Southampton Sustainability Forum

Pick Your Cotton Carefully !
One-Day Conference  on  Saturday 25 October 2008, 10am – 4pm
at Southampton Solent University Conference Centre

Cotton has been used to make textiles for over 5,000 years and it still provides nearly half of all fibre needs worldwide.  It fuelled the industrial revolution in this country and “put the USA on the map”.  We all wear it, daily, but how much do we know about this plant and its importance to our history and our future?  There is growing awareness of the environmental challenges it poses (cotton uses a quarter of the world’s insecticides), and of the cotton garment industry adopting some of the most unethical trade practices on the planet.  We may struggle to take a stand, but are bewildered by the profusion of labels making “eco”, “green”, “ethical” and “fair trade” claims for textiles.

The Conference on Picking Your Cotton Carefully will be held in the Southampton Solent University Conference Centre, 157-187 Above Bar Street, in the heart of the city, within easy walking distance of the Central Station and Bus Terminus.

The Conference will be opened by John Denham MP, with contributions from experts on the ethics and practicalities of the cotton industry:

-Damien Sanfilippo, Cotton Project Coordinator, Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN),
-Jenny Ricks, Corporates Campaigner of ActionAid UK, who will speak about ActionAid’s “Who Pays?” supermarkets campaign, with particular focus on cotton garment manufacture,
-Monica Philbrick of the Traidcraft Producers’ Support Team,
-Christine Gent of IFAT – the International Fair Trade Association.

Other activities include:

-A Cotton Fair with display and sale of organic fairly-traded cotton garments,
-Cotton spinning and hand-loom weaving, by the Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers,
-A Display of the History of the Cotton Industry,
-Optional Short Films (”Moral Fibre: Organic Cotton” and “White Gold”)
-A one-hour Discussion with the audience.

Further details and registration forms from cotton-conf@fair-trade-southampton.org.uk

There is wheel-chair access.  The entrance charge is £3
For more information contact: www.fair-trade-southampton.org.uk