York U Bookstore First in Canada to Offer Fair Trade Campus Wear

TORONTO – York University students can now show off their school spirit and social conscience at the same time, with a new line of organic, fair-trade T-shirts, a first among Canadian universities.

The York-branded T-shirts are the brainchild of three York professors and a local fair trade cooperative; they wanted to connect social enterprises in India and Ontario, while offering fair trade clothing at a student-friendly price. The T-shirts will launch at an event on Tuesday, March 29, 3pm at the York University Bookstore, Keele Campus.

Provided by Wearfair, the shirts are made of 100 per cent fair trade organic cotton certified by [FairtradeCanada], a member of the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International. They retail for $17.95. Similar York T-shirts that are not fair trade certified cost just two dollars less.

“It is particularly satisfying that we are able to price these shirts without the usual premium price that makes people think twice about doing the right thing,” says Steve Glassman, director of the bookstore. He says they plan to expand their fair trade offering to other clothing items.

Professors Ananya Mukherjee-Reed, J.J. McMurtry and Darryl Reed of York’s Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies worked together to make the concept a reality, in partnership with York’s Business & Society Program (BUSO) and Wearfair.

“In India, while the cotton textiles sector has boomed into a major export industry, the benefits of that boom have hardly reached workers and cotton producers. We thought supporting an organic, fair trade line of products from small enterprises would be one way of ensuring greater justice where it is due,” says Mukherjee-Reed.

The Sumac Community Worker Co-operative, based in Guelph, operates the fair trade certified coffee company, Planet Bean. Sumac was looking for a new fair trade product to import and working with the trio from York, developed a new cotton goods division, Wearfair.

Cotton growers in India are exposed to any of 118 different pesticides, commonly without protection. Depressed prices and pressures to adopt unsustainable practices have resulted in economic, environmental and social problems, including high suicide rates among small cotton farmers. Wearfair production helps to ensure protection for small producers by offering long term contracts and minimum prices, along with other supports.

Bill Barrett, manager of Wearfair, says the partnership with York has enabled their business to grow from a pilot project to a viable start-up. Barrett also travelled to India and has met with cotton farmers and producers in Maharashtra, a region devastated by farmer suicides.