In the last decade, things have changed dramatically in the writing and publishing business, and will never be the same again. Anybody, perhaps almost everybody nowadays with any kind of computer seems to be having a go at it! Nowadays then, to some agents and acquisition editors, it must seem that there are far more writers around today than there are readers. Why do they do it? The irresistible lure of possibly doing another Harry Potter?

Perhaps things have become an amateur's dream of a preferable alternative to a normal occupation? Maybe they’re making it an exercise in self-fulfilment too, a way to express and analyze their feelings about the world. Where they fear it's going, and the urge to communicate about it to anyone who’ll listen.

Well, there are easier ways to relieve one's feelings of frustration when it comes to requiring therapy. You could try beating up your partner… but that can be very expensive, especially in America. In some countries I believe you can buy little clay idols, horribly hideous to behold. With just a little imagination a suitable one of them can be identified with the galling irritation of the moment. Rage and indignation does the rest. Trials and tribulations presumably scatter in the breeze with the dust of the thing as it crumbles in your fist, or shatters under your heel.

I've no doubt it works for some people, but if you lead a very frustrating life, it might soon get to be expensive. However, there are more economic ways to relieve one's feelings when the need for therapy arises. Years ago, to become your own psychiatrist, the minimum you needed was pencil and paper.

Nowadays, a personal laptop, or tablet... or even a smart phone is more convenient, and most of us have one nowadays…or something similar. Everywhere can become a couch and it's more socially acceptable than talking to yourself… or taking it out on your partner, which, as I already mentioned, can be very expensive.

So, put it all down then...scribble or tap away, unbutton your creative belt and let everything hang out. Develop your expressive urges and have your characters tell your conscience how you feel. Above all be honest with yourself, even if it hurts. It often does, and I should know…this is the voice of experience.

The nearer I got to the top of the heap, in my business profession the more I longed to release my over-pressurized feelings, throw away my collection of emotion-screening masks, insult all the customers, turn my order book in for an axe and hack away at the plastic feet of all the false idols I seemed to be worshiping. I felt disillusion and contempt for the commercial rat-race, and the way it submerged my appreciation of the simpler things in life. I resented the never-ending battle, that constantly seemed necessary, to just stay level, let alone to expand further, and I was filled with remorse at the neglect of my home-life and family. All the time you see my conscience was wearing me down. It refused to believe my contrived excuses and justification for what I was doing. I eventually knew I needed some kind of therapy, so I started writing again.

I should mention that back in the fifties I wrote and sold a few SciFi tales, as an avid Science Fiction fan and participated in several conventions. My rapidly expanding business life however, soon put a stop to those fascinating activities. Eventually in the late seventies I decided it was time to retire from my professional executive life, and went to work for myself as a software consultant. The problem with that was the way it soon took up all of my time again, so in my early eighties I gave it all up and finally retired.

Since then I have only indulged in writing, editing and promoting my speculative fiction output. Now of course, I am ruefully finding the latter, the essential marketing requirement, seems to take up more and more of my time than the writing does. But to continue…

The smaller magazines and genre websites began to take my work, and still do, and I've also won a few competitions, and received a couple of awards. Altogether I’ve published over ten collections of speculative stories from macabre tales to science fiction and even some humor. I've also had stories published in about nine anthologies in America. My first novel, Points of View, was published in 2012 by Eternal Press in California. In 2015 they were taken over by Caliburn Press in Madison. Wisconsin. The first sequel was planned to be published by them around December 2016. Unfortunately, things went wrong with them as described later.

In 2014, with my own self-publishing imprint, Etcetera Press, I self-published my largest book, 358 pages of THE BEST OF THE TENERIFE TALL TALES, selected from my earlier award winning trilogy, which has that most generous introduction by the late legendary, American SciFi author Harry Harrison. We met up in 2007 at a convention in Copenhagen, and he later visited me for a most illuminating week in Tenerife, Spain where my wife and I were on vacation. He liked my stories, and gave me a glowing introduction to use with one collection, but said I really had to write a novel if I seriously wanted to get anywhere.

So that I did, as described earlier, and now things are progressing well. My very latest effort has been to self-publish an analysis of the coming Artificial Intelligence revolution, in a book entitled, THE SINGULARITY IS COMING. It has become my best selling title. Most people I talk to have never heard of the phenomenon, and yet many scientists and other experts believe it will arrive in less than a decade and change all out lives completely. If you don't yet know about it you should... and you know how to find out about it, don't you? i.e. See my website: www.tonythornembe.com.

Last October it was acquired by the IT Books Division of the Chinese Information Ministry Publisher, PTPress in Bejing. for publication in simplified Chinese eBook, hardback, and paperback versions, scheduled for release in June 2016... and it was! So how did that wonderful breakthrough come about? Their Publishing Manager simply found me while searching through the Internet and took it from there. In his own words, “I wanted a follow up to Ray Kurzweil’s book on the subject and your book is concise and easy to understand.”
Now for the Eternal Press sad story..

Cotinued in my eBook BEST SELLER PLAN see https://www.amazon.com/Best-Selling-Author-Plan-Tony-Thorne-ebook/dp/B00E255YT6/

Since starting Thayer Literary Services, a book editing business, in 1997 and after reading what seems like a gazillion first novels, I have seen the same mistakes over and over again. After a while I started calling them “the usual suspects.” I have considered collecting them into a book, but I thought that seeing so many of them all in one place would drive me to drink.

So I decided to create this blog as a way to discuss grammar and punctuation problems one at a time, along with many other writing issues, all of which I think will be helpful to budding writers. Follow this blog, and I’m sure you will find some information that will help you become a better writer.

Welcome aboard!

Paul Thayer
Thayer Literary Services
paulthayerbookeditor.com

____________________________________________________________________

Paul Thayer is a full-time professional book editor with more than 35 years of experience. During that time he worked in the trenches of the real world of writers, editors, and publishers. He uses his extensive knowledge to help writers who still have a lot to learn, offering them critiques and line editing of their work.

SD (Secure Digital) memory cards have changed the way it is stored and shared. These are small memory

storage devices that are used with a range of host devices such as PDAs, game consoles, digital

cameras, camcorders, etc.. A user can save pictures, audio and video in various formats. An SD card

compatible device plays music, video clips and movies without a drive mechanism. Other forms of SD

cards are known as SDHC, Mini SD Card, Micro SD. Like other flash memory devices, these cards are

also vulnerable to problems. A corrupt SD card does not allow a user to access any stored in the same

file. Therefore, to make the card reusable, you have to format and retrieve the data using an memory card recovery utility from.
As a practical case, the SD card connects to your computer via a card reader. After copying the files

to your computer, you take the discount card while its contents are still open on the computer. Now

when the new card is inserted into the host device, the following message catches your eye:
"A memory card has been inserted that contains errors. To correct the errors please use a disk

utility error checking on a computer."
The above message indicates that the card is damaged. Since the card is damaged, you can not reuse it

unless you fix it.
Cause:
The SD card is damaged due to the interruption (in read / write process) caused by removing the card

while its contents were open on the computer.
Solution:
The problem with the memory card can be resolved by running 'chkdsk' on your machine by following

some simple steps below:
1.Plug your card to your machine
2.Open "My Computer" and click the removable disk icon
'3 Properties. Click 'then click on' Tools'
click 4.Under 'Error Checking', 'Search Now'
5.A dialog box appears, select the "Automatically fix file system errors' and click 'Start'
If the above steps the problem is not solved with the SD card, so the only option left is to format

the SD card. If a backup is available, no need to worry about data loss. However, the use of an SD

card recovery free software is highly recommended to retrieve the contents before using the card again to

store content.
Photo Recovery is a best recovery of SD card trusted application that recover lost photos,
deleted photos, audio and video formats from most memory cards available on the market, including

MMC, CF, XD, SDHC , SD, MMC plus, etc. Picture Recovery software SD card has two different versions for

Windows and Mac.
Free sd card recovery software is also the best reliable and powerful photo recovery, it able to restore photos easily.

Facebook as we all know it is a massive trafficking tool for internet users. In today's lesson, I will show you all the tricks that Facebook has to offer to published writers.

I will show you the six most important procedures of setting up your facebook's marketing platform, and the first step is 'Setting up your Fan-Page.' If you already have a Fan Page, skip to step 11 below to learn how to optimize the Fan page for better results.

"Setting up your Fan Page"

1. Log-in to Facebook.com

2. Visit this link to set-up a page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php?campaign_id=372931622610&a...

3. Choose the “Artist, Band, or Public Figure” tile—it’s in the lower-left corner

4. Select either “author” or “writer” from the drop-down menu and enter your name (see note below)

NOTE:  Other Facebook Pages that may appeal to writers include:  “book,” “book store,” “fictional character,” “library,” or “magazine” under the “Entertainment” category (the lower middle tile), and “media, news, and publishing” under the “Company, Organization, or Institution” category (upper middle tile)

5. Check the box to agree to Facebook’s Pages Terms

6. You will be greeted by the “Get Started” page, just to the right of this text, there will be a like button, click it.

7. You’ll see a numbered list of steps. Step 1: Upload a picture. People are more likely to trust a page with a picture, I think (even if it’s merely a book cover or an avatar)

8. Steps 2 and 3—invite your friends and import your contacts. When you click to invite your friends a screen will pop up with all of your existing Facebook contacts, you can search for particular friends that you think may be interested, filter your friends by the lists you’ve set up, or just go through everybody and click who you want to invite. To import your contacts, you’ll have to upload a contact list or enter your email account ID and password.

9. An alternative/supplemental approach to tap your existing fan base:  Scroll to the bottom of the left-hand column and click “share.” This will post a promo of your new site to your Facebook feed. Write a comment asking your friends to like your new page.

10. Fill in the info for your page. You’ll need to provide as much information as you can (concisely written so as not to overwhelm the page-viewer). For an author page, this will include:  name, address, affiliation, birthday, about, description, biography, awards, favorite books, gender, personal information, personal interests, email, phone, and website—obviously some of this information may be too personal to share and other categories are a bit redundant. Only fill in what you want to fill in.

"Optimizing your Fan Page"

11. Click on the “Edit Page” button located in the top right corner.

12. Go to “Apps,” it’s located on the left side-bar

13. The first app listed is “Events.” Set up an event called “Please like my author page.” Specify a longer time period like one week or one month for where list the link to your new fan page. Under the description, write something like “Won’t you please like my new author page? It will only take you a second, but it would mean the world to me. Thank you J” You may also want to write in a bit about how to like your page, step-by-step instructions—this may be required if you want your less tech-savvy friends (like your Grandma or Great Uncle Herman) to like you. Invite all of your friends to this event. This is the number one best way to get followers.

14. If you want to include discussion boards on your site, which I highly recommend for an author’s page. Go back to the “Edit Page” screen and return to the “Apps” page. Scroll down to the discussion boards and click “edit settings,” then click “add.” You can also do this to add in other standard apps like notes, videos, events, photos, and links—yes, you have to add all of that manually now, thanks to the new layout.

15. I also highly (HIGHLY) recommend adding “RSS Graffiti” to your Facebook page. I prefer this to the other, more popular “Social RSS,” because it is far more reliable. It will run your RSS feed directly to your Facebook wall. As I’ve said before, Twitter is the best way to find new followers for your blog or website; Facebook is how you’re going to keep them coming back. https://www.facebook.com/RSS.Graffiti

16. Another app for your Fan Page that gets my shining endorsement is the aptly named “Fan Appz.” You can use it to set up quizzes, polls, give-aways and much more.  https://apps.facebook.com/fanappz/

17. Link your Facebook page to your other social networks.  Add a “like me” button to the sidebar of your blog or website. Ask your Twitter family to like your page (bonus tip: if you say something like “I only need X more fans to customize my Facebook author page URL. Please “like” me. I follow back!” you are much more likely to get people to head on over to your page—don’t forget to add a link to your tweet).

18. Once you’ve secured your first 25 fans, you’ll be able to customize your page URL. To do this you need to go to https://www.facebook.com/username/Enter your desired page name, and if it’s available it’ll become yours! Make sure you choose a good name, because you won’t be able to change it once it’s set. Customizing your URL means that your link will look something like this: www.facebook.com/emlynchand

19. Add favorite pages. Go to any page you want to add as a favorite to your page. In the left column, you’ll find “add this to my page’s favorites” listed directly after the number of users who like that page. Add the page, and if you’re smart, you’ll post on its wall, saying “hey, I added your page to my page’s favorites. Any chance you’d be willing to return the favor?” Make sure to include your link with your request.

"Create Your Author-App with your Fan Page"

Perhaps one of the most crucial of all facebook apps for writers, this application will build an Amazon Buy Link for your published books with options for readers to join your mailing list or sample the book, but only after they Liked it (pressing the like button). This app is so exciting. All you will have to do is enter your ISBN numbers and the facebook app will link with your published books on Amazon.com. The step on how to set up this AuthorApp is further explained below.

1. After creating your Fan Page, go to this facebook site; http://apps.facebook.com/authorapp/ and a page will show up that says 'The Author Marketing App.' Click on the 'Let's get started-" button and the page will direct you to your established Fan Page.

2. The application will ask you to use your fan Page, and after choosing so, you will see the Author-App as an app button. It is a big red button, titled “Read My Book”. When you click it, the app takes you to a separate tabbed page. Under the Author-App tab, you can create an author profile which includes a mailing list, and an option for you to put your books for sale.

3. You can provide each book you list with the buying link URL (to Amazon or similar), price, description, cover shot image, and two fields that allow you to input an URL or upload a PDF file of your book's excerpt.  This can be entered manually, or you can add a book simply using an ISBN number.  This feature also allows you to bring in details of other books not published by you. Yes, I know, it is exciting.

Here is a Author-App page created by one of our members here at Indie Writers Support. Check it out and see what your Author-App with facebook will look like after you're finished. View the sample here; https://www.facebook.com/AuthorApp/Author-Korede-Abayomi/

We hope that you enjoy this lecture, and look forward to reading more as we continue.

"How do I invite people to like my Page via email? "

If less than 5,000 people like your Page, you can invite your email contacts to like your Page. You can upload a file containing your email contacts and Facebook will securely import them. You can also import your contacts by providing your web email address and password. You can then suggest your Page to your contacts.

To invite your email contacts:

1. Click Build Audience at the top of your Page
2. Select Invite Email Contacts...
3. Upload a contact list file or choose your email service and follow the instructions

Facebook won't store your password after importing your contacts. They may use the email addresses you upload to help people connect on Facebook. If you don't want them to store this information, you can manage your imported contacts.

Note: You can import contacts up to five times for a maximum of 7,000 contacts per day per Page. Read more about this from the facebook help center; https://www.facebook.com/help/212291088790957.

Get a list of 900,000 Facebook members in the U.S.A with profile links and email addresses at http://bit.ly/2uf42bV.

Use this tool, http://www.onlineemailextractor.net, to extract the email addresses from the 900,000 list effortlessly. Extract up to 10,000 at a time.

"Run a Facebook Contest with Fan Page"

Creating a contest hosted on your business page is a great way to create buzz about your fan page. You can run a contest through a Facebook app such as rafflecopter. You can also now run a contest directly through your business page as long as the rules and restrictions are properly outlined and that the ways to win are made clear.

"Add a Fan Gate"

What is a Fan Gate? Fan gates (also referred to as like gates) have users “Like” a page before they can see the posts, contests, or products that are offered on an application inside of your fan page. You do this by adding an app to your page. If you want to display different information to fans you can use ShortStack; if you are looking to promote a Facebook store or a daily deal you should use an app specifically for that such as ShopTab for your Facebook store or SharedDeal for your daily deal. All these apps are equipped with optional fan gates that will prompt users to like your page before they can view your deals or products.

Get a list of 900,000 Facebook members in the U.S.A with profile links and email addresses at http://bit.ly/1mixFPP

Use this tool, http://www.onlineemailextractor.net, to extract the email addresses from the 900,000 list effortlessly. Extract up to 10,000 at a time.

Give Your Book the Notoriety it Deserves   (GET IT HERE)

My name is Judd Miller, and I am one the top networking Public Relation agents in the world. I have utilized my skills for PayPal, Amazon, Salesforce, St. Martin Press, Harlequin, Simon & Schuster, and many other small press publishers by advertising their books / eBooks to the masses.

I am also one of the developers of over 520 different websites through my marketing website WebDvloper.com, including my latest here, Indie Writers Support, a writer's website. I specialize in website developments and promotions, and I would love to be the promoter of your book(s) / publishing press.
Give your book the notoriety that it deserves.

If you choose to order our book promotional service at Indie Writers Support I will be in charge of putting your books through our seven-days automated systems at webdvloper.com; which includes designing a permanent one-page author's page (sample http://bit.ly/197muE7) and then getting it featured to 500,000+ readers via emails and social media postings. Your book title will be introduce as the 'Book-of-the-Day' via email newsletters to 30,000+ Kindle / Nook / iPad / iPhone and Android owners; 50,000+ Goodreads members; 180,000 facebook members to increase the likes; 100s of online book clubs; 100s of book bloggers and reviewers; and then book store owners. You will be repeatedly advertised through facebook, twitter, linkedin, google+ and yahoo for a whole complete day.

More...

We will promote your published book or eBook to 100 verified amazon reviewers. That's 100 reviewers who buy and download stories on the regular and leaves good or average reviews on amazon.

Even better, we will promote your published titles to the reviewers who will most likely take interest in your subject. Example, if your book is an horror story, then the title will be advertised to 100 reviewers who had left published reviews on the genre's category (horror stories).  Mystery fictions will get mystery reviewers. Simple and plain. You published title is guarantee to sell and possibly get reviewed.

We have a software that collect emails of every reviewers directly from amazon, and another mass emailing software that quickly send emails to unlimited amount of recipients daily.

I'll do even more, and by the end of the seventh day your name and the book title you submitted to us at Indie Writers Support will be ubiquitous on the internet.
Online articles pertaining to you and your books written by our staff members will start appearing on the search engines (google, bing, yahoo etc) approximately two to three months after your initial promotion.

Some of our past promoted authors got as much as six or seven published reviews a day on amazon.com if the story-line is very interesting.

Hire us, and we will guarantee that your published work is viewed by at least 500,000 views within a year! 

This is the best book promotional service in the world compare to these other publicity firms:

BookWhirl

http://www.bookwhirl.com/Services/Book-Marketing/Email-Advertisement-Campaign-Service.php

Novel Publicity & Co.

http://www.novelpublicity.com/whirlwind-tour/

Hasmark Services.

http://hasmarkservices.com/services.htm

PRWeb

http://service.prweb.com/pricing/package/premium

Constant Contact

http://www.constantcontact.com/main?s_tnt=47758:11:0

SendGrid

http://sendgrid.com/pricing.html

TargetHero

https://app.targethero.com/Pages/UpgradePlanInfo

Fiverr

http://fiverr.com/paradon/create-an-author-page-and-post-the-page-to-my-social-medias-of-100000-readers

A staff member from IndieWriterSupport.com will contact you for whatever is needed after receiving your order, and a work-report will be submitted to you when I am done with your order(s). Money cannot be refunded after the first day of order because I'll schedule you immediately, and may began working on your project on the second day.

I work on a first come first serve only.

Get the book promotional service; http://bit.ly/18y9vtP

(GET THE SERVICE HERE); http://bit.ly/18y9vtP

For all claims and questions I can be reach at JuddMiller@Rocketmail.com

We want to inform you that we are now giving per day free re-tweet for indie authors. If you are promoting your book via twitter and want us to re-tweet it then please mention @IndieWriterSupp with your promotional tweet and we will re-tweet it for free once a day.

All of our re-tweets will also stream on our homepage!!!

CrossLink just published my newest book called A to Z Devotions for Writers. It's now available on Amazon

AtoZDevotionsLargeCover.jpg!

From my WordPress blog https://michellespaul.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/fair-trade-kenyan-green-beans-net-good-thing/

Mavis the Fat Fairy asked:

“Always intrigued about fair trade green beans from Kenya. The fact that they are flown in from Kenya scores negative points for environmental impact. But they are fair trade, so doesn’t that mean I should support them, and encourage more fair trade in supermarkets, but what if land is given over for fair trade cash crops that should be used for more sustainable farming….So fair trade Kenyan green beans, are they a net good thing or not?”

Not just yummy, Green Beans are one of your five a day
Photo used with permission by Samuel Cheney (Via morgueFile)

The straight forward answer is – it is a personal choice, depending on what is important to you; so consider these four factors and work out the net ‘goodness’ from your own perspective.

• Carbon aka climate change
• Development
• Water
• Fair Trade

Go straight to the summary

Or to have your question answered go to ‘What should I write about‘.

Carbon aka climate change

(Note I will use Carbon to mean Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Dioxide Equivalents, as it is easier on the eyes)

Yes, flying beans from Kenya creates a lot of Carbon and if carbon impact was as simple as food miles then Carbon would be a clear negative for imported green beans.  But, the food miles debate is one-sided and distorts our understanding of Carbon impact, it is now largely discounted (did you know it was initially promoted in the UK through a campaign by the Farmer’s Weekly magazine?).  It is not enough to consider how far food has travelled because food production in the UK, indeed all Western nations, is Carbon intensive.

The Kenyan flag
Via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

The Carbon arguments for food imports from developing nations

In the West we use oil powered equipment vs In Africa most farms depend on manual labour

In the West we use hydrocarbon based fertilisers vs In Africa most farmers use the free fertiliser produced by cows (both produce Nitrous Oxide which is about 300 more powerful than CO₂ as a greenhouse gas, but the cows were doing that anyway)

In the West ‘out of season’ foods are grown in heated greenhouses vs In Africa the sun is enough

In the West growing seasons are prolonged with the use of polytunnels vs In Africa the sun is enough

The Carbon arguments against food imports from developing nations

In the West crop yields are three to four times greater than in Africa

Airfreight is sometimes in the ‘belly’ of passenger planes, thus reducing the cost of, and encouraging more, flights

Can we be more scientific about this?

To be scientific we need to compare the Carbon produced by both the UK and Kenyan supply chains, but this is difficult for two reasons, so even though I provide a number here, you might choose to take it with a pinch of salt.

• When calculating Carbon we have to decide how to manage the data.  In the Netherlands two studies using the same data about importing flowers from Africa drew opposing conclusions because they used the data differently.
• In his book ‘How Bad are Bananas’ Mike Berners-Lee discusses when to stop attributing Carbon to individual items, in his example he asks whether to add the Carbon produced in the manufacture of the paper clips used in an office, to the Carbon calculation for the output of a factory.  In the case of Green Beans we could debate endlessly whether to include the personal carbon footprint of the farmer.

The energy required to grow, package and transport Green Beans – UK vs Kenya

In 2011 PIP, a European forum, issued a report about Food Miles, Carbon and African Horticulture, this report shows that 59 MJ more energy is used to produce Kenyan Green Beans than UK Green Beans.  This is equal to 12 Kg of Carbon per Kg of Kenyan Green Beans.  As mentioned earlier, you might disagree with some of the assumptions made and want to take other factors into consideration.

It is worth noting that for other food stuffs the Carbon arguments are different, for example apples in cold storage in the UK create more Carbon emissions than apples flown from New Zealand.

Air Freighter
Via Wikimedia Commons, used under Creative Commons

Other Carbon thoughts

Carbon trading; in Africa the average Carbon emission per person is 1/30 of that in the UK.  In a Carbon trading scheme – if all else remains equal – Africa could trade the Carbon emissions of flying food to Europe and still produce less Carbon per person than the amount that damages the environment.

There are many other ways of reducing your Carbon foot print which are much more effective than avoiding Kenyan Green Beans, here are a few examples*:

• In 1996 agriculture bought 0.1% of airfreight capacity – banking and finance bought 157 times as much – ask your bank what they are doing about airfreight
• A kilogram of beef releases 36.4Kg  of carbon - eat less meat
• Flying to Barcelona from London releases the same Carbon as 420 packets of Green Beans (250g), flying to New York from Liverpool uses the energy that could fly 1,200 packets of Green Beans – fly less
• The Carbon released by one packet of Beans will fuel 12 school runs – pool with other parents or educate your children nearer to home
• Driving 6.5 miles to the supermarket emits more CO₂ than airfreighting one bag of beans from Kenya – car share or buy on-line
• According to the World Bank flying in 1^st class has three times the Carbon emissions of Business, which in turn has three times the emissions of economy – if you have to fly, fly in economy
• Sea freight uses much less energy than air freight, but vegetables are refrigerated and will still not be as ‘fresh’ when they arrive (it was never going to be an easy choice)

*All these numbers and their sources can be found in the links throughout this article or in the additional reading below

Structural diagram of Carbon Dioxide
Via Wikimedia Commons, used under Creative Commons

Development

The UK has a policy of trade not aid, when you read stories about the way that aid is sometimes spent irresponsibly or stolen this seems like a logical approach.  Countries like Kenya welcome trade and, unlike aid, the money paid for Green Beans goes directly to the farmer.  Once farmers take on an export licence they start to buy their own food from other farmers.  Taken positively this ensures that money trickles down the community; from a negative perspective farmers are forced to displace subsistence crops for cash crops.  Both arguments are valid, though the latter is mitigated by Fair Trade.

Another positive for development is that farmers are encouraged to find better ways of producing food from their land.  The exporting farmers share the techniques and skills developed to grow Green Beans with other farmers and use the same skills to improve farming for other crops.  Our demands for static, if not reducing, food prices produce the downside of development.  To reduce transaction costs some Western buyers of food promote the development of ‘Industrial Estate’ farming, this disengages small farmers from the market (and increases Carbon).

Water

The UK uses 189 million litres of African Water to get its out of season vegetables.  Given the impact of lack of water and poor sanitation has on people in all developing nations, it would seem that a good way to balance our use of their water would be to support one of the many charities that are seeking to make sure that everyone in the world has access to clean water – for example WaterAid or Toilet Twinning

Irrigation – the primary use of water in agriculture
Via WikiMedia Commons, public domain

Fair Trade

The Swedish Fair Trade logo
Via WikiMedia Commons, Public Domain

In Mavis’ question she asked if land was being given over to cash crops that should be used for sustainable farming.  Cash crops are those grown only for sale and in many developing countries the allure of cash crops has resulted in subsistence farmers relying on the income.  When the income fails people can lose their land and could starve.  At the same time cash crops are necessary to buy goods, services (eg health care) and education.  Fair Trade was founded to counter balance the potential for harm that comes from cash crops – in the words of the Fair Trade Foundation (UK).

“Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price), Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives.”

Malawian farmers can be seen here talking about the impact of Fair Trade on their lives and communities.

While Fair Trade doesn’t impact the carbon effects of flying food from Africa, it does make sure that the positive benefits of trade are genuinely delivered, including environmental benefits.  It is worth noting that many farmers involved in Fair Trade comment on the improved availability of water and sanitation.

In summary

Carbon aka climate change impact

• Negative, seek to reduce your footprint elsewhere to balance this factor

Development

• Positive, will definitely remain so for Fair Trade farmers

Water

• Negative, offset by supporting a water charity

Fair Trade

• Positive, if the Green Beans are Fair Trade you are genuinely supporting development for small farmers and their communities, if not you are dependent on supermarkets to trade ethically.
  • Which is the most ethical supermarket
  • The role of supermarkets in Ethical food production

If you have a burning question and not enough time to find the answer, post your question here ‘What should I write about‘.

Additional reading

The Independent newspaper reports Kenyan Green Beans arriving in UK supermarkets for the first time

Waitrose and PIP show the source of the food on Waitrose shelves

A handy Carbon equivalents calculator – limited input units

Convert energy units into kilowatt hours so that you can use the calculator above

Pictures from WikiMedia Commons and morgueFile

By the way, this is what the Fair Trade foundation says about local vs Fair Trade

“Some people say ‘buy local’ rather than ‘buy Fairtrade’. What is the Fairtrade Foundation’s response?

The Fairtrade Foundation recognises that many farmers in the UK face similar issues to farmers elsewhere, not least ensuring that they get a decent return for upholding decent social and environmental standards in their production. We therefore support the promotion of sustainable production for UK farmers but our specific role will continue to be supporting farmers from the developing world.

Fairtrade isn’t in competition with UK farmers and the purchase of locally produced and Fairtrade products are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Fairtrade focuses by and large on tropical agricultural products such as coffee and bananas that can’t be grown in temperate climates or products that can’t be grown in sufficient quantities in the EU e.g. grapes and oranges. For some items such as honey and flowers, local supply is not able to meet the total demand – it has been estimated that both UK flowers and honey account for less than one-third of the UK market – and so imports are necessary to keep up with consumers’ shopping preferences. Other products, such as apples, are seasonal in both the UK and places like South Africa, and for as long as shoppers want to buy apples out of season, there is a demand for fruit from other countries. Often the choice facing shoppers is not necessarily between local honey and Fairtrade certified honey but between Fairtrade honey and conventional honey imported from, say, the US or China. It is up to each person to weigh up these choices and shop accordingly.

Ultimately, it is up to each person to do what they see as being in the interests of people and the planet. What is important is that we all try to make informed choices wherever possible. The Fairtrade Foundation is committed to raising awareness of ways in which buying products carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark is empowering and strengthening the future for disadvantaged producers in developing countries.”

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