Applied DNA Sciences Inc., a company that develops DNA-based technology to prevent counterfeiting, has announced that they’ll soon be able to detect whether or not your clothing was produced using slave labor.
While most people think of sweatshops when it comes to labor violations in the fashion industry, the abuse can actually start long before the cutting room, in the cotton fields where some of the globe’s largest growers are known to use slave labor during harvest season. In some cases, such as Uzbekistan, which is the world’s fifth largest cotton exporter, slave labor programs are state sponsored.
According to ADS’ chief executive, James Hayward, the ideal way to ascertain the true identity of cotton is to use its innate DNA, or mark it with manufactured DNA, which enables you to trace the fiber’s origin regardless of any mislabeling or substitute fibers snuck in during the manufacturing process.
ADS expects the forensics to be complete within one to two years, and with increasing corporate transparency pressures and an estimated 46 million people living in slavery, Hayward says, “the DNA tells a story that is very commercially relevant and also relevant to humanity.”
You can read more about DNA-identifying cotton at Business of Fashion.
