This is Michael D. with my third post. So I was looking for some current events in the news paper to talk about for this next post. My little adventure took me from the paper to the computer where I found some really disturbing photos and videos from a foundation that deals with this topic exactly; the Environmental Justice Foundation. What I focused on from their website was the cotton production in Uzbekistan. I chose to bring this topic up because I work in retail and deal with cotton fabrics regularly. Since cotton products are purchased and thrown away every day I feel it is important to bring this topic up and also because this particular example deals with justice for Uzbekistanis. Think twice about where your cotton is coming from. If we support sustainable cotton production we can help reduce environmental impacts from this kind of production.
Due to the nature of their production in Uzbekistan, the ocean has dried up, their economy has failed and the population is stuck either doing nothing or picking cotton, which led to environmental degradation in the first place. Children are taken out of school in order to pick cotton. Pesticides haven’t helped either. Because the sea has dried up much of the salt has created a skin over the soil and the chemicals used to produce the cotton have also accumulated. This leads to health problems when wind storms pick up the dust and carry it to towns where the people breathe it in. Cancer and other lung diseases are rampant. So not only does this cotton production destroy the land but it also leads to health problems on a massive scale. It’s a never ending cycle, especially now. So why don’t they try another approach you ask? Because the government has enough power to force the people to produce cotton this way.
While this seems like a local problem to Uzbekistan, the issue is also tied to everyone who uses the cotton. That means everyone who deals with textiles, fashion, fabrics and other industries have a choice when it comes to what type of cotton production they want to support. They could support environmentally degrading cotton production, like that of Uzbekistan, or they could choose something sustainable like organic cotton production. Before I stumbled upon the EJF website I had a basic understanding of the environmental damage that commercial cotton production creates but I didn’t realize how extreme of an impact it can have. That’s not to say that all cotton production is drastically degrading or that Uzbekistanis are bad people for producing cotton. Cotton production like this can happen anywhere. This is just one example of how we need to think twice before we act.

I hope you can check out the first like to the environmental justice foundation web site and the posted video “White Gold.”



http://www.ejfoundation.org/




White Gold - the true cost of cotton from Environmental Justice Foundation on Vimeo.