Harriet Lamb, Director, Fairtrade Foundation

Many believe that global trade causes nothing but environmental destruction and oppression in the developing world so the idea that fair trade can in fact empower the poor is an attractive one. I went to the top of the most influential fair trade organisation in the UK and met Harriet Lamb. She explained how trade can be poverty’s worst enemy by helping farmers to organise and get more stable incomes. Her childhood in India motivated her to help the world’s poor and later in life bananas led her to fair-trade as a way to achieve her aim.