BP Editors
Victoria’s Secret purchases fair trade cotton only, so what’s the problem? Unfortunately, “fair trade” has become just another imaginary phrase like “gourmet” or the vague and somewhat meaningless label of “organic.”
In Burkina Faso, Africa, many fair trade farms are claiming that they lack the resources to grow fair trade cotton without utilizing child labor.
Bloomberg.com reported on one 13-year-old girl, Clarisse, who sleeps on a piece of plastic and is woken up by shouting at early hours in the morning. She plants and picks cotton all day, straining and sweating in somewhat of a hurry. She isn’t going anywhere, but her ‘boss’ will beat her with a tree branch if she doesn’t move quickly enough.
Victoria’s Secret’s reaction to all of this was equivalent to shrugging and sort of muttering, “whatever, I don’t know what you’re talking about” before changing the subject.
A 2008 report from Helvetas said that hundreds to thousands of kids are either in or vulnerable to become in a situation similar to Clarisse’s. Victoria’s Secret said they “didn’t read the report” (AKA too indifferent to even consider thinking about the plight of their child laborers, let alone take any responsibility for it or action to stop it). A Victoria’s Secret executive later issued a statement saying:
“They describe behavior contrary to our company’s values and the code of labor and sourcing standards we require all of our suppliers to meet. Our standards specifically prohibit child labor. We are vigorously engaging with stakeholders to fully investigate this matter.”
That was in late 2011. Since then, Victoria’s Secret has done little more than remove the ‘fair trade’ labels on their Burkina Faso cotton underwear.
In another brazenly indifferent move, they simply no longer market the purchase of this underwear as making a positive impact on the lives of the women slaving away on the cotton fields.
