Lad pledges to only eat Fairtrade food for Fairtrade Fortnight

A charity worker dubbing himself Fairtrade Man says he'll only eat Fairtrade-marked food and drink to celebrate this year's Fairtrade Fortnight.

The fortnight, which kicks off on February 26th at a party graced by Gail Porter and George Alagiah, is encouraging the nation to switch to Fairtrade products, which ensure a guaranteed price for growers. Fairtrade Man - real name Ben - has setup a Myspace page with a video where he says he's distraught about giving up Weetabix and can't use his non-Fairtrade veg box; he ends it with a call for fellow Myspacers to send him recipe ideas that only use Fairtrade products. You can find a full list of what he's got to choose from here.

Last year's Fairtrade Fortnight saw roughly 10,000 events take place in the UK, including fashion shows, footie matches, concerts and exhibitions. A quick look at the Fairtrade Foundation's calendar of upcoming events shows this year's fortnight features Worthing running a Fairtrade hamper competition and Chichester showing a Fairtrade-related movie medley including Newconsumer.com favourites, Black Gold and Blood Diamond.

Fairtrade's clearly on the up, judging by 2006. In 2004, for example, Fairtrade bananas accounted for 4.2 per cent of the total market by value - that's now risen to 7.9 per cent, a growth no doubt helped by Sainsburys' decision to only stock Fairtrade bananas. 

Drop your plans for Fairtrade Fortnight in the comments. Anyone else fancy trying Ben's plan to eat only Fairtrade food and drink for a fortnight?