From Fashion to Sustainability- Organic Exchange at the World Congress on Organic Cotton

[Organic Exchange]

Welcome to our first Blog. Organic Exchange is a not-for-profit organisation established in 2001. Since then we, in collaboration with our members have dramatically increased the world’s market of sustainable fibre, predominantly with organic cotton. We help farmers to make the change to organic cotton production, empowering them to eliminate agro-chemicals, enrich soil, manage water, increase yields and produce a wider variety of crops. We strive for a good deal for farmers and fair working conditions for textile workers. We help fashion brands and retailers create a powerful story for their consumers with a transparent and socially responsible organic cotton supply chain.

Organic Exchange is constantly working with the ever changing world market. By organising and taking part in conferences worldwide we aim to bring together farmers, producers, retailers and educators to ensure constant communication through the supply chain. Together we make a world of difference. This week we have representatives at the World Congress on Organic Cotton, held in Switzerland. You can follow the link on our profile to find out more about this event. So far the congress has been a success; taking on a new form of audience participation has lead to an array of innovating concepts.

Here are some snippets from the conference so far…

Melchior Lengsfeld, HelvetasNobody can succeed in promoting organic and fair-trade cotton alone, it needs a lot of working together with the value chain to make them sustainable. And here we bring different interests together, farmers, processors, traders and retailers. They have different interests so it is important to create spaces to discuss openly the challenges ahead and understand each other.

Susanne Kreuz, BEST Design School, Berlin
Schools are responsible for the ecological consciousness of young fashion designers and other consumers. … This is a good opportunity for us to work together, because, it is only one world.

Andy Salm, Organic Exchange, Europe
To have that connection through the brands, right through the supply chain, to have real engagement down to the farmers, this is really essential. And what is really important is that the farmers are very well represented here, and that is a voice that is coming through very strongly.

To find more blips, twits and cover stories you can follow the conference at www.ocplatform.wordpress.com

More information will follow on the next step for Organic Exchange, so keep an eye on this blog and contribute any feed back or questions you may have.

We will leave you with this interesting aspect to the conference;

During one minute of silence this morning, we imagined our ideal future for organic cotton and a sustainable textile industry. These are some of the words that people came up with in their silent moment:

Phil Chamberlain, C&A: acceleration
Veronika Utz, German Development Service: linkage
David Bennell, Organic Exchange: partnerships
Kim Poldner, Eco Fashion World: connection

Feel Free to comment on this blog with some words you feel describe our ideal future for organic cotton and a sustainable textile industry.

[jacqueline]

wish i was there
next time maybe