'Yes I'm very afraid,' admits Moussa Doumbia.'Sometimes I can't sleep.' Moussa grows cotton as a cash crop in Mali. He liesawake at night wondering whether he will be able to afford medicine to treatthe malaria of himself and his two youngest children, just three and five yearsold. The three tonnes of cotton Moussaproduces gives him an annual income of $322 less than $1 a day.
'Thecotton price is not enough for farmers to cover our needs including school feesand health,' he says.
So Moussa also farms corn, peanuts, beans and riceto feed his 10-member family. He breeds cattle, sheep and oxen which he sellsin dire emergencies. He has to rely on occasional handouts from his twobrothers who work abroad one in Cte dIvoire and the other in Spain. Andstill it's not enough. "I don't want my children to be cottonfarmers," he explains. "Because they will have no future."
Sustainability starts with farmers
Cotton farmers are the invisible foundation of the fashionindustry. Transparency and traceability are now key buzz words in the industry,yet companies rarely delve deep enough into their supply chains to have anydirect involvement with the suppliers of this raw material.
But ignoring cotton farmers ignores the future of fashion.The downward pressure of the clothing supply chain and the obsession with cheapfast fashion comes at a cost not only to farmers but to the industry itself.
Much of global cotton supply is grown by 35-50 millionsmall-scale cotton farmers in developing countries, many in least developedcountries. Like Moussa, most live below the poverty line, vulnerable to low andfluctuating prices lower than their costs of production, dependent on ginnersand middle men.
Cotton production in developing countries has a smallerenvironmental footprint and costs less. Most cotton cultivation inWest Africa is rain-fed, giving it with a much lower water footprint thanindustrialized farming. Meanwhile, it costs only US$ 30 cents to produce apound of cotton in Benin versus US$ 68 cents in the United States. Yet it isthe cotton farmers in regions like West Africa and India who suffer the mostfrom low global cotton prices and underinvestment.
This means that many cotton farmers do not have the fundsto invest in improving their crops, or, like Moussa, they do not see a futurefor their children in cotton. We need to make sure that farmers continue togrow cotton, if consumers are to continue to buy and wear the clothes that theylove.
Over the past few years there has been a noticeableshift as more and more companies and fashionistas are beginning to recognisethe urgent need to take greater responsibility for their social andenvironmental impact.
A number of global companies such as Marks &Spencer, Sainsbury's and H&M have set public targets with ambitious goalsto reduce their impact by sourcing a percentage of their raw materials andnotably sustainable cotton by target dates.
A number of ethical brands go even further byguaranteeing even deeper impact in their supply chains with sustainablebusiness models. People Tree is a pioneer in Fair Trade and environmentallysustainable fashion and prides itself on opening up markets and opportunities forpeople who live in the developing world.
Safia Minney explains "The price tag on thefashion you buy rarely covers the real social and environmental costs.Developing countries end up competing with each other to be the world's garmentfactory, in what has been called a 'race to the bottom' for wages, health,safety, job security and environmental protection.
"Every time you opt to support Fair Trade ororganic clothing you are helping to empower farmers, artisans and communities -and importantly putting preserve on the fashion industry to clean up itsact."
In Fairtrade, we've seen a shift from mainstreamcompanies wanting to sell Fairtrade labelled clothing, to wanting to makesustainable cotton sourcing a core part of their business. We recently launcheda new business model to meet the changing ethical landscape, which allowscompanies to source a portion of their overall cotton on Fairtrade terms.
Ultimately sourcing sustainable cotton can allowthe industry to secure supply into the future, by providing the needed farmlevel investment to maintain cotton crops and farmers' livelihoods to the nextgeneration. But more companies need to come on board to really tip the balance.
Luckily, it can be in companies' interest to do so.
How do we make consumers care about sustainability?How does the industry respond to consumer demand for quicker and easier fashionwhilst balancing the ethics of a sustainable supply chain where farmers andworkers are paid and treated fairly?
Infact, 'fair pay for farmers and workers' is one of consumers' top concerns: 85%of consumers say this issue is important for companies and their suppliers intheir dealings with poor countries, according to Fairtrade commissionedresearch by GlobeScan in 2011.
Thereis a growing body of consumers who care about ethics and are quick to rewardcompanies for doing good. Recent studies estimate the coveted 'Aspirationals' consumergroup account 2.5 billion worldwide.
Asreported by Sustainable Brands, 'The 2013 Aspirational Consumer Index' by BBMG,GlobeScan and SustainAbility found that "more than one-third of consumersglobally (36.4%) identify as Aspirationals, defined by their love of shopping(78%), desire for responsible consumption (92%) and their trust in brands toact in the best interest of society (58%)."
Meanwhile H&M reported recently that 47 percent of itscustomers are interested in more environmentally friendly products in 2013, upfrom 27 percent in 2012.
Values at the core of the brand
Once relegated to the fringe, growing numbers of globalfashion and clothing companies are putting ethics at the core of their brands.They are setting ambitious CSR targets to reduce their environmental footprint,to benefit the people in their supply chain, and to express their values.
In Fairtrade we've seen that investing in cotton farmersallows companies to build their brand and manage risk, by demonstratingcommitment to good environmental practices and fair social and labourconditions for the farmers in their supply chain.
This shift is absolutely vital, asit is often the most vulnerable like the cotton farmer at the very bottom of acomplex supply chain who is at the sharp end of an increasingly demanding andcost conscious industry, and it is these vulnerable people upon which theentire fashion industry depends.
We welcome more brands to join.
RachelHearson is an Account Manager-Major Retailers Account at Fairtrade Foundation
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