Article written by Lesley-Ann Dupre.

"When I moved to Llanidloes in the early summer of 2005, I already had 15 years fair trade experience - so I was really pleased to discover just how much the ethos lives in Mid Wales.

Within a few weeks of arriving I had got myself invited to a fair trade town initiative committee meeting and found myself elected chairman.

We quickly got down to making the dream that Sheila Williams, Jenny Garard, Jeni Morrison, Andy Parnell and others had had a reality - and on the 4th of April this year, the Fairtrade Foundation awarded Llanidloes Fairtrade Town Status.

We celebrated in style, with music and celebrities and a feast of homemade cakes and cookies: all made using fair trade ingredients.

It was from this celebration that the idea of publishing a cookbook was born - and in September I started to drum up support for the idea, going first to Llani Ltd, where they thought that my idea stood a chance of being viable - so much so, that they were prepared to guarantee the production costs.

I set out to show that all our favourite recipes can be adapted for use with fair-trade products. Regular use of just one or two will make a difference, although whilst it is important to buy and use Fairtrade certified products wherever possible, it is also important to source locally and buy organic whenever you can.

Some products will also, inevitably, be fairly traded, as certification standards do not yet exist for all product groups.

Then to persuade Llani business people that they needed to support fair trade and the book too - a lot of shoe leather later and 46 companies had backed us by buying 1/3, ½ or a full page of advertising space.

Recipes were contributed by local people and by far flung friends - a gentleman in Kuala Lumpur and a relative in Alaska winning the long distance medals.

All the local papers were supportive and published appeals for recipes - I received so many that the second edition will be extended.

I contributed a number of my own tried and tested inventions too and, of course, local friends contributed many recipes - this is one of the reasons why the book is so vegetarian-friendly: for meat-eaters, it is easy to 'beef-up' a vegetarian savoury recipe: the other way round doesn't usually work at all.

Along the way, I picked up the assistance of Sue Reeves who drew the lovely illustrations used throughout the book and the expert aid and support of Martin Herbert - artist, photographer, layout and IT specialist, who shaped the whole - we spent many a late night and long day getting it just right. Montgomeryshire MP, Lembit Öpik, and AM, Mick Bates have been supportive throughout - with Lembit writing a very personal foreword to the book and Mick joining us for the launch during the Fair Trade Event held at St Idloes Church on the 25th of November."

Article written by Lesley-Ann Dupre.