Product Pedigrees

Maybe this has been done already but I have a proposal for the makers of everything:

Put a tag or sticker on your product – and don’t say it will cost too much, every piece of furniture has a tag on it (Do not remove under penalty of law …Ever taken one off? You can you know.) Food already has a pedigree of sorts letting us know a batch number, sell-by date and if you know the codes, you can tell where you milk was put in the container.

What I want this tag to tell me is – and lets take a t-shirt as our example.

This garment is made from 100% organically grown cotton.

The cotton grew on a peaceful farm near Tuscaloosa, Alabama. No herbicides or other chemicals were used in the growing of this cotton.

The cotton was harvested by a John Deere 9600 cotton harvester running on bio-diesel made from the waste oil from Martha’s Diner; also in Tuscaloosa.

The owners of this farm are Bob and Mable who received no government subsidies for the growing of their cotton or any other row crop they may have on their 640 acre farm. They were paid $0.70 per pound for their cotton which is just above the market rate nationally.

The cotton was woven and the t-shirt assembled at our plant in Guatemala.

This t-shirt was assembled by Maria Consuelos who was paid a fair wage of 5000p per day which translates to $4.89/hr. which while below the minimum U.S. wage, puts Maria squarely in the Guatemalan middle-class.

We spent about $1.13 shipping this product from our distribution center in Durham, NC – where as an Unionized-shop, everyone is paid at least the prevailing wage. All products are shipped on Teamster driver trucks.

We spent another $0.87 in the marketing and advertising for this shirt.

Our suggested retail price for this garment is $7.98 for this three-pak. We provide these wholesale for $4.01. This provides us (the maker) with about $0.47 profit on every package. Actual profit for your local store depends upon their own price and operating costs.

This tag made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper and will degrade in your landfill in approximately 3.4 months; depending on local conditions.

The cotton in this shirt is also recylable and we recommend you return it to us free via the included pre-paid mailing device. We will clean it and re-cycle as much of the cotton as possible to make …

UPDATE: After I wrote this I ran across a paper wrapper on a chocolate bar made locally by a chocolatier – Shawn Askinosie – former big shot defense attorney who is now paying penance by running what by all accounts is a successful and fair chocolate shop. His wrapper lists all sorts of information about the origins of his chocolate. Congrats to the man!