Tracing cotton’s DNA
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2021
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Can technology help eradicate forced labour from global cotton supplies? A confrontation continues to rise between Western powers, global brands, and the Chinese authorities over the use of forced labour and human rights abuse in cotton production in the western region of Xinjiang. Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, explains why transparency from the Chinese authorities over the whole cotton supply chain is unlikely to be forthcoming. With that in mind, some technology companies are volunteering their services to mark or trace the DNA of cotton, so apparel companies can be sure that it's not from a region with suspected forced labour. Jim Hayward, CEO of Applied DNA Sciences, explains how their particular cotton tagging technology works. But John Gapper, business columnist at the Financial Times, cautions that without larger industry willingness to uproot their business models, at considerable cost, the tech can only go so far to solve the problem.
Presenter: Tamasin Ford Producer: Frey Lindsay
(Picture: Cotton from fields in Xinjiang, China is displayed in the palm of a cotton-picker's hand. Picture credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Tamerson Ford. Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. Could technology be the |
| 0:08.0 | solution to eradicating forced labour from global cotton supplies? Frankly, we think there is no method that |
| 0:15.8 | compares to the absolute forensic quality of DNA. |
| 0:22.3 | But is it really that simple? |
| 0:24.6 | The problem is technology doesn't do anything on itself, |
| 0:27.8 | and it requires companies to use it as part of a difficult, costly process of tracking each stage along supply chains. |
| 0:39.8 | So are leading brands really ready to put ethics over profits? |
| 0:44.7 | Relatively few companies, I think, are really enthusiastic about doing that, |
| 0:49.3 | but I think public pressure on them is growing. |
| 0:52.3 | And some companies have stepped up and joined that call. |
| 0:56.1 | In today's Business Daily from the BBC, we take a look at the role of technology in keeping |
| 1:02.4 | cotton clean. |
| 1:18.6 | We understand the world of technology. There are 13 children in my class who live in school. |
| 1:21.8 | Their parents are all in re-education camps. |
| 1:29.8 | They changed our clothes and they shaved our heads, just basic food, |
| 1:35.2 | and nobody explained us why were we there and what would we be doing. |
| 1:41.2 | My daughter was taken to a factory after being put into a camp. |
| 1:43.3 | She worked there for four months. |
| 1:45.1 | She was told she would get a salary, |
| 1:47.0 | but they never paid her anything. |
| 1:53.0 | The inmates in the camp were given only two minutes for going to the toilet. |
| 1:57.6 | If you spent more than that, they shocked you in the head with an electric baton. |
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