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  Check out our interview with Shared Interest ...

  Last year we lent over £30 million to farmers and handicraft makers in the developing world so that they can access the fair trade market and make a better future for themselves and their families. By investing anything between £100 and £20,000 in a Shared Interest account and, UK residents can do amazing things like helping tea producers in Tanzania make use of abandoned plantations, or make it possible for a pineapple producer in Costa Rica to safeguard their crop and much, much more. However, the real reward is realising the valuable difference made by sustainable trade.

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  Love london - The Green Festival

  Love London, Love Your Planet 4th to 28th June 2009 The Love London Green Festival is believed to be the largest annual green festival in the world. From 4th to 28th June 2009, over a hundred green events will take place across the capital, bringing communities together to share ideas and celebrate innovations. These events provide fun days out and engage Londoners in building a sustainable future for our city.

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  The Big Green Gathering

  What is it? The Big Green Gathering is a 5 day camping event which is currently located in the Mendip Hills in Somerset. It has grown out of the original Green Gatherings of the 1980's and the Green Fields of Glastonbury Music Festival. It has developed organically in response to a desire from people within the green movement for a festival that was focused on Green issues. Now we have somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 people expected this year.

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  Only Fair voted Best Fair Trade Company!

  Only Fair are delighted to announce they are winners of the Green England Awards 2008 in the Best Fair Trade Company category.

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  Pants Exposed

  A short film putting the spotlight on pants showing even the most beautiful clothes can come from the ugliest origins!

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  March on Mars

  Six weeks after launching STOP THE TRAFFIK's campaign March on Mars, Mars made an announcement. They have promised to make their GLOBAL product range traffik free by 2020, starting with Galaxy bars in the UK and Ireland next year. Mars are giving us a short term commitment with Galaxy bars while we keep asking for evidence of long term, global change.

"Our time for change has come"

So said Barack Obama, the newly sworn in 44th President of the United States, and he's absolutely right too! As the newly elected leader of the "Free World", he has the power to make real change happen, both at home and abroad. This prospect excites us at bestfairtrade.com a great deal.

We are also excited about some change that is starting to happen a bit closer to home. We intend to launch the USA version of our site towards the end of 2009, to keep up to date more efficiently with the significantly smaller, but rapidly growing USA Fair Trade Industry. Look out for exciting updates later this year...

We will continue to listen carefully to our users over the coming months to continue to refine bestfairtrade.com so please do get in touch with any ideas or comments about any part of the site - we are grateful for all feedback, good or bad!

What is bestfairtrade.com? (For those that don't already know)

bestfairtrade.com is an online guide to all aspects of the Fair Trade industry, from producers to end-retailers, and everywhere in between! The main aim of the site is to act as a relative 'Private Eye' for the Fair Trade Industry, not placing our focus on simply being another listings site, but aspiring to engage with consumers through interesting and relevant news broadcasts, instead of bombarding them with relentless sales offers and uninteresting pieces of information.

The directory is divided up into easy to navigate categories – everything from large on-line retailers to small start up companies who pride themselves in promoting their fairly traded products. We hope that we have made it as easy as possible for you to find what you are looking for – and hopefully to find other exciting things along the way!

Please register with us so that we can keep in touch – you will receive our newsletter and information about special promotions and events.

You will now be able to rest easy in the knowledge that you have contributed to the welfare of a farmer or craftsman somewhere in the world, and that they too will be able to sleep peacefully tonight!