But that is exactly why I’m afraid I cannot. Consumer society is everywhere: from the gold ring on your finger to the shirt on your back to the cup of coffee you sip innocently as you peruse this paper. Everything has its price and everything is produced.

That coffee is part of a long production line of which you are the final and most important link. You demanded its production. At the other end of the line is a lady who breaks her back working stupidly long hours for a return that won’t even fund the cost of producing the coffee beans in the first place. Seems ridiculous, doesn’t it? So ridiculous in fact, that we can’t actually get to grips with the idea. Sadly, this makes it all the more easy to push it to the back of your mind or dismiss it under the pretence that there is nothing you can do about the fact the world is so unfair.

But imagine that this production line takes place under the one roof, in the same factory perhaps. You probably know the lady at the start of it. You might even be friends. Her tired face however, becomes blurred by those of the middlemen in between. The line of millers, baggers, traders and transporters quite nicely cushions the blow to the conscience.

You can try and justify it. Fairtrade products simply don’t taste as good or have the same quality that you’re accustomed to. Actually, the opposite is true because when you think about it, it makes sense. Short cuts get taken. Lower prices mean lower quality.

You can’t afford it. Now let’s be honest here. You probably wouldn’t even notice the extra penny. Yet switching to Fairtrade won’t even cost you that. The price is less than a penny a cup. Not even a copper that would probably only end up in the charity tin anyway. The irony is that you would be much better off (and you aren’t the only one) spending it on the product in the first place.

Fairtrade is not charity; quite the opposite. You are asking for the charity of the lady at the other end of the line to subsidize the price of your cup of coffee. She is one of the poorest people on the planet. You can more than afford it.

Now this might not be particularly nice to read. I’m sure there are plenty more articles in the paper that will make a much more comforting read. I leave the choice to you. I won’t pester you on the street. I won’t ask you to stand with a placard outside Downing Street. I won’t even ask you for your coppers. Because I’m not asking you for charity. I’m asking you for justice. You probably won’t even notice the difference. But you can be damn sure that someone will.

Emma Howard