Fair trade is a growing global movement. A huge and widening range of fair trade goods are now available in the shops. Why is fair trade so important? This book provides 50 reasons why buying fair trade delivers a host of benefits to people and the planet. It's an inspiring account of how every consumer can play a part in improving and even saving lives and making global trade work better for poor people. Did you know that buying fair trade: -- Helps eradicate sweatshops -- Helps end child labour -- Reduces the debt burden on developing countries' farmers -- Ensures small-scale farmers can earn a living wage -- Supports and protects the environment? This book provides a critical guide to international trade and shows that fair trade presents a realistic and positive alternative for farmers and producers in developing countries. By improving schools, healthcare and working conditions, the fair trade movement has already saved lives and empowered whole communities. This book shows how every consumer can help make a difference in the fight to end poverty and inequality.

The new second edition updates this popular book, and provides new chapters on alternative trading systems, and international trading organizations such as GATT and the World Trade Organization. Trade and the Poor examines North-South trade in commodities, services and tourism; transnational corporations and free trade zones; and international financial systems. Also considers alternative South-North trade and looks at changes needed to improve terms of trade.

Transnational corporations are one of the most important actors in the global economy, occupying a more powerful position than ever before. In their persistent battle to increase profits, they have increasingly turned to the developing world, a world that holds many attractions for them. But what is their impact on the poor? Now in its second edition, Big Business, Poor Peoples finds that these corporations are damaging the lives of millions of poor people in developing countries. Looking at every sector where transnational corporations are involved, this vital book is packed with detail on how the poor are affected. The book exposes how developing countries' natural resources are being ceded to TNCs and how governments are unwilling or unable to control them. The author argues that TNCs, answerable to no one but their shareholders, have used their money, size and power to influence international negotiations and taken full advantage of the move towards privatization to influence government policies; sovereignty is passing into corporate hands, and the poor are paying the price. But people are fighting back: citizens, workers, and communities are exposing the corporations and looking for alternatives. The first edition of this path-breaking book put the issue of transnational corporations and the poor firmly on the agenda. This second edition contains significant new and updated material and is an essential read for anyone who wants to know more about the effects of corporate power on the poor.

When farmers own their own land they are more likely to produce more food and to farm the land in a sustainable way. Dramatic increases in food output have occurred when farmers have been given land under agrarian reform programmes.;In the early 1990s the world is facing a desperate situation over food supplies for millions of people, many of whom are hungry to the point of starvation. And with little "new" land available to bring into production, world population is set to increase by 50% over the next 30 years. It is therefore vital that existing land is worked in the best possible way, to sustain both present and future generations.;Drawing on the experiences of farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America, "Land is Life" explores some of the issues involved. It includes papers that were presented to a conference in Berlin in November 1991, called "Soil for Life: Promoting Sustainable Land Use", which was organized by two non-governmental organizations, the German-based Stiftung Entwicklung und Frieden (Foundation Development and Peace) and the Swedist-based Right Livelihood Award. This was probably the first international conference to link up the issues of sustainable agriculture

Examines how aid from rich to poor countries often fails to reach those most in need, and how the global aid effort falls short in its most crucial task. It also discusses how changes may be made and offers twelve guidelines to assist aid policymakers. Much development assistance from rich to poor countries has failed to get through to the poorest peoples, the ones in need of assistance. Much official aid has not even tried, but what about the aid projects that have genuinely tried to reach the poorest? This book shows that despite such attempts, most of the poorest are still losing out - which means that the global aid effort is failing in perhaps its most crucial task: helping the neediest. The book looks closely at projects in Mali, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Nepal and India. It probes the reasons for the failure of well-intentioned projects to try to pinpoint the exact nature of the problem and the implications for policy. The author takes the view that if the lessons are learned from what is going wrong, then aid projects could benefit the poorest. The poorest often lose out in aid projects because they are not aware of their possibilities, and this is where non-governmental organizations can play a role. The official aid effort has the potential to help the poorest - but it needs to change and become more appropriate to their needs. The book suggests what changes are needed and ends with twelve guidelines for aid policymakers.

This book traces religion and secularity in eleven countries not shaped by Western Christianity (Japan, China, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Russia, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, and Morocco), and how they parallel or diverge from Charles Taylor's grand narrative of the North Atlantic world, A Secular Age (2007). In all eleven cases, the state - enhanced by post-colonial and post-imperial legacies - highly determines religious experience, by variably regulating religious belief, practice, property, education and/or law. Taylor's core condition of secularity - namely, legal permissibility and social acceptance of open religious unbelief (Secularity III) - is largely absent in these societies. The areas affected by state regulation, however, differ greatly. In India, Israel and most Muslim countries, questions of religious law are central to state regulation. But it is religious education and organization in China, and church property and public practice in Russia that bear the brunt. This book explains these differences using the concept of 'differential burdening'.

This book traces religion and secularity in eleven countries not shaped by Western Christianity (Japan, China, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Russia, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, and Morocco), and how they parallel or diverge from Charles Taylor's grand narrative of the North Atlantic world, A Secular Age (2007). In all eleven cases, the state - enhanced by post-colonial and post-imperial legacies - highly determines religious experience, by variably regulating religious belief, practice, property, education and/or law. Taylor's core condition of secularity - namely, legal permissibility and social acceptance of open religious unbelief (Secularity III) - is largely absent in these societies. The areas affected by state regulation, however, differ greatly. In India, Israel and most Muslim countries, questions of religious law are central to state regulation. But it is religious education and organization in China, and church property and public practice in Russia that bear the brunt. This book explains these differences using the concept of 'differential burdening'.

What kind of agriculture do we need to feed the world? World leaders have come up with yet another target: halving (not ending) hunger by the year 2015, but is this more likely to be achieved than previous targets? What ab out: animal diseases like BSE, foot and mouth disease and salmonella; declining food variety and quality; and disappearing topsoil, hedgerows and biodiversity in the rural areas? Better access to land and a more equitable income distribution are part of the solution. The other is to move away from a monoculture production system monopolized by a handful of giant corporations. John Madeley argues for the spread of a low-external input approach, a reintegration of traditional farming techniques, new farming practices like organic agriculture and permaculture and a range of "green" technologies to offer a viable livelihood to farmers, food for the hungery and safe and good tasting food for the rest of us.

As the fallout from the Seattle meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) continues, John Madeley explores some key questions about the free trade that it advocates: will free trade in food help or hinder the abolition of world hunger?; who benefits first? the poor? or the transnational corporations?; will free trade help Third World farmers find new international markets?; or will the flood of cheap, subsidized food from the North eliminate them?; how can countries - North and South, rich and poor - protect their farmers?; and how can self-sufficiency in food production be achieved?;John Madeley shows that the food imports of many developing countries are rising sharply while their food exports to the industrial countries are not. He exposes the contradictions between Western governments' rhetoric about reducing world poverty and the drive to yet more trade liberalization John Madely is a writer and broadcaster specialising in Third World devlopment and environmental issues.

The terrorist attacks on 9/11 shifted public attention to terrorism. But John Madeley contends that the sources that nurture violence and extremism remain rooted in a global system that has rapidly become more and more economically unjust, corporate-driven, financially unstable, and socially illegitimate. Madeley strips bare the myth that there are no alternatives to it. He looks at what needs to happen to enable alternatives to be implemented, paying particular attention to: Tackling corporate power; The World Trade Organization--reform or replace?; Switching the economic emphasis from the global to the local; and Cancellation of foreign debt. Madeley interviewed Peggy Antrobus, Walden Bello, Barry Coates, Fiona Dove, Gustavo Esteva, Hazel Henderson, Francois Houtart, Martin Khor, David Korten, Caroline Lucas MEP, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Ann Pettifor, Devinder Sharma, Vandana Shiva, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz and many others for this book.