Carl Schroeder Research
Standards Regimes Comparisons: This ongoing project aims to compile data allowing comparisons of different regulations or codes of conduct meant to ensure labor standards and/or certain production practices. In its current incarnation it includes sweat-free apparel and organic food production. The current focus of the project is to develop an interactive online system that will allow users to easily create unique comparisons of certain schemes and criteria. This project is not complete and the information below is presented as a work in progress. Although every attempt has been made to ensure completeness and all data was accurate at the time it was entered, please note that information may have changed. Lack of data on certain criteria may represent the incomplete status of the project rather than the absence of a standard, unless specifically stated.Ethical Apparel Production: Many people are concerned about reports of workers being exploited and abused while producing some of our most popular brands such as The Gap, Nike This portion of the project aims to compile a comparison of ethical apparel production codes along with multiple criteria (such as wage requirements, overtime regulations, human rights, child labor standards, and more). These certification regimes take many shapes, from student-led schemes like the Workers Rights Consortium, industry-NGO partnerships like the Fair Labor Association, to company specific codes of conduct from corporations like Levi Strauss and Nike.
***Note that FLA data does not reflect a major revision from April 2002***
Link to a description of the Apparel Regimes
Link to a description of Apparel Criteria
Carl has compiled an Excel spreadsheet that compares the various apparel regimes along multiple criteria. We are currently working on developing an interactive format that is easier to read and work with, online. We have provided links to help navigate the spreadsheet. Click on the links at the top of the columns to view a single regime along all of the criteria. Click on the links to the left of the rows to view how the different regimes compare along one criterion.
Link to the Apparel Standards Spreadsheet
Organic Food
Production:
People are concerned about the quality of the food that they purchase
to feed themselves and their families. Organic certification arose as
a way to ensure that foods being sold as "organic" really represented
foodstuffs produced in an "organic" fashion. This portion of
the project compiles a comparison of organic production certification
criteria such as transition time to organic, manure requirements, crop
rotation requirements and seed inputs. Certification bodies range from
the European Union to the International Federation of Organic Agriculture
Movements to Farm Verified Organic which is accredited for the IFOAM.
Link to a description of the Organic Regimes
Link to a description of Organic Criteria
Link to the Organic Standards Spreadsheet
