Today marks the first anniversary of the worst industrial accident in recent memory: the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which killed 1,133 people and injured many more. This catastrophe was the result of a global clothing system which puts profit before people, in which supply chains are fragmented and scattered across the world, and which functions because of the continuing exploitation of some of the world's poorest people.
Perhaps the only good to come out of that awful day was the sense of frustrated anger that people felt on learning about the human cost of our high street clothing. The tragedy highlighted the poverty and abuse suffered by millions of people in global fashion supply chains - from farmers in the cotton fields to machinists in garment factories. So today is also the first Fashion Revolution Day, a very human response to the inhuman excesses of this trade.
Rana Plaza was the worst - but not the only - scandal of its kind. Too many people who produce the clothes we buy earn a pittance and are subjected to working in terrible conditions. This continues because no one has paid enough attention. One of the consequences of globalisation has been that too many consumers - and too many companies - are unaware who makes our clothes. In the UK, fashion is fast, ever-changing and cheap, but we don't know the true cost of the things we buy.
Fashion Revolution Day is a line in the sand. It is a way for us all to say "Enough! This is not in my name." A new YouGov poll shows that most consumers want UK clothes companies to be accountable for the conditions of the factories where their goods are produced and the wages earned by the workers. It's about time companies listened.
Every clothing company, every brand and retailer that is not absolutely sure of their supply chain should take today as a warning. This can only go one way - those companies that persist in turning a blind eye to information on how their businesses are impacting on farmers and workers are taking an enormous risk. They are risking their reputation, their brand, but also they make themselves an investment risk. Which investor is going to see clothing companies with unknown and untold problems in their supply chain as safe investments in the future?
Increasingly shareholders will want to know that risks are being properly dealt with, in ways that care for the long-term and that are not just a knee-jerk reaction.
And this care must start with the farmer. 100m rural households in 70 countries are involved in the production of cotton: two-thirds in developing countries. Cotton farmers in West Africa and India are among the poorest farmers in the world - families frequently go without food and levels of education and healthcare are desperate. There are 20,000 deaths per year as a result of pesticide poisoning, many working in cotton agriculture. On top of that cotton farmers must also compete with the extraordinary injustice of highly subsidised cotton production in the United States, the EU and China.
Where Fairtrade has started working with cotton farmers, we have seen real change. In Mali, Cameroon and Senegal farmers have earned prices for Fairtrade cotton that have been well above those on the conventional market. As a result they have been able to invest in food security, diversification, healthcare and education. In Mali, for example, primary school enrolment stands at 43%; among communities farming Fairtrade cotton enrolment is 98%.
Today, we can all do something to honour those caught up in the tragedy of Rana Plaza. Challenge the brands you wear - ask them who made their clothes and whether they ensure fair wages and decent working conditions. If enough of us ask, companies will have to respond. And we can also send them a message that we want clothing to be fair all the way back to the cotton fields, by asking for Fairtrade cotton.
People working together can achieve great things. Together, we have started a revolution in food. Let's help bring that revolution to fashion and clothing too.
Michael Gidney is chief executive of the Fairtrade Foundation
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