Children Behind Our Cotton

Have you ever wondered where the cotton you buy comes from, and under what conditions it was grown in? If you haven't, consider this chilling fact cited in a report titled "The Children behind Our Cotton" by the Environmental Justice Foundation:

'The Children behind Our Cotton’ details the shocking conditions endured by more than an estimated one million children – some as young as five – who work 12-hour days in extremes of hot and cold weather, many suffering physical, verbal and sometimes sexual abuse.

Also . . .

In countries like Uzbekistan and Pakistan, children spray pesticides, commonly used in cotton production but which pose serious health and safety risks. EJF field research in October 2007 in India discovered children in the fields during the spraying season where plants were soaked with chemicals.

“Children were working on cotton plants that had been sprayed with chemicals only moments before, without any protection,” Duncan Copeland, EJF campaigner, says. “Most of the children we interviewed complained of nasty side-effects like fainting and sickness from exposure to pesticides, which is obviously a serious cause for concern in conventional and Bt cotton production.”

I find it really frustrating to walk into a store and to look at a label and find that it is ALMOST NEVER made in the U.S. or Canada, but almost always made in a third world country. Sometimes the manufacturer will try to fool you by printing, Designed in Canada, and then you find another tag that says it was made somewhere else overseas. (And yes, I realize that Made in U.S. or Canada does not necessarily mean that the cotton used to make these garments was not made under such abhorrent conditions - another reason to ask lots of questions!)

To be completely honest with you, up until a year or two ago, I never ever looked at the tag to see where the clothing I bought was made, it never entered my mind to consider it. But things for me have changed considerably.



Why do we import this stuff in the first place without strict guidelines that consider the human cost of our "cheap" goods? I can't help but think it resembles a form of slave labor so that we can buy lots of cheap stuff, much of which we don't really need in the first place. When I pick up a garment and I see that Made in X label, I can't help but think about the other end, and about the potential human cost it took to get in my hands.

But hey, the good news is we can make a difference collectively! What can we do? EJF suggests:

EJF is also calling upon consumers to demand accountability from their retailers to help put an end to child labour in the world’s cotton fields; to ask questions about where their cotton comes from, and under what conditions it was produced.

To read the full article and judge for yourself, you can follow the following link . . .

http://www.ejfoundation.org/page481.html