Cotton in Africa: Savior or Curse?

Cotton, a crop native to southern Africa, can be a savior to many of the world's poorest people or it can be an economic, environmental and health curse.  Which is ironic in a twisted way as not only is cotton the most popular and best selling fabric in the world, due to its huge commercial value, cotton also represents an essential component of foreign exchange earnings for more than fifty countries. Cotton is grown on over 90 million acres in more than 80 countries worldwide. The millions of tons of cotton produced each year account for 50% of the world’s fiber needs with wool, silk and flax together accounting for only 10%. The value and reach of cotton extends far past the fashion runway.

Africa, with some of the poorest and most economically desperate peoples, has many regions ideally suited to growing cotton. Cotton farming should provide a lifesaving cash crop allowing millions of African farmers to feed their families, school their children and provide adequate healthcare. Unfortunately, the bright promise of cotton is turning into a social tragedy fueled by low worldwide cotton prices and health problems due to toxic chemicals from the cultivation of conventional cotton.

Four hundred million cotton farmers in the developing world are living in conditions of abject poverty due to the collapse of world cotton prices caused by large cotton subsidies to cotton growers in the US, EU and China and due to high costs and negative health impacts of pesticides used on cotton. Cotton crops account for twenty-five percent of the world’s use of pesticides. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 20,000 people die each year due to accidental pesticide poisoning and up to one million are suffering from acute long term poisoning. Conventional cotton farming also causes long term contamination of rivers, lakes and waterways.

Conventional cotton agriculture in Africa is bordering on collapse because crop yields are being reduced due to conventional growing techniques which deplete the soil, the high price of Genetically-Modified (GM) cotton seeds which many farmers are being coerced to buy, expensive imported pesticides many of which come from large U.S. chemical companies, and depressed worldwide cotton prices largely due to cotton subsidies provided by the U.S. Government to large agribusiness companies in the U.S.

The result is that American growers can sell their cotton cheaply because they are also receiving generous payments directly from the U.S. Government which paid U.S. cotton farmers $2.06 billion in 2001, according to the Department of Agriculture. American cotton subsidies are destroying livelihoods in Africa and other developing regions. By encouraging over-production and export dumping by U.S. cotton growers, these subsidies – which are almost twice as much as the U.S.’s foreign aid to Sub-Saharan Africa – are driving down world cotton prices on an inflation-adjusted basis to their lowest levels since the Great Depression. While American corporate cotton barons get rich on government subsidies, African farmers suffer the consequences.

However, growing cotton organically can reverse this situation by delivering a 50% increase in income by cutting costs of synthetic petroleum-based fertilizers and toxic pesticides and allowing farmers to access the organic cotton market which has a 20% premium for certified organic cottons. Farmers will need to be trained in organic farming and issues such as crop diversification and pest control to gain maximum effectiveness.

Of course, this is dependent upon an expanding market for organic clothing. This is the easy part. More and more talented designers are creating ecologically sustainable and ethical clothing. Two of the most well-known are Ali Hewson, founder of the EDUN collection and wife of Bono, and Katharine Hamnet, creator of the Katharine E. Hamnet label – the “E” stands for “ethical” and “environmental”.

To insure a large supply of quality organic cotton, Ms Hamnet has instituted a program to train and help African cotton farmers grow organic cotton. The results have been very encouraging. The African organic cotton farmers are able to avoid the expenses of high priced pesticides, sell their crops at higher prices, and avoid the health problems due to handling toxic pesticides. This project now needs to be expanded to a greatly larger scale. Perhaps governments can do this if they truly understand the scope and purpose ... something that governments have been reluctant to do so far.

This demonstrates that ethics, environmentalism and fashion can stand together to provide a better life for everyone involved in the growing, manufacturing, and wearing of healthy clothing.