No Sweat! Students Push for Fair-Trade T-Shirts in Campus Stores

摘要

As students hit campus stores, shopping malls, and big-box retail outlets, buying college apparel is no longer a matter of simply securing their alma maters colors or favorite brand name. Now it's subject to a mini-quiz first involving the products environmental and humanitarian pedigree: Were the two ounces of cotton in that shirt grown pesticide-free? Was the cropland in the United States? Did the worker who put that shirt together make more than 25 cents? Odds are, the answer is "no" to all threequestions. Critics note the contracts that colleges ink with apparel companies result in a market worth 3 billion dollar to 4 billion dollar per year, with many of the logo-emblazoned t-shirts, sweatshirts, and other garments worn so proudly by university citizens being made in subcontracted factories—mostly in Asia, and Central and South America—that pay employees virtually nothing for long hours of work.