Continuing our A to Z of a Fair Trade Christmas and we are on the letter O

O is for organic.  Why not give a very conventional Christmas gift an ethical twist with these fairly traded black beauties. They are made of organic cotton and we have just reduced the price by 25%

These socks were produced by Craft Aid in Mauritius, a non profit-making organisation dedicated to the welfare of disabled people. It was created in the year 1982. Their main objective is to provide paid employment to the disabled and rehabilitate them in society. The workforce includes a significant number of mentally and physically handicapped persons as well as mute and deaf persons.

“Cotton is one of the most pest-prone crops grown, and in parts of the world like West Africa, where the cotton is rain-fed (not irrigated), chemical pesticides and insecticides account for much as 60 per cent of the farmer's costs. But the loss in fertility of his intensively farmed soil, the subsidies paid in other countries that price him out of the market and the high risk of pesticide poisoning, mean that even if the farmer can sell his cotton he is unlikely to make a profit. He then ends up spiralling into debt as money is borrowed at usury rates to start the process all over again in the next growing season.

None of that information is new. Ethical consumers have for some time now been aware of the environmental and social costs of cotton production, and increasingly recognise that organic cotton is a sustainable alternative.

Organic cotton eliminates the need for expensive agrochemical inputs, which immediately cuts costs and demands a higher market price, meaning the farmer stands a better chance of working his way out of poverty. It is this knowledge that has driven the demand for organic cotton, now available in some product lines on most of the high street”. (www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments 7th December 2010)