PRESENTATION NUMBER ONE - INTRODUCTION TO MY PROJECT
Some highlights and a few photos from the presentation I gave to my Senior Project class to introduce them to my project's subject matter.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Background & How I became interested------------
Over winter break after a vacation in Costa Rica I headed to Nicaragua to join a WCCN (Working Capital for Community Needs) study tour. WCCN partners with organizations in Latin America to build sustainable economic opportunities that help people work their way out of poverty.
Our tour was focused on micro-credit lenders and borrowers - but WCCN also supports fair-trade, women’s empowerment and housing efforts throughout Nicaragua. We visited an eight-year-old sewing cooperative located in a fair trade zone two-bus routes outside Managua.
The members were relocated to the area by the government, after hurricane Mitch and now live in extreme poverty in the most densely populated community in the country.
For two years each woman worked 20 hours every week without yielding any salary, to construct and build their cooperative. They became certified as the first Free Trade Zone factory in the world to be operated by its workers.
With the encouragement of Jubilee House they began to sew exclusively 100% organic cotton imported from Peru. Jubilee House is now addressing multiple aspects of cotton’s production stages.I was able to tour their facilities and see first hand the action of producing organic cotton. They were growing, ginning, bailing, and in the process of building a spinning cooperative. I was really impressed with the product this community was generating and the impact the opportunities had on the individuals.
Over winter break after a vacation in Costa Rica I headed to Nicaragua to join a WCCN (Working Capital for Community Needs) study tour. WCCN partners with organizations in Latin America to build sustainable economic opportunities that help people work their way out of poverty.
Our tour was focused on micro-credit lenders and borrowers - but WCCN also supports fair-trade, women’s empowerment and housing efforts throughout Nicaragua. We visited an eight-year-old sewing cooperative located in a fair trade zone two-bus routes outside Managua.
The members were relocated to the area by the government, after hurricane Mitch and now live in extreme poverty in the most densely populated community in the country.
For two years each woman worked 20 hours every week without yielding any salary, to construct and build their cooperative. They became certified as the first Free Trade Zone factory in the world to be operated by its workers.
With the encouragement of Jubilee House they began to sew exclusively 100% organic cotton imported from Peru. Jubilee House is now addressing multiple aspects of cotton’s production stages.I was able to tour their facilities and see first hand the action of producing organic cotton. They were growing, ginning, bailing, and in the process of building a spinning cooperative. I was really impressed with the product this community was generating and the impact the opportunities had on the individuals.
Cotton Facts---------
-more pesticides are used on cotton than any other crop, making cotton the most toxic crop on the planet.
- The most alarming conventional cotton fact is that roughly 3% of the agricultural land in the world is used for farming cotton, but conventional cotton farming consumes around 25% of all insecticides and more than 10% of all pesticides used worldwide.
-It takes one pound of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to conventionally grow the three pounds of cotton needed to make a T-shirt and a pair of jeans.
-In Egypt more than 50% of cotton workers in the 90s suffered symptoms of chronic pesticide poisoning.
-The World Health Organization estimates that at least 3 million people are poisoned by pesticides every year and 20-40,000 are killed.
-It is estimated that pesticides unintentionally kill 67 million birds each year.
-Many skin diseases and health hazards occur due to wearing of fabrics that are cultivated and processed by insecticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers.
-The London-based Environmental Justice Foundation stresses the link between protecting the environment and protecting human rights and has made the issue of cotton industry abuse the centerpiece of its campaign. It reports that in Egypt, a million children were used to control cotton pests. A 2003 report noted that more than 240,000 children worked in cottonseed production in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh harvesting seeds sold by giant agriculture companies. The children, mostly girls, ranged in age from six to 14, worked 13-hour days around dangerous chemicals and were paid less than 50 cents per day.
-In Uzbekistan (the second largest exporter of cotton in the world) up to one third of the country’s workforce is forced into labor on cotton farms without reasonable wages and unable to opt out of cotton cultivation without being subjected to violence, imprisonment and intimidation at the hands of the totalitarian government. Schools are shut down as children as young as seven are made to work 70 hour weeks, filling strict daily quotas. With no access to clean water, many risk poisoning drinking straight from irrigation canals.
- Considered the world’s worst human-induced ecological disaster: The Aral Sea was once the forth largest inland body of water, and now is reduced to just 15% of its former volume, due to the astonishing environmental effects of negligent cotton irrigation.
-conventional cotton farming traps farmers in a cycle of debt resulting from purchasing pesticides they become dependant on. Farmers in India are committing suicide in horrific numbers, some by ingesting the very pesticides that pushed them into their dire financial situations. The government estimates that 25,000 farmers have committed suicide since 1997.
Organic cotton farming methods benefit farmers and their communities by:
-preventing and reducing farmer debt -improving food stability for farmers as a result of crop rotation –preventing pollution of the water table –and preventing potentially fatal pesticide poisoning of farmers and their families
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlSQevNPBd4&NR=1
-more pesticides are used on cotton than any other crop, making cotton the most toxic crop on the planet.
- The most alarming conventional cotton fact is that roughly 3% of the agricultural land in the world is used for farming cotton, but conventional cotton farming consumes around 25% of all insecticides and more than 10% of all pesticides used worldwide.
-It takes one pound of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to conventionally grow the three pounds of cotton needed to make a T-shirt and a pair of jeans.
-In Egypt more than 50% of cotton workers in the 90s suffered symptoms of chronic pesticide poisoning.
-The World Health Organization estimates that at least 3 million people are poisoned by pesticides every year and 20-40,000 are killed.
-It is estimated that pesticides unintentionally kill 67 million birds each year.
-Many skin diseases and health hazards occur due to wearing of fabrics that are cultivated and processed by insecticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers.
-The London-based Environmental Justice Foundation stresses the link between protecting the environment and protecting human rights and has made the issue of cotton industry abuse the centerpiece of its campaign. It reports that in Egypt, a million children were used to control cotton pests. A 2003 report noted that more than 240,000 children worked in cottonseed production in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh harvesting seeds sold by giant agriculture companies. The children, mostly girls, ranged in age from six to 14, worked 13-hour days around dangerous chemicals and were paid less than 50 cents per day.
-In Uzbekistan (the second largest exporter of cotton in the world) up to one third of the country’s workforce is forced into labor on cotton farms without reasonable wages and unable to opt out of cotton cultivation without being subjected to violence, imprisonment and intimidation at the hands of the totalitarian government. Schools are shut down as children as young as seven are made to work 70 hour weeks, filling strict daily quotas. With no access to clean water, many risk poisoning drinking straight from irrigation canals.
- Considered the world’s worst human-induced ecological disaster: The Aral Sea was once the forth largest inland body of water, and now is reduced to just 15% of its former volume, due to the astonishing environmental effects of negligent cotton irrigation.
-conventional cotton farming traps farmers in a cycle of debt resulting from purchasing pesticides they become dependant on. Farmers in India are committing suicide in horrific numbers, some by ingesting the very pesticides that pushed them into their dire financial situations. The government estimates that 25,000 farmers have committed suicide since 1997.
Organic cotton farming methods benefit farmers and their communities by:
-preventing and reducing farmer debt -improving food stability for farmers as a result of crop rotation –preventing pollution of the water table –and preventing potentially fatal pesticide poisoning of farmers and their families
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlSQevNPBd4&NR=1
Current Retail Situation---------
As people become more conscious of organic vegetable farming, it is important for them to consider organic cotton as well.
On Wednesday I went to the Mall of America in search of an organic cotton t-shirt. Most sales associates understood the question, thought for a moment, before telling me they didn’t have anything that was labeled as organic cotton. Macy’s advised me to return next month when they would have a special Earth Day display.
H&M was the only store where I found a significant number of organic items. There were organic cotton products found throughout the store, clearly marked with a special tag reading either Organic Cotton or Organic Cotton Blend. H&M is a member of the organization Organic Exchange which is establishing worldwide networks to expand production of organic cotton. They have a goal of increasing the amount of certified organic land farmed for fiber production by 50% per year.
The United Nations named 2009 the International Year of Natural Fibers.
Cotton is the most popular natural fiber in the world, it is also the most pesticide dependent crop, making the switch to organic cotton not just desirable, but vital. Organic cotton production is rising every year, but without consumers increasingly demanding organic products, and demanding that what they are buying does not alter or cause harm to the environment, the industry lacks incentive for change.
As people become more conscious of organic vegetable farming, it is important for them to consider organic cotton as well.
On Wednesday I went to the Mall of America in search of an organic cotton t-shirt. Most sales associates understood the question, thought for a moment, before telling me they didn’t have anything that was labeled as organic cotton. Macy’s advised me to return next month when they would have a special Earth Day display.
H&M was the only store where I found a significant number of organic items. There were organic cotton products found throughout the store, clearly marked with a special tag reading either Organic Cotton or Organic Cotton Blend. H&M is a member of the organization Organic Exchange which is establishing worldwide networks to expand production of organic cotton. They have a goal of increasing the amount of certified organic land farmed for fiber production by 50% per year.
The United Nations named 2009 the International Year of Natural Fibers.
Cotton is the most popular natural fiber in the world, it is also the most pesticide dependent crop, making the switch to organic cotton not just desirable, but vital. Organic cotton production is rising every year, but without consumers increasingly demanding organic products, and demanding that what they are buying does not alter or cause harm to the environment, the industry lacks incentive for change.
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