Sunday, September 18, 2011

Cost of cotton

In the 19th century homespun wollen and linen clothing began to be replaced with clothes made with manufactured cotton. Calico was attractive not only because it was light to wear and colourful but also because it was cheap. There was however, a dark side to the cotton industry.

To keep the cost of cotton down growers used the labour of slaves and manufacturers used the labour of children. The environment suffered as well. Mills belched smoke into the atmosphere and dye works changed the colour of waterways. Land devoted to growing cotton did not produce food.

Cotton is still cheap to buy and although we no longer use slaves to work the fields of children in the spinning mills the price is kept artifically low. What would a tshirt cost if cotton growers paid decent wages to their labourers and a realistic price for the water used to produce the crop. What would it cost if we bore the cost of environmental damage caused by the chemical cocktail necessary to keep pests at bay? The answer is probably too much to keep jeans and tshirts being the universal clothing they at present.

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