FASHION INDUSTRY
Many forms of human trafficking are involved in the fashion industry , from where the materials come from , cotton picking , to how its made, the seamstresses , unfortunately with the demands of fast fashion , and the competition on prices affects the down fall , to the people who make it and environment drastically !
How come a dress at Forever21 is $8 ? As a fashion line owner , I know to stay afloat and make profit you at least want to sell the product at 2.5 X what it cost to make , so if it cost $3.20 to make with labor and material. Also how come where these clothes are made the people who make them are going on strike, toward the government , to make it legal as a human right to at least get $160 usd monthly minimum. The factories are well known for unfortunately taking advantage , resorting to hurting people who refuse to take the violence, long hours , and hardly a living wage , are causing them to be heard to make change , creating peaceful strikes , that have lead to beating these innocent people to death , other occasions police getting involved with bullets , causing unnecessary death over the fight of simple human rights and act ! Because of the constant threat of other countries taking their jobs by offering lower wages , the government holds down wages , routinely avoiding enforcement of local labor laws. Because the brands don't officially employ the workers, they’re able to profit hugely, all while remaining free of responsibility for the effects of poverty wages , factory disasters, and the ongoing violent treatment of the workers. The whole system feels like a perfectly engineered nightmare for the workers trapped inside of it.
1 out of 6 people in the world work in the fashion industry
40 million people who sew , 4 million in Bangladesh.
Fashion is the Second Most Polluting industry on earth , second to the oil industry. Since 1950s, we saw a explosion and expansion of fashion consumptions, deriving the natural resources of the earth from water to make the materials, land to grow the fiber, chemicals to use to dye , along with many outputs such as greenhouse gas emissions , harmful chemicals
BT Cotton is a cotton that has a added gene from a bacteria to produce a toxin, supposed to control a pest, which this has costed the farmer a lot more money to get , which was supposed to promise to prevent pests, which did not work so now having to use extra pesticides to keep their crops , which these pesticides are narcotics , which ultimately causes the soil to become poisonous. These narcotics have caused birth defects , mental illness , cancer and symptoms from the toxic pesticides. Because of the exposure of these chemicals, causing sickness, causing slow labor , which the bank comes and says the farmer now owes them so much money they take the land, and a common story that many farmers take their life by drinking a bottle of pesticides to end their life, over 250,000 farmers have committed suicide this way.
Organic is the way , no harm to the people making it , and no harm to us ! Many people think that because an apple is organic, means we are not ingesting pesticides , yet People don't realize that our biggest organ is our skin , and with the clothes we wear , our body absorbs the toxic chemicals used in the clothes from the material to the dye! Its about our air, about our world, our planet , and it's about our people , we need to look at the bigger picture , we may not realize the direct connection when buying product , buty choosing organic and supporting the efforts to ultimately create a healthier , happier planet , means a lot , especially in the community where the cotton is grown !
Leather Tannery is a hugly effects communities around as well, they use chromium to treat the leather, which they take the waste water and dump in the rivers where the people drink from , bath from , and use the polluted water to water their fruits and vegetables ! From the high consumption of this poison , the effects in this community shows as discolored rashes to stomach ailness , to liver failure , digestion problems, cancer !
SOLUTION - As A consumer to support fair trade brands, choose organic, and to create education programs for the farmers and consumers ! Just As SoraByrd is Learning, it’s adding in every way doing it’s part to be more of a solution and sharing a perspective on sustainability! And Ultimately, as SoraByrd’s Passion Project is To create A sewing Program benefiting Human Trafficking Victims to enable Freedom ! We Are All here for a reason !
-Jordan Byrd