The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) is a non-profit that promotes better standards in cotton farming and practices across 24 countries. The initiative now represents around 12% of global cotton production worldwide. Partner retailers include H&M, Gap, IKEA, and Levi Strauss, and include funding partners from USAID. BCI meets UN's goals to achieve better global water sustainability and sustainable agriculture. As of 2016, BCI has more than 50 retailers and over 700 suppliers.
BCI also promotes use of better irrigation practices with farmers, as well as reducing the use of fertilizers. Some examples point to a 40% reduction in water use by farmers in Pakistan and farmers in India cutting water use by half.
Some similar conservation efforts for cotton farming practices include Bayer's CropScience's e3 sustainable cotton program.
Video Better Cotton Initiative
History
The Better Cotton Initiative started in a roundtable discussion by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 2005. Implementation of practices began in 2010 including regions and countries in Africa, as well as Brazil, India, and Pakistan. The initiative expanded to several other new countries in 2013 including China, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Mozambique.
Levi Strauss has released figures that donations to BCI between 2009 and 2011 were approximately $600,000.
Maps Better Cotton Initiative
Labor practices
Better Cotton Initiative advertises that it encourages fair work practices and reduction of child labor in countries such as India by raising public awareness. The company has also worked with an independent consultancy, Ergon Associates in 2012 in a study to create formal policies, training partnerships, and research on farmer incomes, safety, and labor.
Partners may use unannounced spot checks for work environments and conduct worker interviews to assess levels of child labor and bonded labor. The International Resources for Fairer Trade (IRFT) also organizes training sessions for work environments and topics on agronomics.
Criticism
Recently, independent studies and journalistic investigations have demonstrated that the Better Cotton Initiative was offering greenwashing solutions to firms or intermediate producers that are systematically resorting to child labour, forced labour, intensive irrigation or massive pesticide spraying. They have accused the Better Cotton Initiative to provide a marketable 'one-size-fits-all' consumer label to clothing firms that does not provide any information or guarantee in terms of social and environmental responsibility.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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