Monday, May 19, 2003

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT (AND WEAR)

The Saturday Magazine in the Guardian included a fine article about Fair Trade. In case you missed it, Saturday was Fair Trade Day.

"Fair Trade is an alternative approach to conventional international trade. It is a trading partnership which aims at sustainable development for excluded and disadvantaged producers. It seeks to do this by providing better trading conditions, by awareness raising and by campaigning." Read more

The article was about the clothing industry and how difficult it is to find clothes that might meet some of the principles of fair trade. You can now buy fair trade coffee, tea, bananas and other food. But: try buying clothes with a conscience. You can't. I did notice yesterday as my wife was shopping in Monsoon, that they have a range of clothes where the profits go to a trust to teach kids in India. All very well, but the clothes are probably still made of cotton produced in the Third World using harmful pesticides banned in the EU sewn together in a sweat shop in Thailand. Katherine Hamnet tried the fair trade route a couple of years ago, but found it very hard to source organically produced material or manufacturers using workers getting decent pay and conditions.

"If you want to try to dress ethically today, have a look at the People Tree website and trawl the internet for other such companies. Otherwise, your only safe option is to buy second-hand (or, as we say these days, "vintage") from charity shops."

The Guardian article railed against the fashion industry which flaunts its cruelty (Givenchy, Missoni and Yves ST Laurent getting back into the fur trade). But, turn the page and the paper swoons over designer name leather luggage and worships clothes Dolce and Gabbana. C'mon Guardian. If you are going to campaign, show a bit of consistency.

I shall be blogging a bit more a bout ethical shopping and eating soon.

The Guardian did include a couple of useful fair trade links: p-tree the pesticide action group - uk the ethical consumer

:: Posted by pete @ 12:57