Do your bit for cotton workers with fair trade clothing
Fair trade items have become incredibly well known thanks to a greater awareness and understanding of the plight of worker who produce our food, clothing and other items taken for granted. The introduction of fair trade goods in recent years was initially greeted with scepticism as these products were sold at a slightly higher price than regular versions such as coffee, bananas and chocolate.
The added cost despite being for an incredibly good cause was not enough to convince many shoppers to buy fair trade goods who were still buying the cheapest they could get. These days though many responsible companies have taken measures to reduce their costs and can now compete with the cheaper products to the point that they are no longer more expensive.
Food brands like Cadbury's and Starbucks now offer fair trade sourced ingredients as a part of their major produce. The clothing industry is also now moving to more fair trade sourced materials such as cotton, ensuring that the workers in far off countries like Africa and South America get not only a fair wage but also other enhancements to their lives.
These enhancements include safe drinking water, farming supplies and help building a strong community for the workers ensuring they get a better quality of life. The cotton workers have always been known for being the most disadvantaged and exploited part of the clothing industry as multi-million dollar companies have tried to pay as little as possible for the raw materials that go into making their clothes.
Fortunately as the western world becomes more aware of these workers' plight we are slowly starting to support these initiatives by buying fair trade goods both at the supermarket and the high street. More and more companies are turning to fair trade practices to ensure not only they serve their workers correctly but also avoid the PR nightmare that their poor practices and wages will no doubt warrant if the media get wind of it.
Fair trade cotton and other materials go into almost any item of clothing you care to mention and it's often the case that we may not even notice what items of clothing we have that are actually fair trade sourced.
It is important for companies to provide for their workers in this way and with consumer support firmly behind these schemes now this will mean workers get paid fairly for their work and build stronger communities with each other.
