My Cover Story in the CS Monitor

The line between exploitation and opportunity in our global economy is blurry.

This blurred line is at the heart of my recent cover story in the CS Monitor. I feel that the feature is one of my most important works to date, bridging my travels and research from my first book WEARING and my latest book EATING.

I felt compelled to write the main story as I followed the tragedy of the recent collapsed factory in Bangladesh that killed 1,129 garment workers.

Here’s how Monitor Editor, John Yemma, introduced the feature:

“Kelsey’s reporting is not designed to steer you away from these items but to help you appreciate the human lives behind them.”

Read the main story, “Follow the Label: The Odyssey of our food and clothing”

The feature also included four sidebars, three of which were adapted from EATING and one from WEARING:

Starbucks farmers who never heard of Starbucks (Starbucks called me the day — a Sunday! — that this article came out. I had tried to reach them for over a year to comment. Still waiting to hear back from them.)

Feeding Chocolate lovers at little, or no wage

There is no such thing as a blue jean machine

American apple juice is a product of China

I talked about the feature with the Monitor’s Pat Murphy…