Liz Ewing, Rachel and Hannah Dare were delighted last night to be at the official launch of Fair Trade Bantry where Mayor Letty Baker was handed Bantry's Certificate by Melanie Dray from the Fair Trade office in Dublin.

The guest of honour was Darina Allen from Ballymaloe House, well known for her tireless support for Fair trade and for Artisan food producers all accross Ireland and beyond. Darina gave an interesting and thought-provoking account of her experience of banana farming in Mexico, where she saw first hand how horrific conditions are for farmers who are shamelessly exploited so that our supermarkets can make slightly bigger margins. Melanie Dray had introduced the topic of bananas, saying that they are the next product on the Fair Trade 'hit list' because of the sheer awfulness of the international banana trade, which uses what she described as the 'dirty dozen' chemicals on bananas which are being shown to cause, among other things, severe fertility problems for the growers and pickers. Fair Trade banana plantation owners, on the other hand, cannot use these chemicals, which in itself reduces the risks immensley.

Darina also brought up the very valid point that Fair Trade begins at home, where our food producers and farmers are generally struggling to make a living because of what she called our idea that we have a 'right' to cheap food. If we value our bodies, she said, we should be prepared to pay for the food we use to fuel them.

The Launch was also attended by Bantry Town Councillor Mary Heggarty (who had a huge role to play in Bantry achieving Fair Trade status), Councillor Aidan McCarthy, and former Mayor Donal Casey as well as Artisan cheese producer Giana Fergusson from Gubbeen Cheese in Schull. Representatives also came from Clonakilty and Kinsale, other Fair Trade Towns in West Cork. Overall - a very interesting evening!