Re: [pf] Risks, imposed or chosen

by Betsy Barnum

17 December 2000 21:04 UTC

tully wrote:

> What would be really cool
> would be to have all the companies involved with the process along the way
> be listed and the amount of money paid for that quantity of product
> provided on each.  To see that a farmer was paid $.0001 and the wholesaler
> $.10 for the product would be an eye-opener whose time has come.

I agree, and I'd extend it to non-food items as well. What if we could know at
point of sale things like with what chemicals the cotton in the t-shirt was
grown (and the farmer's return, as with food), what pollutants were created in
the dying process and how they were treated and/or disposed, what the workers
who sewed it were paid per hour and the conditions of their workplace (eg hours
per day, whether they were allowed to unionize, etc.), which multinational
owned the label, how much their CEO got paid last year compared to the
company's lowest-paid worker, what the company's environmental record was (ie
any violations, what fines they paid), and other such info? I think we'd begin
seeing corporations competing to have the most customer-pleasing info.

Betsy