Madeleine Moon MP

Madeleine Moon MP - Working hard for Bridgend

White Gold - the true cost of cotton

Madeleine Moon MP recently visited an exhibition highlighting the human cost of producing cotton in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan is the world’s second largest exporter of cotton, while up one third of the country’s workforce is employed in the cotton industry. Much of this labour is forced and involves tens of thousands of children

The cotton industry is entirely state controlled from wages to production quotas. Estimates suggests as many as 2 million children as young as 10 or 11 years old witness their schools closed for 2-3 months each year whilst they are taken to the cotton fields.

Madeleine Moon said

“The human and environmental cost of the industry is staggering. Clearly more needs to be done to make people aware of where the cotton they buy comes from and put pressure on retailers to remove Uzbek cotton from their supply chain.”

More information about the industry and the campaign to improve transparency can be found at http://www.ejfoundation.org/page141.html