Rainbow Turtle Rebooted Fair Trade Podcast

In this episode I am delighted to be talking with Rachel Farey of the One World Shop in Edinburgh. It's a beautiful shop positioned at the western end of Princes Street in Edinburgh with the historic castle as a backdrop.Rachel has had an interesting journey that started with working with L'Arche after she left school. L'arche is an international federation of Non-profit organisations working to create networks of community where people with and without intellectual disabilities live and work together. From there she studied theology at Kent University where a friendship took her to Edinburgh and she started volunteering for the fledgling One World Shop. After a few years volunteering and then working for the organisation, she retrained as a religious education teacher and taught for a few years, before finally returning to the shop as manager. Rachel was involved setting up the British Association of Fair Trade Shops, was chair of the Edinburgh fair trade group, helped set up the Scottish Fair Trade Forum and was part of the team that helped Scotland become recognised as a fair trade nation.In addition, Rachel has travelled extensively in the Indian subcontinent meeting producers and understanding the difference that fair trade makes to their lives.Whilst I was chatting with Rachel I was struck by her knowledge of fair trade, the people involved, and the place that Scotland has played in helping producers and farmers across the world. We are fortunate to have people like her on our side! 

In this episode we are playing a recording of a talk by Sally Sawaya of Meru Herbs in Kenya that she gave recently to the staff of True Origin and Rainbow Turtle in Paisley, Scotland. Sally is the managing director of Meru Herbs, the Kenyan fair trade company that produces tasty sauces, jams and herbal teas. Meru is a semi arid region of the country where, for many years, water was hard to obtain for farming and domestic use. Things changed just over 30 years ago with a collaboration between the Meru catholic diocese, the Italian government, and the local people which implemented a project to provide water to about 430 families. This change in conditions sparked off the creation of Meru Herbs that went on to improve the lives of many people and empowered women to both work in and run the company.Sally's story is one of many of the inspiring ones that have come out of Meru Herbs, where a change in circumstance, combined with fair trade, has transformed their lives. Sally started as an intern with Meru Herbs when she was at university studying for a degree in marketing. She went onto work for the company in various areas before becoming the managing director.  Other women have been able to buy land and grow their own food. In rural areas it was often the boys who were sent to school, not the girls, because there wasn't the money to pay for both. The conventional wisdom was that the family got a better return by educating the boys. 

In this episode we meet Mary Popple the current chair of JTS, the company that imports fair trade goods into Scotland and distributes them throughout the UK.Mary grew up in Northern Ireland during the 50s and 60s on the border between the republic and the north. Her father was a church minister who tried not to take sides and, as tensions increased, took his family to Scotland. Those early years in northern Ireland gave Mary a strong sense of the importance of equality and of treating people fairly.Mary has had an interesting journey to fair trade that has gone via the diamond industry and business management. It was her expertise in managing a business that led her to being invited onto the board of JTS. When she was a member of the St. Andrew's Fair Trade group they contacted the Royal and Ancient to ask if they would consider using fair trade teas and coffees. A successful relationship was established and now it is written into their procedures to use fair trade products at the Open golf championship.Mary has a bright and positive outlook on life and it was a real pleasure to listen to her thoughts on how a fair trade business should be run. 

In this episode we bring you part 2 of the John Riches interview. (If you've not heard it, do check out part 1 where John talks about his early life and influences.)We join John where he talks about setting up the Balmore Trust and The Coach House, instruments that were used to generate funds for overseas projects. Very quickly they got involved in buying products from people in small communities in Asia when they realised it was better to do that than give them grants. From there it was a small jump to getting involved in fair trade where it's about supporting the farmers and producers which then benefit their families and creates stable communities.He's had about 40 years working in fair trade that includes setting up JTS that got involved in the Scotland Malawi partnership and buying and importing rice from small farmers in a land locked country. For the farmer, selling 90Kg of rice would allow them to send a child to school for a year.  He has a lot of insights into fair trade and I'm sure you'll enjoy this episode as much as I did.

In this episode, John tells interesting stories of working in a refugee camp in Austria after the 2nd world war, of being a chaplain at Cambridge University at the height of the student protests in the late 60s; working in the Transkei in South Africa during the apartheid era and meeting anti-apartheid activist, Steve Biko. He covers his time at Glasgow University teaching about the new testament in the bible and following a student out to Burmah to meet local villagers trying to live under the oppressive regime there. We end this episode in Glasgow during the late 1970s where he is teaching divinity to students and wrestling with the concept of how to help those who are struggling in developing countries around the world.

This short taster introduces Series 2 of the podcast. In this new series we'll be bringing you interviews with John Riches founder of JTS, Mary Popple of the St. Andrews Fair Trade Group and current chair of JTS and the Alternative Coffee Co. an exciting project that links fair trade speciality coffee farmers from Uganda and Rwanda with micro coffee roasters in the UK.

We have another throwback podcast for you where we're back to fair trade fortnight in 2016 and to Josh Brown's original Rainbow Turtle podcast series. This is part 2 of the episode that we re-released back in the beginning of January. In this part, Josh interviews Martin Rhodes and Graham Clark of the Scottish Fair Trade Forum at their AGM, where he also meets fair trade campaigner, Mary Alice Mansell of the Lochwinnoch fair trade group. He talks to rice farmer, Howard Msukwa, from Malawi, to Ishmael Diaz, a honey producer from Guatemala, and Liam McLaughlin, former warehouse manager at JTS, the Scottish fair trade importer and supplier. Josh records MPs Gavin Newlands and Mhairi Black answering questions from pupils from Gryffe High School. Finally, there is a wee piece from Jings and Scrivens talking about the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

This episode takes us back to February 2016 to the very first Rainbow Turtle podcast which was previously thought to be lost. Part 1 of this episode takes us on a fair trade journey:It starts with founder, Liz Cotton, talking to school pupils.It then chats to attendees at the Scottish Fair Trade Forum AGM,Before Ross Beattie looks at fair trade in Uzbekistan and Lynsay Bellshaw talks about her average day at Rainbow Turtle. The episode finishes with an interview with rice farmer, Howard Msukwa, from Malawi.

Welcome to this special Christmas episode of the Rainbow Turtle Rebooted podcast where I’m delighted to be able to interview Pauline Tiffen of the Journal of Fair Trade. Ever since I started this series I have been trying to get Pauline onto it. I first heard her speak at a Scottish Fair Trade Forum lecture back in the summer of 2020, at the height of lock down, when she spoke about the future of fair trade. It struck me then that her thinking about fair trade was on a different level to mine. She’s been involved in fair trade, or earlier versions of it, since the mid 1980s. She helped set up Cafe Direct and Divine Chocolate. Pauline was head hunted by the World Bank to look at ethical financing. And she currently edits the Journal of Fair Trade and is involved in the setting up of a business to business project, which links cooperative coffee farmers in landlocked Uganda and Rwanda with small coffee roasters and coffee shops around the UK.

This is the 2nd part of Martin Rhode’s talk that he gave to Rainbow Turtle at their AGM back in October. In part one he talked about the links between COP26 and Fair Trade. In this episode he answers questions from the audience and goes into some of the areas more deeply. Some of the questions he dealt with were:How did we prevent the global south paying for the cost of the climate emergency, What was happening to tariffs that was preventing producers from exporting finished products rather than raw materials, And, what was the Scottish Fair Trade Forum doing after COP26?So pour yourself a cup of fair trade tea, sit back and relax…

In this episode we talk to Mauro Pereira from Brazil. He is the executive director of Defenders of the Planet, an environmental campaign group based in Rio de Janiero. He is attending the COP26 summit as the focal point for Latin America for the sustainable development goals.Mauro talks passionately about our environment, especially at what has been lost or destroyed in his home country, he talks about his early influences and what led him to campaign for the environment.This episode was recorded ahead of the start of COP26 and we were fortunate to hear from Mauro before he spoke to the conference on Thursday 4th November.

Martin Rhodes of the Scottish Fair Trade Forum recently spoke to the Rainbow Turtle AGM about the relevance of fair trade to the COP26 talks starting in Glasgow at the end of October. He speaks passionately on the subject and says that you can't have climate justice without trade justice.His talk has been divided into 2 episodes. This first one is the talk itself. Part two is the question and answer session afterwards.

Today, we welcome Josh Brown of Third Works onto the Rainbow Turtle Rebooted Podcast.Josh is a former education officer with Rainbow Turtle and he offers some interesting insights into fair trade and the concept of development in relation to developing countries. Josh spent some time studying indigenous peoples in Australia, which formed his thinking on the effects of colonialism. Josh reflects on his time at Rainbow Turtle and the work that he did in schools. He has a refreshing attitude to working with young people where he likes to encourage questioning, rather than providing answers. He also gives a shout out for some of the wonderful people that he worked with at Rainbow Turtle.Finally, Josh talks about the work that he’s currently doing with teachers, to give them the tools that they need to work with young people in schools.

For this episode I’m delighted to introduce the chief executive of the Scottish Fair Trade Forum, Martin Rhodes. Martin is an incredibly busy person and it was hard trying to match our diaries for the interview. He is an interesting person to listen to, especially on where he thinks that fair trade should be in Scotland. He is keen that fair trade is a policy issue that is discussed at government level.Martin became involved with Fair Trade through campaigning on a number of international, development and trade justice issues. He was a founding member of the Glasgow North Fair Trade Group which joined with Fair Trade campaigners from across Glasgow to form the Glasgow Fair Trade Steering Group. He was elected as the Chair of the Glasgow Fair Trade Steering Group and later the Glasgow Fair Trade Co-operative. In September 2010, Martin was appointed as the Director of the Scottish Fair Trade Forum. He led the Forum when Scotland achieved Fair Trade Nation status in 2013 and through the reassessment of that status in 2017.So sit back and enjoy…

Liz Cotton is the founder and former director of Rainbow Turtle, the fair trade shop and charity in Paisley, Scotland. In this, the 2nd of a two part interview, Liz talks to Colum Scriven about her decisions to move on from Rainbow Turtle, what she did after leaving and what she is doing now.If you like our podcasts please subscribe to them and rate them. Leave us a comment, we'd love to hear from you. For more information about Rainbow Turtle, and the work that we do, please check out our website: https://www.rainbowturtle.org.uk.

Liz Cotton, founder and former director of Rainbow Turtle talks to Colum Scriven of Rainbow Turtle. In this first of a two part interview, Liz talks about her early influences, how she got involved in fair trade, and what led her to start up Rainbow Turtle, the fair trade shop and charity in Paisley.Rainbow Turtle is a fair trade shop and charity, based in Paisley, Scotland. The shop is run mainly by volunteers and sells fair trade teas and coffees, food, cards and crafts. The charity raises funding for projects in developing countries and provides education about fair trade for local schools and church groups.The music that accompanies the series is called, Dr. Anne And Her Books, and was written by Patrick Quinn. The music is played by Patrick and Maureen Quinn.

Welcome to the new Rainbow Turtle Rebooted podcast. Through our podcasts we would like to bring you interviews and news about fair trade. This episode is a short preview to our first series and introduces you to who we are and what we will be offering. Rainbow Turtle is a small non-profit organisation, based in… Continue reading Rainbow Turtle Rebooted Preview