#FairTradeFriday

A few years ago a garment factory in Bangladesh blew up. It was overcrowded, had almost no ventilation, and its *employees* were working with any breaks at all - meal, bathroom, etc - with only 2 days off (maybe) a month. They got paid pennies per hour, keeping them well below the minimum wage considered acceptable for Bangladesh and keeping them out of reach of the acceptable income a family needs to have shelter, food, and education.

I was already tuned in to the problem of these modern day sweatshops and the trafficking it encourages as well as the poverty level it keeps people at. But this garment factory tragedy really bothered me. That same week I was in Kohl's shopping and I walked out of there not buying anything because I had looked at every label to see where the clothing item was made - Bangladesh was the clear winner. I felt sick.

What a freaking conundrum.

But let's start at the beginning - at least for most clothing - cotton. Cotton is the world’s oldest commercial crop and one of the most important fibre crops in the global textile industry. The cotton industry faces a number of challenges to its long-term sustainability – from the intensive use of hazardous chemicals to climate change and low cotton prices. Many of these contribute to the fact that cotton is failing to provide a sustainable and profitable livelihood for the millions of small-scale farmers predominantly in Asia and Africa who are responsible for growing the seed cotton the global cotton textile industry depends on. (source)

So before we even look at the the garment factories we have to look at the cotton fields and the farms. Just like with coffee and cocoa beans - the working conditions, the wages earned, the chemicals used, etc. Fair trade principles apply to the cotton fields just the same as cocoa and coffee.

The true cost of your cheap clothes: slave wages for Bangladesh factory workers

With the textile industry, however, we aren't talking just clothes, towels/linens, and shoes. We are talking bags, accessories like belts, jewelry, home decor items, practical items such as baskets, and more. In fact, since 2006 Another Textile Company  has been focused on highlighting/providing fair trade textiles of all sorts.

So what to do?

“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” (unknown)

Here's a few ideas:

35 Fair Trade & Ethical Clothing Brands Betting Against Fast Fashion

Fair Trade Shoes - even running shoes!

Global Goods Partners

discovered. 

serrv:creating connections