Posts Tagged ‘argument’

Should we be going Fairtrade?

We should all be doing our bit for people in third world countries who are being unfairly treated and not given a chance – but what is the best way to go about helping out?  Is buying Fairtrade really the route we should be jumping onto?

Fairtrade has grown in popularity over the past few years – around half of the population of Britain can safely say that they recognise the Fairtrade logo proving that its efforts aren’t in vein.

Fairtrade products have a presence in a great range of products from bananas to coffee, from third world countries like Sri Lanka and India.

Let’s be fair

The idea behind the Fairtrade foundation is to, as the name suggests, provide a fairer method of farming for workers in third world countries who are usually given un-fair treatment and pay for their products.

Fairtrade provides a minimum price to the farmers, which covers costs and provides the farmers with a stable income, something which has probably never been afforded to them in the past.

The farmers then have to meet certain requirements, such as health and safety regulations, worker’s rights rules and social, economic and environmental development.

So everyone is a winner?  Only if people in the western world buy the products at the end of the day…

Fairtrade sales

So far things are looking good for Fairtrade sales – Fairtrade sales came to more than £1.6 billion worldwide in 2007 alone, a figure up around 47 per cent against the previous year.

But it still isn’t enough.  Although bananas are the most popular Fairtrade product on the market they only make up 12 per cent of overall banana sales in Britain.

However things are looking up for Fairtrade as they are starting to get even more of a presence in large chain supermarkets around the country – the Co-op was the first major chain to introduce Fairtrade products in the UK, and Sainsburys and Waitrose will only sell Fairtrade bananas.

Fairtrade has its fair share of critics

As with anything there are arguments against Fairtrade – many critics claim that Fairtrade is not a long terms solution and claim that the issues in the developing world will continue to cause problems as they did before the introduction of Fairtrade products.

The editorial director at the Institute of Economic Affairs, Professor Philip Booth, claims that Fairtrade is projecting a falsehood when they claim that they are helping the developing world in such a way.

Booth claims that the money earned by farmers working through Fairtrade is incomparable against the kinds of money going into the pockets of workers and manufacturers in Europe and Fairtrade isn’t in a position to change that.

But what about you?

What do you think about Fairtrade?  Did you know what Fairtrade was before reading this article?  After reading are you going to start looking for Fairtrade products?  Leave us a comment and let us know what you think…

Is it time to stop eating meat?

Could you live without meat?  Some people do it right now…others couldn’t even think about it…but by giving up meat you could be doing more than protecting your arteries.  Not only will you be saving countless innocent animal lives but you will also be doing great things for the greenhouse crisis and you will be reducing your footprint!

Meat is good for you – it has important nutrients like iron and protein that we need for energy and fuel and above all most of us like the taste of it.  But unfortunately for meat lovers there are some pretty reasonable arguments against the consumption of meat.

Methane

It is interesting to find out that methane is actually far worse for the environment than the usual suspect carbon dioxide – did you know it came out of the wrong end of a cow?  Furthermore were you aware that farming is responsible for a staggering 38 per cent of the United Kingdom’s entire methane emissions?

One cow standing on its own produces from between 100 and 200 litres of methane every single day!  Think about that next time you drive past a field full of cows…

Water

The waste of water involved in making a hamburger is just too much to think about – it takes around 2,400 litres of water, from the growth of the cow to the actual process of making the burger.  Now imagine how little water it takes to grow some veg?

A portion of green beans from Kenya uses only 80 litres of water to produce from start to finish – an insignificant number in comparison.  Water is one of the big problems of today’s climate issue as it is increasingly becoming scarce.

In this light, a vegetarian only consumes around 2,000 litres of water while a meat eater contains 5,000 litres.

Deforestation

We are eating more and more meat and so we need to find more and more room for all the animals we are eating.  The Amazon and areas of South-East Asia have been ripped up to make room for cattle while we are already worried about the lack of trees left in the world.

However the argument against this worry is that most meat eaters in Britain actually eat meat farmed in Britain so there is very little, if any, contribution to deforestation from Britain.

Land

The population of the Earth is growing at amazingly scary rates and while this is a problem in itself we could be helping the issue if we turn away from meat.  Cattle farming takes up massive amounts of land areas which could be used for other things such as providing areas for people to live in.

What do you think?

Would you say goodbye to meat to save the planet?  Are you a veggie and think that others should follow in your footsteps?  Leave us a comment and let us know what you think…

Yesterday we sparked the debate that is raging on through the streets of all the major cities around the world – paper books vs Ebooks!  We looked at the paper book’s argument and although it had some good points it’s time to give Ebooks a chance to speak out…

Ebook argument;

Pros

•    Easy to read – you can zoom about, move the page about and do a lot of funky stuff with the electronic page.  It’s basically a tool to help you to read so you can imagine that you can do pretty much anything with it to do with reading…they do say that technology is supposed to make our lives easier.

•    Even more portable than a book – if you thought a book was portable then you really have no idea how much you will love carrying an Ebook around.  An Ebook is made up of 1s and 0s and you can fit hundreds in your pocket – obviously there’s no way to know what size reader you have but if you have a relatively small one then you could be carrying all the books you could want in your pocket!

•    Think about the trees! – there are no poor trees being knocked down to provide the paper for you to read off…by backing Ebooks you will be doing something great for the environment which could save you getting a cup of green “custard” thrown in your face…

•    Make note – unlike paper books you can make notes on Ebooks and you don’t have to worry about ruining the book for the rest of time.

Cons

•    My eyes… - Did your mum ever tell you that watching television for too long will make your eyes go square?  Reading an Ebook can be quite difficult on the eyes – you may find you will  need to take breaks to rest your eyes and that isn’t something that you want to factor into your reading time.

•    Where’s the power? – with a paper book there isn’t that nagging issue of battery usage.  With an Ebook you will be constantly worried about how much longer your battery will last and if you will reach page 314 in time – STRESS!

•    Portability is an issue again – Some people read Ebooks on their laptops…would you rather carry around a paper book or a laptop?  Spilling coffee onto a book can be annoying…spilling coffee onto your laptop can ruin your week!

•    Where are they – There is always the issue that they aren’t readily available, unlike paper books.  Where are they being sold?  Ebooks aren’t exactly taking off like the mighty DVD so for the Ebook to be successful they need to start appearing in more places otherwise just forget it!

So what shall we do? I vote that we should stick with our traditional paper books and leave Ebooks to the bargain bin of the Internet – I don’t think anything can beat reading a book by an open fire with a cup of hot chocolate – technology can’t really make up for tradition in this case.

Maybe you don’t agree – I’m sure not everyone does!  Let us know what you think about the debate and which format you are backing…

There is a war raging on between books and Ebooks – who do you think is going to win?  Each format allows you to do pretty much the same thing – read.  However which one do you think will be the one that will be picked up by popular demand over the next few years: paper vs binary…

Paper argument;

Pros

•    They can be picked up anywhere, from Borders to WHSmiths – we know where to get books from.  How many places could you name that sell Ebooks?
•    Books aren’t exactly heavy – sure if you have about 10 huge library books that you need to cart across a 3 mile journey then maybe books aren’t your best friend.  But say you have one book that you want to read – slip it in your bag and you can forget about it until you arrive at Starbucks, then you can open it in seconds and be immersed in the story.
•    There’s no eye strain involved – when you spend all day in front of a computer screen do you really want to spend the night sat in front of another computer screen containing your book?  Don’t you think a nice paper book would be able to provide a bit of relief?
•    Check the battery – you won’t need to with a book.  You don’t have to plug it in, worry about updating the software or thinking that if might break if you drop it…it’s just a book, plain and simple!

Cons

•    Books can be heavy – As I say above books aren’t exactly heavy, but actually they are if you have more than 3.  We’re all used to gigabytes now and we all know that we’d rather carry a USB pen compared to 10 large books.
•    I can’t see – if you’re in a dark room then forget trying to read your book.  You need a light to read a paper book and when there isn’t one there isn’t much you can do – have you ever tried to read a book in a car at night and you’re constantly trying to catch the light from the lampposts but it’s whooshing past and you’re basically not reading anything?
•    Don’t bend that spine – if you want to write in your book, bend a page or crack the spine then you have made a decision that you won’t be able to go back and change.  You won’t be un-creasing that page or rubbing out that pen scribbling.  You’ll be stuck with it!

Paper books have provided their argument…but what do you think?  If you want to hear Ebook’s argument then stay tuned to the site because we’re going to deal with the other side of the battle tomorrow…

Are you pro-paper or do you think that you want to bring Ebooks to the masses?  Let us know…