Encouraging women to have a bigger part in business why organic cotton?
Organic cotton is grown using natural pest controls and fertilizers, instead of toxic pesticides, so three is no health risk to famers’ families, animals and food crops.
Instead of spending money on expensive pesticides and the health care costs associated with pesticide poisonings, farming families can spend more of their income on food, education and improving their quality of life.
Famers growing organic cotton for the fair trade market get paid a guaranteed price, which is higher than the market price for ordinary cotton. This helps them to plan ahead and gives them greater financial security.
what’s up with ordinary cotton? Conventional cotton growing uses only 2.5% of cropped agricultural land worldwide but 11% of all agricultural pesticides (including 25% of all insecticides).
Over 99% of cotton is grown using these toxic pesticides, which poison land, food crops, animals and people.
The World Health Oganisation estimates that every year 3 million people suffer physical side effects from exposure to agricultural pesticides and 20,000 die of pesticide poisoning.
Cotton subsidies in developed countries artificially lower the market price of cotton, so developing world famers can’t sell their crops for a fair price.
what do we mean by sweatshop-free?
A lot of wokers in clothing factories around the world work very long hours for wages that often don’t even cover their basic living costs, in cramped, dangerous environments.
If they demand better conditions, or refuse to do excessive (often unpaid) overtime, they may lose their jobs or suffer harassment or violence.