I started this blog back in December by asking one simple question ‘how do my choices oppress others?’ or in other words ‘did someone suffer for me to live this way?’. These are questions I keep coming back to.
I think most of us would want to avoid wine that is created in exploitative labour conditions. It seems the only way to be certain is to buy Fairtrade wine when buying from countries which lack enforced employment law. South Africa seems to be one of the biggest offenders on this one. War on Want produced this excellent report* highlighting the struggles, particularly of women, who are only given seasonal work, entitling them to few rights. They highlight the huge demand from the UK, the incredible buying power we wield and the pitiful amount of Fairtrade wine that is produced.
I made it my mission this week to see how easy it is to buy Fairtrade wine at the supermarket since that’s where the vast majority of wine sales are made.
My shopping trip
Co-op seem to be way out in front when it comes to stocking Fairtrade wines with an impressive selection of Co-op own brand alongside other names. I was disappointed when I visited a huge Tesco Extra to only find one bottle of Fairtrade wine on it’s many packed shelves. Sainsbury’s and Asda do slightly better but I certainly wasn’t overwhelmed by choice.
There is plenty of criticism of the quality of Fairtrade wine from connoisseurs. This writer suggests you buy wine when it’s on offer from one of the Fairtrade wine-producing countries (South Africa, Chile and Argentina) and give the money you save to Oxfam which I suppose is one way to deal with it, though it doesn’t exactly challenge the status quo.
I want to put this quality problem to the test so a wine tasting seems like the only appropriate thing to do, come back next week to hear the results!
*the report’s from 2007 so a bit outdated I know 🙂