The sun has got his hat on and it’s finally T-shirt weather. Your best option for keeping cool on a lovely warm day is a cotton t-shirt but it is also important to feel good about the clothing you are wearing and I would like to tell you a little about cotton, the
ladies tops we stock at Arusha, and our producers.
Cotton is crop with a very troubled history
Cotton is obtained from plants native to tropical and subtropical climates. After blooming, seeds appear inside a capsule full of fibres; when ripe, it opens to form the boll. Farmers pick these bolls and remove seeds from them by a process called ginning; once seeds and other residues are removed, cotton becomes almost pure cellulose fibre and it is packed to enter the mill. A cotton mill is a place where fibres’ are carded to form a sliver so as to get them better aligned for spinning. Spinners produce the cotton thread which is then weaved into a textile; finally, the textile is ready to make clothing with it. Cotton is prone to pests, so it is the most sprayed crop in the world; taking only a 3% of cultivated land, it receives 25 % of all insecticides.
Similar to other colonial crops, like coffee or cocoa, cotton is the main source of income for several South countries, and is the only crop for large groups of farmers. Cotton is today the most widespread vegetal textile around the world.
Cotton has been used by humans for dressing themselves for thousands of years. For the last two hundred years the Cotton has been associated with human abuse and misery. Originally cotton farming in southern U.S.A. states was done, legally, by African slaves. During the industrial revolution in Britain child labour was common. The East India Company promoted the unjust cotton trade system that fuelled Gandhi's up rise in India.
The misery continues into the present day and recent television programmes depicting sweat shops in Asia have highlighted this.
Two-thirds of this cotton is produced in the developing world. For most cotton farmers in cotton-producing communities it is their only means of income and their only cash crop. In West Africa for example, cotton makes up to 40% of export income. Many cotton farmers also live in poverty – trying to survive on less than $2 a day. World prices on cotton have been unstable for a long time and farmers have been severely affected by the falling prices. Things are getting harder – not easier. Cotton farmers are under pressure from rising input costs of fuel, pesticides and insecticides. This means that few farmers can cover the cost of production, because they cannot pass these costs on when cotton is sold at such a low price. In real terms cotton farmers received five times more for a kilo of cotton in 1973 than they did in 2007.
Cotton farmers in the United States, the EU and China are highly subsidised leading to overproduction. When their huge volumes of cotton are dumped on world markets, prices are driven down and small scale cotton farmers cannot compete.
Cotton farmers in India have committed suicide because they were not able to meet their debt payments. To kill themselves they were drinking the poisonous chemicals they used to spray their crops. (Miles Litvinoff presents more details on reason #10 of his book "50 reasons to buy Fair Trade").
Working conditions are particularly miserable in Uzbekistan.
When the former Soviet Union diverted the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers to irrigate huge cotton fields (the so-called "white gold") in Central Asia it caused the Aral Sea to shrink dramatically almost disappear, not to mention heavy pollution from fertilizer run-off.
Fair Trade cotton brings hope.
Fairtrade provides a lifeline to farmers ensuring that they are paid a guaranteed minimum price for their cotton crop which has been calculated to cover the sustainable costs of production. They also receive additional money to invest in community projects –the Fairtrade premium - and it is for the farmer organisations to decide how they invest it, depending on what they need most - a school, health centre, equipment or a well. It also ensures that the farmer’s children attend school and that trafficked children do not work on the cotton farm. Buying or producing a product made from Fairtrade certified cotton contributes to fighting poverty and to sustainable development for some of the world’s most marginalised cotton farmers.
Generally the fairtrade label means that the cotton itself which is Fairtrade certified, not the finished fabric or item of clothing.
Our t-shirts are made by a wonderful organisation, Craft Aid in Mauritius
Craft Aid, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the welfare of the disabled people, was first formed in 1982. Their main objective is to provide paid employment to the disabled and rehabilitate them in to their communities. The workforce includes a significant number of mentally and physically handicapped people, including those who are mute and deaf. In addition they provide employment to the needy and poor people in their community.
Working alongside able-bodied employees, their disabled employees are producing a wide range of items such as textile products, greeting cards, photo albums and bookmarks. They are also involved in packaging of sugar and vanilla. The workshops were started with 5 disabled employees and today employ 175 people, of which around 50 are disabled, working in different departments of the company. Their declared mission states their commitment to quality as well as always adhering to the principles of fair and ethical trade.
There are four different departments at Craft Aid:
- Textile Department
A variety of textile products are made in the Textile department. The flow of production starts from cutting and goes right through to finished products. They make products such as gloves, socks, T-shirts, trousers, skirts, night wear, jackets etc.
Most of the products are made of organic cotton and they were the first company in Mauritius to start using organic cotton. Their organic cotton-wear is certified by Control Union International, an independent Inspection organization for organic production method. They are also FLO certified. (Fair Trade Labelling Organization).
- The Pressed Flower Department makes all sorts of greeting cards, book marks, photo albums, calendars and pot pourri. They use pressed natural flowers for the making the items. Some of the flowers used are cultivated at Craft Aid and the rest are purchased.
- The Sugar Department where the activities consist of packaging of unrefined sugar such as standard demerara, dry muscovado, golden caster and special raw cane in a variety of retail packs of 500 grams and 1 kg. They also pack vanilla and spices.
- The Screen Printing Department completes all work in the Pressed Flower and Textile Departments is completed with the use of manual printing machines. Even the preparation of screen such as engraving, gluing of mesh, preparation of colour are done in-house. The greeting cards used by Arusha when you ask for your purchase to be gift wrapped are made here.
Radha Canakiah works in the Flower and Wood Department is one among so many deaf people that work at Craft Aid and like others she is also trying to live her life happily although being disadvantaged. She joined Craft Aid in the 1980 and is still employed and is working in the flower section. At first, for her working at Craft Aid meant having friends like her and enjoying life as it is instead of being at home and being frustrated for not being a "normal person". She was doing coconut jewellery and found satisfaction in what she was doing. By joining Craft Aid and finding lots of friends in the same situation as herself, she feels much more confident. For Radha, Craft Aid is a memorable place as this was where she first met Rajesh, employed in the wood section, who is deaf just like her, but nothing prevented them from loving each other and now they are happily married and have a baby boy. For Radha being deaf no longer means feeling handicapped.
Main Picture: Cotton gathering in Seranko village, Mali © Simon Rawles, 2007 UK Fairtrade Foundation
