Fair Trade is catching on around the world" we all want to do our bit to help those who produce our consumer goods. But could a whole town become Fair Trade?

There are surely challenges to this. First of all every one in the locality needs to be brought on board, and for that to happen somebody needs to be in charge in the first place. However, surely it should not be too difficult for a town or village to get most people interested in promoting Fair Trade?

There are several areas of influence that need to be won over first. There is the local council who will have a budget not only to promote the idea but also that they hold for nearly everything that they buy.

Then there are Churches who would undoubtedly be interested in the notion. They will have good numbers of people many of whom might well be removers and shakers in the community, generally. They could well help move things forward. After that, there are many other groups that could be asked to join in " shopkeepers associations, unions, youth groups" you name it, there will be people who could be interested in the idea.

It is a nice idea to help other people and a town could get a very good feeling in itself about doing some thing for the general good others.

Perhaps the most difficult area is deciding exactly what FairTrade is. How far do you go? We have all heard about Fair Trade chocolate and bananas (both of which taste great, so they are easy to do!) but what about Fair Trade jeans, or furniture, where do you get those things?

Plenty of research will be needed. A visit to the local supermarket could be quite an eye opener! Have a look through the products as you wander up and down the aisles and it will start to dawn on you that there are hundreds, if not thousands of products we use every day that could benefit from being Fair Trade.

It would be great publicity for a town, though, wouldn't it? However, every effort would need to be made to ensure that things were really going on to support the idea or credibility could be lost. However, it should be fairly straightforward to make an effort on the most obviously available products " like chocolate and bananas " to get things going.

Fair Trade starts t0 hit harder when you look at consumer goods. Not only is it difficult to find Fair Trade suppliers but once you have done so there is the small question of money. It costs to buy Fair Trade. Ok, so you will not notice it so much when you go for Fair Trade Tea bags, coffee or chocolate, but go for larger items and the pennies start to add up.

It would be a challenge and it would give great publicity to a town or village to go Fair Trade. It might help to build a sense of community, too. Perhaps the best thing would be the fact that everyone would be helping the world's workers to a better existence.