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Ummm…How come Cotton, inc. doesn’t mention anything about this in their commercials?
I came across this short video about conventional cotton farming and wanted to share it with you. It shows you a side of cotton that is rarely given attention.
Here’s the jist of it:
Indian farmers turn to cotton with hopes of earning a good income. Their crops become infested with pests, so they buy expensive pesticides to combat them. They spray the crops with the pesticides themselves, so they end up doused in toxic chemicals which have extremely detrimental effects on their health. The pests they are trying to get rid of have already become resistant to the pesticide (which the pesticide companies are aware of), so the pesticides do no good. The farmers then have to buy more pesticides, but without any money, they put up their harvest as collateral. Once again, the pests are resistant to the pesticide, so they have to put up more of their harvest in exchange for more pesticides. At this point, the farmer has become trapped in what is known as the “pesticide cycle” or the “conventional trap”. The farmer ends up losing all of his land, all of his hope, and like thousands of Indian farmers, commits suicide. Meanwhile, the pesticide companies like Bayer, Dupont and Novartis are making huge profits off of manufacturing and selling pesticides to these farmers.
If you are interested in learning more about this, here are a couple articles:
If you want to do something about this, STOP buying conventional cotton products and sign the “Millions Against Monsanto” petition! !
Please feel free to pass this on!
Love & Light,
Amberlina =)
