First issue: The input of the organic cotton industry are very big
There is no doubt the human resources of organic cotton industry are big, and the cost of it are rocketry increase in recently years. Those are the issue effect people to misunderstand. According to the business representative of Mecilla LTD, Fung Lo, the salary of local workers usually between 70-110 RMB, and now is about 100-150 RMB. ' Compare to the traditional cotton industry, it doesn't mean that the development cost of are way bigger than traditional cotton industry. ' Fung continue' Because the cost of fertilizer and agricultural chemical are increase, somehow to a large extant situation, if we use the farm manure and farmland soil can offset the cost. So, in overall the cost of organic cotton industry are not always better than the traditional cotton industry.
Second issue: The output of organic cotton industry are very low
In the early production period, the organic cotton industry production system usually will drop down the production quantity. But in the long terms, if the organic cotton industry grow up regularly, not only the output can be as much as the traditional cotton industry, but also can over the output of traditional cotton industry. Somehow, the production quality and the mass of production of the organic cotton industry are far away better than the traditional one if the grow up are regularly. The re presenter of ' Pu Han Community ' said' In first year we did the production which was 2010, we admitted that the production mass were drop down,but in the upcoming year which was 2011, the production mass rebounded and over the traditional cotton production.
Third issue: The organic cotton items should be high price
It is normal when the input high, the output low,the sell price will be high.In the market of organic cotton product we can see some of the organic cotton items are expensive than traditional one,people sell as the high end gifts.Some reporter of our Journal saw some cooperative sell the 4 pieces gift box as 200RMB. But in the 'Pu Han Community' cooperative selling the organic products with market price as the traditional cotton products.
Fourth issue: Organic cotton industry can be mass production
' First of all, if the organic cotton industry develop widely, how can we get enough farmland soil to do develop? ' said the Deputy Director of YongJi Agriculture Bureau. In 'Pu Han Community ' , the main reason why the can grow up welly is the members of cooperative can feed the livestock at the same time to ensure the input of the farmland soil. However, not only the agriculture effect itself. YongJi website editor said' The technology of organic cotton are mature, but the key point effect the industry are about the environment, for example the air, landfill, and water, those conditions are hard to control by human being. So, we want the place can fulfill the production standard thought Marco to Micro are very hard in my opinion. '
Nowadays in mainland, the organic cotton market are chaos, it prove that the grow of the organic cotton industry are not healthy, it harms the organic products in market become flood and can' t be certification in market. So, it we want to grow the very mature organic cotton industry, there are still long way to go.
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View the photo gallery from the 2012 Sustainable Textiles Conference in Hong Kong.
This year, Textile Exchange is partnering with EcoTextile News, Messe Frankfurt, and Planet Textiles to bring you the premier 2012 Sustainable Textiles conference in Hong Kong, October 4 and 5. This event will be hosted at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, running in conjunction with Interstoff Asia Essential - Autum Fair .
Prior to the conference, Textile Exchange will also be hosting the inaugural meeting of the Organic Cotton Round Table in Hong Kong on October 3; this is a seperate event with limited invitations, click here for complete details about the round table.
2012 Sustainable Textiles Conference – Hong Kong
Innovation, Impacts, Investment, and Integrity
Inspiration for tomorrow’s solutions
This annual conference is a global gathering of key players and industry leaders representing the entire value chain from fiber to fashion discussing sustainability challenges and solutions from raw materials extraction to end of life.
The 2012 global event will balance inspiring plenary speakers with action-oriented discussions and forums that cover important aspects of sustainability in textiles. Conference attendees will build their own knowledge, while also contributing to industry knowledge. Through sharing and collaboration, attendees of the Sustainable Textiles Conference can expect to have a role in shaping tomorrow’s solutions. The conference agenda and speakers were designed to inspire the textile sustainability community, and to address their specific needs. The most current issues and solutions will be discussed and debated through plenary sessions and smaller, goal-oriented breakout sessions. For those involved in textile sustainability or would like to be, this is the premier event of this year.
COMPANIES that ATTENDED - Final List as of October 6, 2012
333 attendees from 201 companies joined us for the Hong Kong Conference.
Adarsh Knitwear (P) Ltd | Invista |
adidas Group | Jiaxing Jiecco Fashion Co. Ltd. |
adidas Sourcing Ltd. | Jockey |
Agricultural Commodity & Service Cooperative | Journal for Asia on Textile and Apparel |
Agrocel Industries Limited | Kingwhale Industrial Corp. |
Aid by Trade Foundation | Kowa Company |
Alps International | Lekos Dye & Finishing |
Anvil Knitwear, Inc. | Lenzing Fibers Ltd. |
APLF Ltd | Li & Fung (Trading) Ltd. |
Appachi Cotton Company/Ethicus | Made-BY |
Armstrong Spinning Mills Ltd. | Mahima Fibres Pvt. Ltd. |
Avery Dennison | Marks & Spencer |
Bang Consortium | Marks & Spencer (Asia Pacific) Limited |
Bayer CropScience | Mecilla Project |
Bergman/Rivera SAC | Men Chuen Fibre IND CO.,LTD |
Biocoton India Pvt Ltd | Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd |
BioSustain Tanzania Limited | Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH |
Biov8tion | Migros (HK) Ltd. |
Black Diamond | Mondial Asia, Shanghai Office |
Blu Skye Consulting | Mondial News |
Bluesign Technologies AG | Mountain Equipment Coop |
Bogner Services Hong Kong LTD | MP International |
Bros Holding Ltd. | Muji Global Sourcing Pte Ltd |
Brown and Wilmanns Environmental LLC. | NatureUSA |
Bureau Veritas Hong Kong Ltd. | NatureWorks LLC |
C&A Buying Brussels | New Balance |
Champion Joy Trading / Gap | New Wide Group |
Chetna Organic Agriculture Producer Co. Ltd. | Nike 360 Holding B.V. |
Chetna Organic Farmers Association | Nike, Inc. |
Chia Her Industrial Co., Ltd. | Nimkartek Technical Services Pvt. Ltd. |
China Water Risk | NingBo ShenZhou Knitting Co. Ltd. |
Clariant (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. | Nordstrom |
Clariant Chemicals China | Nordstrom Product Group |
Clariant Corporation USA | Novozymes |
Clariant International | OEKO-TEX® ASSOCIATION |
Control Union Certifications Bangladesh | Olah, Inc. |
Control Union Certifications China | OrganiMark/Organic Freedom Project |
Control Union Certifications Far East | Orta Anadolu Tic. Ve San. Tas |
Control Union Certifications India | OTIS College of Art & Design |
Control Union Certifications Sri Lanka | Otto Group (Otto GmbH & Co KG) |
Cotton Incorporated | Panoco Trading Co. Ltd. |
Cotton Made In Africa | Patagonia |
CottonConnect China | Pickering International, Inc. |
CottonConnect Global | Polartec, LLC |
CottonConnect South Asia Pvt. Ltd. | Portico Brand Group/Under the Canopy/FASE |
Coyuchi | PPR |
Crystal Group | prAna |
CSR Consultancy Ltd. | Pratibha Syntex Pvt. Ltd. |
Desigual | Profits Fund Fashion Manufacturing Ltd. |
DFU Publications | PT Indorama Synthetics TBK |
Dibella B.V. - Netherlands/Germany | Puma |
DuPont | Quiksilver Asia Sourcing Ltd. |
DuPont Industrial Biosciences | Ramatex |
DuPont Industrial BioSciences/Danisco Singapore | Redress |
DyStar China Ltd. | REI |
DyStar Group | Remei AG/bioRe |
Easipower Company Limited | RESET Carbon Limited |
Eclat Textile Co., Ltd. | Ryohin Kikaku Co., Ltd. |
EcoCert Japan Ltd. | Sae-A |
ECOM Agroindustrial Asia Pte. | Sanko Tekstil Inc. |
EcoTextile News | Sapphire International Ltd. |
Ecovision / Ecozine | Seatoman Holdings Ltd. |
Egedeniz Tekstil A.S. | SGS Consumer Testing |
Eileen Fisher, Inc. | SGS Consumer Testing Hong Kong Ltd. |
Esprit de Corp (Far East) Ltd. | Shanghai Horizon Garment Co., Ltd |
Esprit Europe Services GmbH | Sing Shun Knitting FTY. LTD. |
Esquel Agrotechnology | Soil Association |
Esquel Group | Solidaridad China |
Everest Textile | Solidaridad South & South East Asia |
Fairtrade Hong Kong Foundation | Solidaridad The Netherlands |
Fairtrade International | Stella McCartney |
FITI Testing & Research Institute | Suminter India Organics PVT LTD |
Freudenberg & Vilene Int. Ltd. | Super Spinning Mills Ltd. |
Garnietex | Sustainable Apparel Coalition |
Glen Raven Custom Fabrics | Sustainable Fashion Business Consortium |
Global Merino | TAL Apparel Limited |
Global Organic Textile Standard / GOTS | Target Corporation |
Goodwill Industries | TASTE-Technical Assistance for Sustainable Trade and Environment |
Greenpeace East Asia | Tchibo GmbH |
Greenpeace International | Tchibo Merchandising Hong Kong LP |
G-Star Raw C.V. | Teijin Frontier Co., Ltd. |
H&M | Tejidos Royo S.L |
HeiQ Materials AG | Tesco International Sourcing |
Hellmann Worldwide Logistics | Texanlab Laboratories Pvt., Ltd. |
Hemp Fortex Industries Ltd. | Textile Exchange |
Hess Natur-Textilien GmbH | Textiles - The International Magazine of The Textile Institute |
HK Clothing Industry Training Authority (CITA) | Thai Alliance Textile Co., Ltd. |
Hohenstein Laboratories (HK) Ltd. | The Asian Textile and Apparel Monthly |
Hong Kong Non-Woven Fabric | The North Face Inc. |
Hoss Intropia | The Rajlakshmi Cotton Mills, Pvt. Ltd. |
HPO HK LIMITED | Tri-Link Apparel Ltd. |
HUEREN OHG Professional Outfits | TV Osaka |
Huntsman Textile Effects | Unifi Textiles (Suzhou) Co., Ltd |
Hurriyet Daily News | VF Corporation |
Hussain Mills Limited | Vision International Ltd. |
ICCO | Volcom, Inc. |
ICEA | Wendler Interlining Hk Ltd. |
Internet Textile San. Ve Tic.A.S. | WGSN |
InterPolymer Solutions Inc. | Williams-Sonoma, Inc. |
Intertek Testing Services Hong Kong Ltd. | Women's Wear Daily |
Yakaar Niani Wulli |
SPONSORS (current as of September 14, 2012)
Thank you to our current 2012 Hong Kong Sponsors for making this event possible:
Cocktail Reception Sponsors
Lenzing Fibers Nike, Inc.
Exhibit Room Sponsors
Bayer CropScience DuPont Industrial Biosciences Orta Anadolu Patagonia Pratibha Syntex
Friend of Conference Sponsors
Clairant International Egedeniz Textile Eileen Fisher Esquel Group Fairtrade International Huntsman Textile Effects Kowa Company
Nordstrom Novozymes PT Indorama Remei AG/bioRe Sanko Textile SGS SA Texas Organic Cotton Coop
Conference T-Shirt Sponsor Conference Bag Sponsor
NatureUSA Disney Consumer Products
URL: http://textileexchange.org/event/2012-sustainable-textiles-conference-hong-kong
]]>Since the pollution harms the agriculture a lots, food safety problems happened,the cooperative become the hope for solve these problem. From the research, there have 67000 cooperative with Business registration. But there are one problem so many cooperative, it is about the quality. At the same time, some of the cooperative which running in good ways and being good developed are stand out. The cooperative from Shanxi Yongji believed on the promotion of organic and Comprehensive Agricultural Association business model, so it become the business model of cooperative in mainland China. They got 3865 crew and 773 team in this cooperative, the production handled by the leader, all process will through the Unified soil testing , Unified prevention medication , Unified seed, Unified technical training, Unified standard sales, we want the greatest degree for avoid the quality hazard. Recently, one of the journalist from China Securities Journal was going to ' Pu Han Community' and their apartments for discover the how the cooperative running their business and the developments.
Develop the Organic Agriculture
The 46 years old female farmer, Zheng Bing, being response for 22 cooperative.
In 1998, Zheng' s, he started up the “ Zhaizi technology center” which is based on agricultural sales as a service target at Yellow River Beach. In 2001, she started the woman association, and the following become the first Farmers' Association with Home registration in mainland China. In 2007, there were other 28 cooperative registered and started with organic crops. Nowadays, because of the lead from Zheng Bing, ' Pu Han Community ' became social services and business collect as main line, the cooperative as the core value, and there the big Integrated community included 14 pieces of plates, and cover two villages, 43 sub-villages and 3865 crews.
In between, there are 22 cooperative tried to plant some organic crops, and promote. According to the ' Pu Han Community ' in 10 year plan, in 2017, the 80000 Mu of the members will divide 30000 Mu for organic crops. Based on the mentioned of Zheng Bing, it already had 9000 Mu era for organic crops.
' In promotion of organic crops, they step by step. Before the cooperative, the youth organic agricultural farm already test and demonstration for 3 years. On the official promotion, we tried with make assumptions boldly; find proofs with care. 'said Zheng Bing.
On the bottom of traditional way of agricultural, we will started from landfill recover, we won' t use the fertilizers and pesticides, and we change it into organic composting, also we will use pepper water, marsh leaf, vinegar to insect repellent.
' People may think the organic agricultural will sacrifice production. According to the data in recently two years, the production of corns, wheat and cotton are same production level with the traditional way. ' The organic corns production level are higher than than traditional one for 300-400 jin in 1 Mu. ' said Zheng Bing.
In price way, the price of organic crops are much higher than the traditional one. As the running of the cooperative and Zheng Bing mentioned, the corns from organic agricultural have the higher price than the traditional for 1 cent in each jin. It increase the product competitiveness, we can see the organic crops able to bring the good benefits.
However, organic agricultural as green agricultural, it already has been the broad affirmation of the community, but the process of the promotion are not really effective. Here is the view of the deputy director of the Agriculture Bureau in yongji about ' Pu Han Community ' to develop organic agricultural, it relate to the cooperative' s Organization in ' Pu Han Community ' . He kept explain his points of views, ' Nowadays, the selling model trend to turn into ' company + headquarter+ Farmers ' , but now is far complex from that, for example, lets talk about the organic cotton. In the process of organic cotton agricultural, they both use piece of production base, but the different is they still got the organization of cooperative, so that they achieved they rules of supervision and unified promotion, it made the organic cotton agricultural become successful.
Zheng Bing introduced to the reporter' In our cooperative,we have 3865 members, we defined into 733 group, every group we have 5 members, all production are supervise by the team leader, I believed it can solve the problems of quality. ' In the specific planting parts, the United Society impelled the cooperative to finished the 5 parts of united : Uniform soil testing with fertilizer, Unified prevention medication, Unified selection of seeds, Uniform technical training and Unified standard sales. In those from standard we believed it can strictly enforced. The more important parts is, through training by the United Society, the organic agricultural already deeply rooted into the mind of members, the developed of it is conceptual consciousness.
Comprehensive Agricultural Association into the direction of development
' Our biggest experience were about comprehensive development' the Urban and rural interactive person in charge of Pu Han Community who be responsible for buy and sell, Zhang Jinglong in the interview of China Securities Journal reporter said.
In recently years, Zhang Jinglong examined the professional cooperative from Jiangxi, Henan and some province in mainland. In his point of view, many of the cooperative can' t run over 3 years. And the reason he think is about the the develop model is not diversify and the scale is small.
Here are the reason why Pu Han Community can long last. Pu Han Community is the integrated large - scale community, not only about the core plate organic agricultural cooperative, but also about the economic class plate of youth organic farm and the iteration of urban and rural. And then is about the public services class of Old age recreational service department, Women's Cultural Activity Center, Health Association and Child Education, Community Farmer School and Ecological home.
Somehow, Bing told the reporter the reason why adhere to Comprehensive development for 15 years' To adhere economical and cultural can have benefits in same time. In one hand, it can provided the financial support for cultural activities, on the other hand, it can enhanced the cohesion of members, and then it can energize the develop of economical.
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Sociology researcher, Yang had done the research by visited the Po Han Community, She said' In the worldwide, the develop model like Pu Han community was existed before us. For example, in Japan, Korea and China Taiwan had already developed as a comprehensive model for many years. We grouped a delegation to visit Korea Agricultural Association, in the introduction they state clearly as a unified agricultural management system of Korea Agricultural Association. In Japan and China Taiwan, both of them claimed that they are developing the Comprehensive Agricultural Association.
In the views of Yang, the Comprehensive Agricultural Association is the way better than Professional cooperatives. ' Firstly, the crops of professional cooperative are not diversify compare tho the comprehensive agricultural association. Secondly, the economic function of professional cooperative are single compare to the comprehensive agricultural association. '
In 2013, the terms of ' Professional' was deleted by No.1 Central Document Focuses on Rural Issues, it clearly showed that the government want to develop the cooperatives model into the comprehensive agricultural association. The Director of Beijing Nonghe House Counseling Center who keep concern and supported the Comprehensive Agricultural Cooperative, Shi Yuan Cheng was interviewed by reporter, he told the reporter although the registered Comprehensive Agricultural Cooperative are still handful, but the future is bright. He said' The Comprehensive Agricultural Cooperative is the right way to solve agriculture, farmer and rural area problems. '
Without doubt the Comprehensive Agricultural Cooperative is diversify. Besides of ' Pu Han Community' , nowadays the small town in the coastal zone, like the Zhangjiagang City, Yonglian town,they don't move around,they way it developed is about gather the population, gather the industry and agricultural, economic and social comprehensive development.It is kind of new type development model.
Multi - level market docking
In recently year, the overstock issue of agricultural products happened, it caucusing widespread concern in society. How the solo farmer connected with the market become the hot issue, that' s why the advantages of Comprehensive Agricultural Cooperative become the hope.
In Pu Han Community, the agricultural products by organic agricultural cooperative can external sale because of the interaction between urban and rural. Besides of the ' Company+ Cooperation' business model, there have the traditional dealer acquisition and the direct docking selling model. In direct docking model,last year it has been started, mainly we distributed the the organic products produced by the cooperative to the community citizens from Yuncheng and Yongji City directly. From now on, it already developed ton 400 of households, the sale accounting for urban and rural interaction overall sales about 10% - 15%, in the views of Zhang Jinglong, the key factor why it can be success is it fulfill the concept with customers in organic foods. The food safety issue being concerned, customers trend to care about the health of foods, so the organic foods being popular. Zhang Jinglong tried to extend this kind of business model.
In the way of dealer purchases, Zhang said' We lack of communication with dealer used be, and we take the lesson of overstock, so we extend the introduction of the intensity of the dealer to solved the problems. ' Another views of Zhang, he think the reason why many of the dealer willing to come because we unified acquitted the organic products and it can be able to directly deal with the docking. ' It can cut down the purchase cost and unified satisfactory the specifications. In path of the selling price, the effect of the unified sales is clear. United Society can through the interaction of urban and rural made the better price than directly connect with the dealer.
Here is the ' Company+ Cooperative' business model. Started from 2011, the united society to carry out substantive cooperation with Mecilla LTD from Hong Kong, the Mecilla LTD responded to unified acquisitive the organic cotton produces by unified society, In past two years, it had been already cumulative acquisitive about 17-18 million tons.
Mecilla LTD Business presenter, Lu Feng told the reporter' There are three reason we use Company+ Cooperative business model: Low cost, Low raise+ Customers requested. '
'This business model can also cut down the operational risk.'The agricultural is the high input,long return,far output industry,if the production and operation risk is high if directly run but company.On the other hand,the chairman of Mecilla LTD,Tong Yeung told the reporter'We developed the organic cotton,it is hard to supervise with over 10000 clients by ourselves, unified society can.
'Company+Cooperative'business bring the good profits to unified society,Mecilla LTD purchased the organic cotton from it over 20-25% by market price.
Can the 'Company+ Cooperative' business model achieve Win-Win it depends on the quality of cooperative. Yeung said' Before we found Po Han Community,we faced lots of troubles. ''Nowadays, lots of cooperative are irregular,organizational power is weak. '
Enhance own- hematopoietic function
Started from 2007, the phenomenon of fake cooperative is very serious, some of it were tried to Cheat the country' s preferential policies and support funds.
When we talk about the problem of the cooperative irregular, Bing said' We are not mainly want to grab money from government. We want to gather the members,also the buy and sell,become the complete united.If we only rely on the money paid by government,we can really build up the health business model. But if we use the money by ourselves I believed that it can be the motivation to build up the business and it can be more easy to set the rules. ' He told the reporter ' But somehow,there is some divergence between it.In 2007 to 2009, it had 6 cooperative take the initiative to withdraw from unified society. ' They just try to grab money from government. ' said Bing.
At the results, those 6 cooperative can' t run it long when it withdraw from unified society.
By no mean, the cooperative need money. In Zheng' s point of views, he think the most important part is the cooperative itself should build up the internal money cycle. The bottom of Pu Han community was about agricultural shop, and it grow up regularly till now, we formed a certain amount of capital accumulation. Besides of it, the members need to pay certain of fund for daily running, when the unified through the interaction between urban and rural to sell and buy, it will define 60% as the from of in kind to members, 20% will define to community services, and the rest of 20% will define as provident fund, it is the way to fulfill the need of develop the society.
In last September, head of the Department of Financial Services, Miss Wang told the reporters, ' We aims are not extend the credit amount like Fuping Micro Credit Limited, we want to help the develop of society. ''After the establishment of financial services department for just half years, it already has been cumulative payment of loans 10 million RMB, it help out 600 members, and we glad to see the repayment rate is 100%. Wang kept saying' On the one hands, we provides low loans interest. On the other hand, we won' t set the time limited to our clients. ' The money of Department of Financial Services is all from the members they paid for the rent and crops sales, it become the healthy money cycle.
Source:中国证券报·中证网
URL: http://www.cs.com.cn/ssgs/hyzx/201303/t20130307_3887530_3.html
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What Is World Environment Day?
The United Nation’s World Environment Day is an annual event that is aimed at being the biggest and most widely celebrated global day for positive environmental action.
The World Environment Day celebration began in 1972 and has grown to become one of the main vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment. This year the theme is THINK EAT SAVE.
The awareness-raising starts now and culminates on the 5th of June.
What Are We Doing?
Textile Exchange is proud to be partnering 24 of our members: from brand and retailers and manufacturers to organic cotton producer groups. Together we are supporting 12 local schools, many in the heart of an organic cotton growing community.
We are using the theme THINK EAT SAVE to promote food security and nutrition. We are doing this by raising school children’s awareness of the traditional food crops grown alongside cotton. These are nutritious edibles such as sorghum, millet, chickpeas, mubovora (pumpkin) and paddy. Some of these crops have been around a long time but are at risk of disappearing. They are important for the biodiversity of our plant, adaptation to climate change, as well as for their nutritional value.
How Does the Theme Fit With TE’s Work?
Since we work closely with organic cotton farmers around the world, we thought a great way to raise awareness of crop diversification - and give something back to these communities - would be to provide a learning experience for the children. Each child from the 12 designated schools gets to create a masterpiece of art or craft – “From the field to my plate” - looking at the different food crops, grown alongside the cash crops (cotton), that they enjoy eating on a regular basis.
The competition will not only be about the various foods grown in organic cotton fields but how the child will pitch the advantages of local, safe, fresh food production, cooking and the importance of nutrition, to their schoolmates, parents, and teacher.
Our Partners
We are thrilled to be partnering 24 organizations; representing the entire cotton value chain (farmers, manufacturers, brands and retailers) from around the world! This partnership allows us the unique opportunity to reach directly to the schools, support their education, and form a true partnership for World Environment Day.
Sponsors | Local Champions | Schools |
bgreen apparel | Bio Kishovarz Co-op (Tajikistan) | Bobojon Gafurov, Sughd Region |
C&A Foundation | Mahima (India) | Swayam Academy, Dhar |
Dibella | Agrocel (India) | Padampar Primary School, Rapar, Kachchh |
Esquel | Esquel (China) | Schools of Gongliu, Bachu, and Urumqi Counties |
Inditex | Mecilla (China) | Special Ed. Unit, Children's Palace, Guangzhou |
Loomstate | Appachi (India) | Nachiar Vidyalayam, Tamil Nadu |
Otto Group | OBEPAB/Helvetas Benin (Africa) | Batia Public Elementary School, Dept. of Atacora |
Patagonia | bioRe Tanzania (Africa) | Dakama Primary School, Meatu District |
Pants To Poverty | Bio Farmer Co-operative (Kyrgyzstan) | Secondary School No 24, Oblastkyrgyzstan |
PUMA | Chetna (India) | Tribal Residential School, Bandhapari, Odisha |
Quiksilver | Pratibha (India) | Vasudha VidyaVihar, Indore |
Textile Exchange | ESPLAR (Brazil) | Campanha de Fortalecimento da Agricultura Familiar |
What Is Each Partner Doing?
Without the support of our friends in both the producing and the retail countries this activity would never have been possible.
There are two layers of support:
The local champion is doing most of the work (outside of the kids of course!). This person is responsible for contacting the school, assisting the teachers on the education side and is also the judge of the first round.
In the retail countries the participating companies are supporting the producer liaison by helping cover the costs and providing the prizes. Each participating school (irrespective of whether they win or not) receives a certificate and 100 Euro prize of their choice - books and/or sports gear The overall winning school receives an extra prize and becomes the Textile Exchange World Environment Day Ambassador 2013!
What Happens Next?
1st – 17th May School children will be busy at work with their assignment.
Each Producer Group or Manufacturing partner will be responsible for the first round of judging. Up to
10 finalists will make it through to the next round.
20th May Photos of the 10 finalists’ artwork will be sent to their company partner for the next round of judging.
24th May The winners from each school will be selected by the sponsoring company
29th May Winners from each school will be posted on the Textile Exchange website. Voting commences for the overall winner and a runner-up.
5th June WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY! The winner and runner up will be announced.
The winner will become the Textile Exchange World Environment Day Ambassador!
What Happens Next?
1st – 17th May School children will be busy at work with their assignment.
Each Producer Group or Manufacturing partner will be responsible for the first round of judging. Up to
10 finalists will make it through to the next round.
20th May Photos of the 10 finalists’ artwork will be sent to their company partner for the next round of judging.
24th May The winners from each school will be selected by the sponsoring company.
29th May Winners from each school will be posted on the Textile Exchange website. Voting commences for the overall winner and a runner-up.
5th June WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY! The winner and runner up will be announced.
The winner will become the Textile Exchange World Environment Day Ambassador!
What Can You Do To Get Involved?
We would love YOU to spread the word about our participation in World Environment Day. Tell your friends, link from your website, write a story, social media us (twitter, facebook). Anything you can say would be nice!
Follow the childrens' progress... To view photographs from the schools involved - check us out on Pinterest! Click Here
For more information please do not hesitate to contact:
Carlotta Cataldi carlotta@textileexchange.org
or
Liesl Truscott liesl@textileexchange.org
original sketches by Carlotta Cataldi
nterested In Finding Out More About This Topic?
Textile Exchange Report: A Snapshot of Crop Diversification in Organic Cotton Farms (pdf)
Cooking with Traditional Crops Improves Nutrition and Boosts Women's Income (IDRC)
Blog on Family Farming (International Land Coalition)
Source from: http://farmhub.textileexchange.org/farm-library/world-environment-day-think-eat-save
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Here is the written record:
Your Excellencies and guests, Dear friends. I am Tong Yeung from Mecilla LTD. The main business of our company is about the organic cotton promotion and production. Started from 2010, my crew and Mr Zheng, included the crew handle the social sustainable agriculture and some youngsters to discover the suitable way to start the new model of sustainable agriculture. In recently, we had been hold the' Organic cotton experts exchange meeting ', we let the experts from Swiss, USA and Israel etc get into the community and see how it is developing the modern organic cotton industry. We spent many time to bond with the on Procurement research and improvement aspects of irrigation water, composting technology, marketing strategy, non-transgenic seeds, and the promotion on Ecological diversity etc. Beyond the theory, we did the discuss, experiment and detract very deeply.
I am from Hong Kong, I am not the people who grow up from rural, so it is my pleasure when I had the chance get into the the deep sides of rural and did the commerce with the locals and see what can we do as a Hong Kong people. We summed up some issue and challenge which hinder the community be more organic. We did lots of consideration on advance the community, and what role can we be and what way should we put effort on, while the process of whole community to develop the sustainable agriculture. For example, we look forward to the international certification, because we knew what the market of Hong Kong, USA and Swiss needs. Somebody asked about can the products from the community be certificate by international. What I say is definitely able to do it, we got two system to match up, although the outcome may not fulfill our expects at the moment, but we will keep pushing and improving till it can one day. In upcoming years we prior to carry and try the non-transgenic cultivation, effective irrigation and the collective composting, we tried in small scale in the beginning. Last year, we through the supported from peers and we developed the first experimental farm, which is for us to try some new way on on-transgenic cultivation, effective irrigation and the collective composting, if the results is good we will share our profits through the cooperative to the locals, if the results is not in process, we will do it better in future. Those are the reason why we did the experimental farm.
Beyond to the hard work of discuss and cooperation with the locals in recently years, it is not by chance, because we aims to recover the land fertility, we met Mr Zheng and his teams when we knew we got same faith on recover the land fertility and turn it to organic and be more sustainable development, we want to last the land fertility in long terms and also increase the Per mu. Those are the first point we collected with the community as the base. To be simple we have two more points, and the second point is about the talent. In Hong Kong and Guangzhou, there are many talent who received higher education are now willing to services for the community, we can find the talent from the school, we provided the perform for the community and let the talent stick together, we can let the people from urban to get more in touch not only what skills they need in agriculture, but also train up their ability of agricultural technology and management skills. I am so lucky because one of my crew who had been Holland studied master degree, and he is well in sustainable agriculture , beside of that he can get along with the locals very welly , although he can find the well pay job on urban but he still choose to work with us with the faith of develop the community. We are glad that we can work with the talent in agricultural community, because we forecast the future of the organic agricultural are very brightly. We are now the tools of help out the talent to grow up and work together with Mr Zheng' s community, maybe one day they can help out the others community who need to develop the organic agricultural. Those are the reason why we need the talents.
The last point is about combination of town and country, we knew not everyone want to spent their rest of the life on rural and being a framer. But one day, as I remember it was 04-05-2007, I got a chance to given the speech by Premier Wen Jiabao in China Agricultural University. In the talk, he mentioned that every professional in different category should contribute on agriculture, farmer and rural area. I am strongly agree with it till now, we hope that we can build up the 'apartments of Urban and Rural integration' in Hong Kong. Our team visited some design school or college, we gave the concept of where the clothes come from. We told them the framer is the one who start it first. We also told them, they are using the cotton which is the hard work by farmers, so they should design the suitable fabric to fit in the market by their talent.
Just do some record about I mentioned about the land healing with cooperation, build up the Experimental farm, this kind of mode is going to improve recently, the next steps of us is about organize a tour to visit the community see what is the circumstances of it with the teachers, students and the fashion brand manager. At the end i want to say thank you to Mr Zheng, because he provided us the chance to make the dream came true and I want to say thank you to the youngsters who help out the community with so much efforts, you guys help us a lots. Also I want to say thank you to my mecilla's crew, because of you we can stand out till now stably. To sum up there are land healing, fine talent, rural and urban integration with culture combine. Hope we can last forever, Thank you!
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Director of China of International Cotton Association, Karin Malmstrom said the low price manpower is not the key factor of sustainable development, all parties need to be mutual coexistence to reach stronger suppler chain cooperation. In 2013, if the price of cotton can be more stable, the demand will keep strong, with no doubt there still have some variable factor, like the weather and Government policy etc.
Senior Vice President of Global Procurement of GAP INC, Mr,YU shared some latest model of procure strategy and the situation of global retail market. He mentioned, some in-house brand of GAP and sale channel were change their develop strategy from centralized purchasing to classification management procurement. This strategy can let the trading method into more long-lasting relationship, somehow it can identify the important partnership, it can let the trading become more flexible and effective.
The Chairperson of Mecilla Limited, Mr Tong shared some the opinion on cotton sustainable development and further organic cotton development. He emphasized that, nowadays only few of the protocol is about sustainable developments. Cotton cultivation is one of the framing process that can bring advantages to social, environment and business etc.
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Shanxi Yongji is the Integrated Farmer Cooperative Organization that over two townships, cover 43 villages, own 3865 members, have over 40 professional cooperative and it combine the economic cooperation and public services at the same time, it has been developed over 15 years. Someone said Pu Han Community is the only place that really mean to' Comprehensive Agricultural '.
Despite Pu Han became popular, people and thing in here are still introverted moderate. When the others cooperative facing the development bottlenecks and the government not in fully support, but Po Han Community is still stay strong.
In this 15 years, they grow from seed into tree.
Yongji is the place located in Shanxi Province of southwest corner, and it can look through Shaanxi Province beside of the Yellow River. 'Pu'zhou, 'Han' Yang are located in county southwest, so it name as 'Pu Han' . Started off from country along to country road, it takes about 20 minutes to be there, the place where created the Pu Han Township villages, and it is the hard-quarter of Pu Han.
The community directer, Zheng Bing who married her husband who are from Zhaizi villages many years ago. In 1998, Zheng Bing' s couple who run the agricultural shop founded the Zhaizi technology center, it provided the agricultural technology services to the farmers fro free. After that, Bing organized group of feminine for dancing, and then to carry out plenty of cultural activities for woman, in 2001 it developed as a woman's cultural activity center. Somehow in 2003, because of the male member keep increasing, Bing changed the woman' s cultural activity center into Farmer' s Association, finally in 2004, she registered as a ' Yongzhou City Puzhou Town Farmers Association' at Civil Affairs Bureau.
In 2007, because of the [ Law of the People ' s Republic of China on Farmers' Professional Cooperatives ], the association changed into cooperative. Till now, the community is still based on the Yongzhou City Puzhou Town Fruit Association. Started from that day, the cooperative can finally can extend their features into the business era. At the beginning, both of those 8 cooperative organization all failed on second year of founded, absorb the experience of failed, the community started to invited the youngsters to join, and it was the based of professional cooperative. After the running the business with different kind of cooperative, finally it firmed with 43 of professional cooperative, 18 of they registered, it became the Organic Agriculture Association of Pu Han community. Besides of cooperative's era, the community included the Handicraft cooperatives, urban and rural interactive centers, youth organic farms.
After they build up the mature operating module, the cooperative is continuous improving and rich the public services quality. According to the Community Financial Accounting Center Officer, Zhang Jinglong mentioned, every year of produce benefits would defined as 4 parts: First it would be saving for future develop, and the rest would be 60% pay back for members , 20% for the accumulation of provident fund, another 20% would be community chest for develop the public services.
Because of Bing, the Pu Han community can grow up from agricultural shop into the Large - scale integrated farmer cooperative organization from mainland in 15 years developed.
Serve all the needs of members
To all their need, the Po Han community tried their best to enrich member' s need. Not only about the need on economic, but also the public services. According to Bing, cooperative need to provides invisible help besides of economic services.The ultimate pursuit of value and goal is about better life and better future.
In economic way, community can provides unified buy and sell services. In community, it have founded 5 agricultural shops, the farmers not only about discount of crops, but also can credit and share the bonus by the trading volume. Zhang Jinglong, who run the agricultural shop before said' We directly purchase the goods from dealer, it can cut down the 200 RMB cost in the middle of purchase one tones. '
In agricultural shop, the reporter found dozens of boxes instant noodle, those of it were physical rebate. In Pu Han, all dividends are define as physical rebate, through this process comply the unified procurement of lifestyle products to decrease the cost of individual purchase cost. Farmers can through the sell the goods from the community, and base on the trading volume to enrich the physical rebate. ' The member can get what they need by credit. ' said Zhang.
The community can also help out some of the members to sell the agricultural crops and handicrafts, and the interaction of urban and rural become the key point. Those goods will handle by cooperative, it take the response to acquisitive settlement, and resell to the dealers or customers. It is good for dealers because it drop down the cost; It is also good for farmer because it become the tools to connect with dealers. The community can gain profits by the difference of prices, and the money will use on the public services. In last years, the community reached 6000000 RMB profits. Zhang think it can reach 20000000 RMB in this year. Besides of trading business, the community can provides the full services on production processes, it showed how important of community was. The community will sent the professional staffs, to supervise the process of use the medicate and fertilizer and they will provide the technology training. Beside of that, the Youth organic farm will responsible for pre-trial, it can help the members stick in the right track.
Because of the capital requirements from members, organic cooperative founded the Financial Services Department. When all of the members for cooperative became the share holds, they can enjoy pure credit mutual financial service about maximum 30000 RMB of amount. According to the responsible person, Wang Bian e, currently issued more than 700 loans, the total amount over 10000000.
Despite the community covered very comprehensive, but there is farmer something they need to take response, it about follow the technical regulation. If the framer joined the community, he/she can reach the technology, financial, buy and sell support, and he/she can depends on the trading volume to enrich the physical rebate.
Besides of the those different kind of services apartment mentioned, it have the independent financial accounting center. ' Every unit will do the unified accounting, all business settlement will implement by accounting center.
Back to nature, be organic
In the head of village, there is a small building, the restaurant and tea house of the community are there. There is a cafe which have chairs, a few of tables and magazine for members to take a rest on the second floor of tea house. When you get into the cafe, there is the a large balcony with fruits on tables, people can enjoy the sun bathing and beautiful side-view of Pu Han on it. From this kind of views can show the passion of Pu Han' s people.
Every time when Zheng Bing having the talk, she must be mentioned about how much passion she has, and why she don' t like the urban. She mentioned' In the rural, I can get inspiration anytime, I feel exciting everyday, if I feel not well, I just need to take some break on balcony or take a ride around the community then I can set myself free. ' They stay close to the nature and reveal the true sentiments of it. That's why they can build up the faith on keep making organic products. Those faith is not about making huge money and focus on economic considerations, it all about the love for the community.
Every cooperative in the community will requested to use 1 acres of land for organic planting by unified organic cooperative. Nowadays, there are over 2000 members of the community doing the organic planting, it showed over 70% of member are doing organic agricultural. Organic Associates Officer Li Jinrong introduced that in the conversion period, they already got 3000 acres of lands for organic planting, there are over 10000 acres of lands are planning to become organic landfills. The foreign experts proved that there are beneficial inserts, it makes Bing felt proud and glad because it mean they done well.
Pu Han is not work for fame or grab money from urban. The community haven' t do any domestic organic certification, the price they sell is almost the same price as the normal agricultural products. For them, the only reason they do the organic agricultural is about they love the land and they want to protect it. In point of view from Bing, the main reason of agricultural products in price fluctuation situation because of they use chemical fertilizers and pesticides unreasonable and not responsible to customers. So started from 2008, every members of community need to do land conversion. Nowadays, the kitchen waste from village and breeding fertilizer become the hot items for organic agricultural farmers. Besides of that, vinegar and pepper water become the new tools. Somehow many of the tools of planting are discovered, like the sprinkle millet on land to avoid bird to peck or stick the poplar on land and attract inserts then burned.
Lo Feng, business representative of mecilla Ltd stayed at Pu Han. This company do the plant acquisition of organic cotton, in the top period, the total of plant area were over 1000 acres, they became the biggest client of organic products. Because mecilla Ltd have the same faith of product organic products, they choose to come Pu Han. In point of view of Feng, he think Pu Han community is the place doing actually for organic. ' Both of us do the organic agricultural not just for money, and not even work for special offer from government. What we aims is about transfer the soil and balance the cost and profits at the same time. We hired the the experts from Swiss Institute of Eco - Market to visited us, they proved by The European Union. They said Pu Han is doing well to maintain the Biological diversity welly, we are good to develop the organic agricultural. ' He think the way Pu Han are doing can be long last, because every members in Pu Han can plant in diversity ways and production is ensure norms of outputs.
Revive the lost of humanity in rural
There are 2 level small building in the village which is the handicrafts cooperatives headquarter. Those old spinning, sewing machine and the old scissors can be reborn nowadays because of the anabolism of handicrafts. The old home textile is hitting back and sell to Hong Kong. The head of the department Niu Shuqin interviewed by the reporters' Those old skills of handicrafts had interrupted for decades, many of the middle age woman still don' t know how to do it. But something has changed , started from 2004, the staffs from cooperative keep asking for advice from the elderly and it helped this industry to keep survive. Nowadays, many of the woman who joined the cooperative knew how to spinning, compare to the past, there are only few of the woman knew this kind of skills.
Before the founded of cooperative, no one will interested in traditional handicrafts. But when it founded, woman in community found the interests on doing the handicrafts, and the same time it become the part of income. Niu used help out her husband on running the restaurant, but someday when she had a chance to get in touch with the handicrafts which made her fell into. She started to turn to be full-time handicrafts workers, although the income is the way lower than used be by far. ' we are not work for money, we work for interested. ' We can see some of the young woman age about 20 who rather to work at Pu Han than the urban. The reason is because here can work with less pressure and keep learn new things. The members from community are keeping the visit for elderly every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, it aims to cultural heritage.
Wang aiqin, the head of the farming home service department, who response for pension, education, wedding etiquette etc. Every time when the members have wedding, they will provide the live band, banquet and waiter intermediary services. The services of community not only about cut down the cost for farmers, but also about to renew the good old days, some valuable tradition. ' We want to bring the traditional weeding etiquette to modern 21 country. '
The sole duty staff from association will handle a village, they will clean up the village one per week, both of them are voluntary lobar. In the very beginning, some of the people think this action is nonsense. ' In the beginning, three of us went to pick up some garbage bags, and then they laughed on us and thought we were stupid. But now, most of them will be conscious to clean up themselves, they felt embarrassed not to do it. In Pu Han, it seems that we can find the tradition of watch help in here.
In the holiday period, the local teenagers will be united by the community staffs to do some activity like hiking, visit field and floods, through those it may let the teenagers know more about their hometown, manager their life and build up the basic skills of agricultural. They will also take care of elderly. For the elderly who can't disable to move, they will response to coordination some of middle age woman who well in take care the elderly to services them one by one; To the rest of the elderly who lack of care but can able to move, they will provided a home which is empty with enough space to gather the elderly, there will be staff to take care of life diet and organized some entertainment. All the cost will be response by their children , but the community won't grab any profits from that.
The outcome of gradually restored of the care to society, traditional skills and etiquette, because of the self-management, collaborate with each other welly and not with external force. In Pu Han community , they treasure to each other's value because of the close collaboration, the reporter can faintly felt the humanity in rural has been back.
The government created a relaxed environment for Po Han community
During the community interview, the reporter tried to content with Yongji City and Puzhou Town government departments but failed. Because of the freedom given by government, Zheng jilong felt so thankful, he told the reporter' When we organize so big event, we must let the town officer know. They never interrupt us , we feel so good of it. The thing Zheng feel so proud is about Po Han never receive any money for government.
Zheng thanks to government for create the relaxed environment for Po Han in the different stages, especially for some of the high-level officers who gave so advice before. Despite of that, Pu Han are still seldom deal with the government a lots. In the beginning of the Pu Han, there were about 6 cooperative want the state subsidy, which not the faith of Zheng so they parted away.
Besides of Zhaizi village by railway, there is Houjiazhuang village. From the research, over 80% of farmers on there are members of Po Han community. The reporter interviewed the village party secretary, village committee directer, Hou Xinchao. The community staffs bring him to Hou' s home for interview. In Houjiazhuang, most of the officer they don't have official office, they usually work at home.