some 70 since that date and however we now face uh our next challenge and our biggest challenge really which is a reduction of emissions from our products the climate impacts our products dwarf those for our operations by at least 10

10 times and it's something that a lot of similar businesses will also also have to face into um at our agm in 2019 our members took the historic decision for co-op to recognize the climate emergency and to commit to science-based

greenhouse gas reduction targets and also to set a stretching net zero commitment and to absolutely take full responsibility for both our direct impacts and those for my products and basically that's what we've been doing so we've allowing to net zero by

2040 and now we're working on our roadmap to reduction and elimination working across the business with our suppliers with partners all looking to address the impacts associated with our products we've also been really fortunate to work with some great experts

so a big shout out to the university of york who we work with on a really exciting piece of work to understand and identify the risks the climate risks associated with our key ingredients looking at not just the environmental

risk but also the human risks associated with those ingredients because here at the cult we're really really clear that climate change impacts people not just the planet and how we're going to support those communities is absolutely at the core of

what we do now and we'll be absolutely core to our future plans and the second the classic can meet myself exactly i was waiting for it i won't say it and the second part of that question is is what it's the what are we doing um

so as i've said yeah and others have said climate change is real it's life-threatening climate volatility is affecting you know the foods that we all love and those that we all rely on and farmers and growers in the

developing world the global south are absolutely disproportionately affected by climate change and ultimately you know you can't hope to respond to climate change if you've got no certainty of income it's just you know it's a no-brainer um so for a for us fair trade is

absolutely key here um you know the minimum price that fairtrade offers provides a safety net for when prices fall and the premium allows farmers to invest in projects of their choice which will also which will naturally include climate

resilience projects as well um i've been really fortunate in my career to go out and visit um producers and growers some of whom have been in um in west africa and other parts of africa as well and i've seen communities that have been

absolutely living on the front line of climate change they are they have been devastated by the kind of you know the the weather impact so i've seen farms floods farms just swept away i've seen homes villages swept away

and communities living with that and then going into drought when soil fertility is just massively impacted you can't grow anything in compacted soil um you know so i think for for producers um in you know in developing countries

climate change is something that is absolutely real it's not something that you watch on tv it's not something that you see in a documentary they are living with it and it is getting worse and so what are we doing well um

lots actually uh but a couple of things that i'll just call out are um we're really proud to be supporting the fair trade um fair trade africa and i'll get this wrong fair trade africa east africa youth in coffee programme

um in a cooperative in our coffee producer community in kenya which i'm sure given the opportunity and maria will talk about a bit later um but we're also supporting fair trade and smallholder bagana growers in our supply chain as well with a

program that i think is really exciting it's a program to improve productivity um uh through so fertility projects organics or fertility projects um and this has helped fair trade producers remain competitive it's obviously you know we're in a

competitive world because it's reduced their production costs but it's also include increasing their resilience to climate change because better richer more fertile soils can hold on to more water which means that um you don't have to irrigate as much um

they are more resilient to drought and also there's a double impact really in that because the small is so fertile you don't have to apply and agrochemicals as well so a really kind of double wind project thank you so much catherine that was

great and uh thank you for sharing that you have been able to visit some of these um some of these growing regions and and uh yeah the challenge that producers face is real and happening now we we saw only

last year that um the devastating effect that storm etta had in uh in latin america and we had some producers that lost up to 70 of their crops just from one single one single weather um event and the devastating effect that that can

have so thank you for sharing sharing those insights um cheryl you've already touched on this a little bit um and what do you see the biggest gaps that farmers need um to tackle uh climate change um i think i think you've already

mentioned the fact that that ben and jerry see income as being a pivotal tool so could you explain a little bit more about that and um if you could elaborate on the commitment that you've made to the fair trade reference price

i'm afraid it's my turn to tell you that you're a mute i've just been saying that doesn't get old after a year right we still love to tell each other that um so yes uh i was saying that i had

teased what the main part of our strategy is right now which is that it does revolve so much around the dignified livelihoods and incomes of farmers and so i think what we had approached was starting with the the typical way of

approaching um the challenges but is by looking at productivity and looking at diversification and looking at the professionalization i like to say that it was a three-legged stool because we had the professionalization and we had the productivity but you could not get that

step up for farmers without the price and so it's still a very pioneering phase for so many brands and companies that are looking at this because the whole idea of being able to pay a farmer the increase in price is meant then to go directly to

that farmer you see the impact in their lifestyle choices and you see that lift so it's a lot of this is theory in some areas and so this year and next year is going to be a study exercise that our team is doing

with fair trade with giz with ideas there are a lot of partners now that want to learn how is all of this going to work and so we're going to look and try to better understand what that really means and so with the

four co-ops we've got teams on the ground during this evaluation because with the lessons we learned this can then be expanded because our goal again is to take this beyond cocoa take this to other uh commodities that we have and again looking at living

income and living wage for other areas of the supply chain so in that space we we've recognized that with farmers having that income they have that agency that they need to make the choices that they need because again

when you speak to farmers and and like catherine um we've had opportunities to go and so again i'm in vermont but i have a chance and i know some of the the co-op managers etc um but under regular engagements with

the teams on the ground you hear these different stories and it's a whole range and spectrum because you've got some very small farms you've got um extra labor coming in from different areas you've got larger farms you've got the consolidation

there are a lot of different factors as i touched on before and so i think what we're recognizing is there are going to be changes in shifts not every farmer who's growing cocoa now will be able to continue to grow

cocoa over the next 10 15 years so how do we help to actually create the next livelihood how do we actually look to be able to provide the resilience to that rural landscape so is it another crop is it some processing is it a different

version of value capture that continues to try to keep the prosperity in the communities rather than seeing this migration from the rural to the urban because as as john and we all have touched on we're all connected it's a large collaboration because for

some of us we're thinking cocoa and chocolate's a luxury and so there's a lot of challenges for a luxury that we all enjoy maybe some of us too often on a daily basis but it's also the rest of the food

system and so there's a lot that has to be tackled because it is all interconnected so farmers i think whether you're a cocoa farmer a vanilla farmer a dairy farmer in the north they're facing a lot of common challenges

so john official regenerative ag and captain definitely talked a lot about the soil which is another big area that ben andreas is looking to support by helping uh provide the awareness and education but then also the tools to be

able to implement and then the resources to continue that uh because again it's about the health of the planet and it's our ecosystem which again grows the healthier food which again supports and so for us i think what we tried to do again was to

provide the support resources for the farmers because they know what to do and it's just a matter of giving them what they need to be able to do it and then ensuring that it continues it's not it's not just show up for a year or

short for a couple of years you've got to have a bit of a longer track because this takes time as we all know climate change took time to get to where it was and now it's accelerating and hopefully again we can flip that

but to be able to have that commitment to these farmers to stay and to be able to start to progress so that you build that momentum so that you can actually provide that independence and agency great thank you so much cheryl i'm

actually going to revert to ann marie to see um cheryl raised a really interesting point about um the kind of the the longevity of farming communities and the impact that the uh the changing climate is having on on

the potential for future generations to to continue to farm cocoa and and the kind of the effects of migration to to larger urban areas um do you see that in west africa are you seeing do young people see cocoa farming as a

as a viable future line of work okay katie thank you before saying any other words i will really want to acknowledge and appreciate our partners and what they have been doing so far i'm i'm really really really happy to to to to share

our perspective and how we feel it how we receive all your commitment and your support we have been working with all of them uh we've been injuring and with co-op and cafe direct and yes your commitment is making a difference

and i want to say it before moving forward uh yes uh katie um you know we have this climate change train but it's worse than also by other things like poverty uh taking uh youth from farming so i mean we have different aspects

aspect to tackle and the first one should be the income after the income if the income is improved we will not have to call for youth to join it to be something systematic and we also need to make the

supply chain attractive with different layer and different kind of activity where they will find themselves you know we have technology now and you really are focused on technology and we have a lot to achieve with technology in coco so

yes youth are not interested because they are not seeing a feature in the cocoa as it is currently cocoa work is a a burden is is so difficult to work in a cocoa farm so after uh eight hour of a hard labor

you need to make sure that and and dream that your cocoa will give you a feature but if it's not the case of course migration will be part of our problem to solve uh we have it's other training gun and

code like the illegal mining coming so we have many many many um issues to tackle but everything will come with the income the improve of this income cocoa farm are getting and these partners already working with us are doing

what what is key for us but as kitty said uh and and us also sharing i mentioned it before having this farmer being part of the discussion is very important having them as being part in the heart of the system

because we know what what is good for us and how we can tackle but we don't have all the expertise uh then this can come from somewhere else but we need to work together and in a very organized way

to achieve uh the goal and youth have something to present for sure great thank you so much anne marie and yeah you're right and i know you know key cornerstone of fair trade is to have the producers um uh empowered and able to be part of

the decision making and not and not just to be the recipients of decisions made in boardrooms um uh john could you tell us a little bit about how the coffee sector has been affected by climate change because it is a

another key commodity that really has the spotlight being shown upon it in terms of the viability of coffee farming under current um climatic conditions thank you katie i sort of feel like i need to get myself focused i was too busy

listening to these other great panelists and anne-marie's fantastic words there and um i mean the the effect is is is significant i i was uh recalling a moment when um a guy called andrew from kenya explained that they'd found um

frost on on t bushes in kenya which is not coffee but it just it just brings it to life that the change is is quite remarkable in communities and you're seeing things you haven't experienced before and trying to work out how to deal with them

um and certainly in coffee um the other thing that we've found is you know um as a smallholder farmer you're not you're not isolated you know the the effect on the climate is around you and is sort of omnipresent in the

landscape in which you're you're operating so often it it can be that the change can be affecting your your farm and your livelihood um through a different aspect of of the landscape in which you live and um we we went we go to peru quadlocks we

have a lot of a lot of our farming communities are in peru and um in northern peru um a big big example there was where the the coffee farmers on the on the hillside were being affected really by

climate change being exacerbated by um subsistence farmers higher up the hill um you know needing to use wood from the forest so you you know you got the impact not only of climatic change but then you've got it

amplified by human behavior in the landscape effectively and um the the solution there was actually to work to help to change people not in the supply chain's behavior and encourage them and incentivize them to reforest the whole area um but it was it

was fascinating that it's important to remember it's not just about you know a farm in isolation it's about the whole landscape in which you're operating and um i guess it picks up on on the theme that i think

fairtrade have been very good at amplifying which is we're all in it together so you you can't look at one solution but um you know there literally you know farmers lives were getting swept away by the rainfall that wasn't being prevented

because the forest wasn't there so i think um you know forestation as we all know is such a big issue um because we're we're very um committed to fair trade i think the the thing about this is it's and i think anne marie and your

other panelists have touched on it ultimately it has to start with income and it has to start with enabling people through a fair fair and um sustainable livelihood and i think um in coffee the the fair trade price has

been significantly ahead of the market price although in the last week the market price has moved up and got that got to the fair trade minimum price for the first time in a number of years which is quite a

relief um but it's also about looking beyond the commodity i think um one of the farms um in um the middle of peru in a place called pangoa that we we went to kind of we have these um

these centers of excellence where a farming community demonstrates how they can change the way they manage uh their lives and their environment and then other farms we bring them all there to learn from each other and this farm that we saw um about a

year and a half ago you know the the changes they've made and they talked about over about five or six years you know they had um an incredible vegetable garden that meant that they got income from vegetables in the local community

uh they've diversified into fish farming um because it's peru also into guinea pig farming which is an incredibly important source of protein um and these kind of initiatives can just improve income and also i think a point that some of the other panelists

made it is about making an attracting attractive business and life out of um out of farming and um that diversification i think can do that too so yeah i think there's a lot to be done um but it does it does start with

income i think but uh anyway i don't know if i've answered your question but i've certainly said a few things yeah that's fantastic thank you john and actually i think you may raise a really good point about um the kind of role of of individual

businesses or individual consumers and actually uh in a lot of situations we're seeing that collective action is is one of the things that is that is really needed to make long-term sustainable change um which handily leads me very nicely on

to my last question for catherine um which is what what would you see the wider industry do and and how how do you think government and industry could come together to try and tackle some of the issues that we've been

talking about okay so i can't believe it's the final nearest near the end of the panel this session has been so exciting and interesting um what do i see as the most important things we could do i think

i think the key thing to think about is that you know we have a moral obligation to act this is you know this is an issue that's bigger than any of this um the science is really clear and now

the time is for businesses and for government to absolutely act it's kind of um you know follow the science absolutely take action um and show some leadership um because to your point it's only through us coming together and collaborating and cooperating for a

fair world that we are going to make a a difference climate change for businesses and for governments even shouldn't be a matter of competition you know um the issues are too big these are people's livelihoods this is our planet we're talking about

you know we should be working together on solutions we should be sharing what works one of my bug bears not around climate change but around some of the other areas that i work in is that there are loads of little projects going

on that are all in their own way really really good but actually somehow it's not really happened that we've kind of consolidated all that learning and brought it together and built scale from it and i think that's what needs to

happen now um you know sure you know sure businesses will always want to have something they can talk about that you know that they can feel proud of and connect with their customers but actually we should find ways to do that between brands and you

know one of the things i'm really proud of we've collaborated with lots of our suppliers and and um both with um with kaffir direct and ben and jerry's and i absolutely believe and the only way we are going to make a difference

is if we do more of that more talking together more sharing learnings and just kind of getting on with it and doing something thank you so much for that for that final perspective and and that concludes the kind of uh the

the questions that are coming from me for this part of the session but we've had plenty of questions come in from our audience so if it's okay with all of the panelists i'm gonna dive straight into some of those so that

we get some uh some answered before the end of the session i should say if you've asked a question and we don't get to it we will endeavor to send a response after this session um the first question i'm going to to ask

to cheryl first but i would appreciate everyone else's contribution and it's and how do you feel the role of social marketing can help influence positive consumer behavior along with policy change so how i mean ben and jerry's are a

fantastic example of using your uh social platforms for kind of sparking interesting consumer debate but how do you see that working i think uh one of the key pieces of this work is to drive connection between consumers between the companies

and brands all the way down the supply chain through all the players to the farmers because there's such a disconnection right now with where our food comes from and we hear this a lot um whether it's the younger generation even

even older people like me not everybody makes this connection of very few people know what a cocoa pod looks like right it's just chocolate as a bar you grab when you're at the cash out and you and you chow down so i think

through social media this ability to to your point spark that interest but to drive conversation drive awareness and really bring that connection from fans and and people again that are at one end of the value chain all the way down to the other is so

important because as fair trade says we're all in this together and when you do that you start to also recognize a lot of the externalities that are out there so i was i was thinking about what kathryn was

saying about the moral obligation which i wholeheartedly believe in because we are all linked but there is also a very strong economic reason of why we need to be fully aware of what we're doing and the impacts we have because it comes

down to resilience as well and we've all had these scares and remember headlines where we're running out of cocoa or there isn't going to be any coffee there aren't going to be any bees to pollinate all of these things are so

connected because we don't understand the web and it's important to be able to alleviate the pressures on the value chain and raise that awareness because without that understanding and transparency which comes through social media social media has brought so much transparency

to so many things you need to have that so that again things are not operating in silos but you get to that scale because it's again things can spin on a diamond we've seen a lot of movements where they just

sort of blew up suddenly within days or weeks and now you've got real change happening because it caught that momentum and that's a social media is that lightning rod that really drives that so if brands use that and not just brands

others can use this as well but you drive that connection we could actually pivot much faster than waiting for the old stagecoach approach we used to have and it was like the old telephone game you've got to do that so um so that's i

think ben and jace has been able to capture this really well and we're we welcome partnering and working with others to do this because you know as i said one planet our home and we have to we have to rally together

i think that's such a great point about the um the immediate nature of of social media these days is that these debates can be raised in a second and can it can attract a kind of a very quick momentum whereas

traditional marketing methods we we would have been spending a lot of time trying to get these messages out there so yeah it's a a really interesting point about how how we bring together people at a moment in time to create um real and

and quick change and does anyone do any of our other panelists want to add anything on this point otherwise i have a question that's going in a slightly different direction so anyone has any thoughts on on a consumer influence then

then please give them now no okay i will move on to my my question of a different tact which i'm going to put to ann marie first um the kovid 19 pandemic has has obviously had a very uh

very real effect on uh what it means to be a farmer and and how farming can can take place and do you think that there is an opportunity for us to to use this moment in time to rethink

um fairness in in supply chains does does this does this moment are we able to use this as a time to rethink how we treat others in in the supply chain what's muted yes yes cathy yes i think addressing climate change

can be an important priority for all of us the cocoa industry farmers small businesses national government origin countries all of us and um when uh when you now think about how kobe 19 have made things difficult for farmers because they were unable to

sell their beans so they are getting uh they are now becoming more vulnerable than they used to be yes we need to maybe rethink our ways of of working and also maybe think about the interventions we want to

to to bring on board and this is where i agree with cheryl about how all those things should work how we could collaborate better and how we can coordinate instead of having individuals implementing and trying to solve the

problem and tackle it from their end we really need to talk together we need to assess the difference of context and then come up with uh uh what is needed uh but a good uh thing is that it's not

it cannot be only for for we as fair trade or our partners on the call for those who are not with us today it should be the broader international community we all we should be all concerned about it it's not

only about we it's not about the west african cocoa farmers it's our responsibility and i really think that a local global framework is needed we just need to have a space to deal with the harmful practices in this sector it will improve

uh many things i think thank you anne-marie and and catherine interestingly from um the in the co-op's last report you had some some interesting data which showed that actually consumers um were consumers were maybe even more concerned about um their

connections with other with community and with with producers and actually you saw fair trade sales kind of growing above the market i think that's a really really interesting point to come out of this pandemic is that that maybe people are feeling like they

they want to be more connected and that they um they they have this kind of moral social obligation absolutely i think one of the things that will come out of the pandemic and as you said has already started to come

out the pandemic is there's a realisation of how fragile we are as individuals and how fragile and precious our world is um and i think for many people that's making them think more deeply about the decisions that they make about their lives

and how they want to live their lives and the types of food that they want to buy and the kinds of businesses that they want to buy from um you know i would you know i think coming out of the pandemic

and this is going to give an opportunity for businesses that have really strong values and a meaning beyond profit to really connect more deeply with consumers i i honestly believe that um and you know i you know when i talk

to lots of our customers and as i said you know being very privileged in the role that i've got at the co-op um but you know the diff you know what we buy in a supermarket when we are

thinking of ourselves as citizens makes a difference and you know i was ringing my ears you know conversations with anne-marie when i was fortunate enough to be in um is growers just want to sell more products on fair trade terms because

if they can do that all the benefits that we've heard will be delivered onto communities so you know it's for consumers it can feel quite complicated sometimes but actually something like fair trade a really clear certification system that kind of

indicates to consumers buy this and you are going to contribute to something amazing is so powerful and and thank you catherine that is such an articulate way for us to uh to draw into our last minute of this

webinar i think you've really summed up a fantastic end piece which i i maybe would have would have delivered in in traditional circumstances but thank you that was um so well put um we have just got a minute

left so if if the panel would like to give us their final 22nd maybe uh if there's one point that you would like to leave with our audience today so uh cheryl i'll come to you to you first

i i just loved what you said catherine and to build on that i think when we recognize often farmers are are told you need to feed the world and i think what we really need to recognize is that farmers need to feed

themselves and their families and so this income has to come that is their priority to take care of their friends their families their communities before they need to feed the world so by that empowerment then we all we all survive and thrive

thank you so much cheryl and john so difficult to maybe just say one thing um i mean i think from cavalry's point of view clearly starting and embracing and listening and empowering and working with smallholder farmers is is paramount i think listening to the

conversation and seeing the chat though we need to get together with this we need we need to scale up and i think um we need to find ourselves working across um the value chain and with with partners like the co-op and

and ben jerry's and with smallholder farmers because it's quite clear that we we need to mobilize at quite high scale and you know possibly and i think importantly the the covic crisis demonstrates that mankind can do that and we need to get

the same urgency and more with um with climate change so i'll i'll stop saying stuff because i'm into a few seconds really thank you very much great thank you so much don and uh finally ann marie thank you cathy uh acid farmer

i would like to say that we really think that there is a lot to do and we uh appreciate the long-term commitment because for us it can solve something it can do a lot we really believe in partnership and so

we encourage synergy of resource and expertise including research and development on climate resilience and any approach that can help farmers to address climate change so head we need your support you mentioned the capacity building need yes it's a need for us and we'll be

happy to work with you in a coordinated way to make sure that we have we built the future for cuckoo thank you for the opportunity and we are looking forward great thank you ever so much and and again

i'm sure on behalf of our audience i'd like to thank all of our panel members for for joining us today and for the really insightful and motivating discussion i i feel like i need to go downstairs now and have my coffee and think about the

changes that we can make at fair trade the changes that we can all bring together because i found that really inspiring so thank you thank you so much for taking the time uh thank you very much to all of our

audience members who have taken the time to join us today um please continue to support fair trade fortnight go to our uh uh the hub on our website where you'll find lots of really interesting and fun events happening for the rest of the week

and we've just put up another poll um asking if if there are particular topics that would like to be discussed at future webinars our next webinar is on the 6th of may we'll send out details and following this we'll be looking at

the online retail trends and so a very different topic but how how you can sell fair trade um through retail online channels and so thank you thank you once again and thank you for being part of a fair

trade fortnight and thank you for continuing to to use your purchasing decisions to to make the world a fairer place and to support farmers and workers to really empower them and enable enable farming to continue to be sustainable well into the future

thank you all very much