Farm Hub

June 5th - Happy World Environment Day!

Textile Exchange is proud to have partnered 24 of our member brands, retailers, manufacturers, and organic cotton producer groups for World Environment Day. Together we supported 12 local schools, many in the heart of an organic cotton growing community. 

We used the theme THINK EAT SAVE to promote food security and nutrition. We did this by raising school children’s awareness of the traditional food crops grown alongside cotton. Read more here.

We are delighted to announce our World Environment Day Ambassador, Siddhi Kushwah from the Swayam Academy in India. View Siddhi performing her WED message, and all our WED masterpieces here. Admire the children's preparation for WED on Pinterest! Click here.

The TE team would like to express our warmest gratitude to all our members and friends for their support and participation in WED. We would particularly like to thank all the wonderful children for their hard work and inspiring WED creations!

Farm & Fiber Report - Out Now!

Textile Exchange is delighted to announce the release of our 2012 Farm & Fiber Report. This year’s report once again builds upon the themes from our previous Farm & Fiber and Market Reports and provides you with unique data, trends and analysis of organic cotton production.

As with last year’s report, we have included annual snapshots of other cotton sustainability initiatives, including the Better Cotton Initiative, Fairtrade, and Cotton made in Africa, in order to give you the most comprehensive perspective on cotton agriculture.

For your reading pleasure, the report is broken out into 6 sections:

part 1: the report summary
part 2: cotton – towards a greener landscape
part 3: organic cotton – regional insights
part 4: a closer look at Fairtrade
part 5: cotton sustainability initiatives
part 6: organizations advancing cotton sustainability

We are offering this Report free of charge to you and your organization because we feel that this information is highly useful and should be widely dispersed. Please take advantage of this opportunity!

IIED publication: Voices and flavours of the earth: Visualising food sovereignty in the Andes

Voices and flavours of the earth: Visualising food sovereignty in the Andes  (Los Sabores y las Voces de la Tierra: Visualizando la Soberanía Alimentaria en los Andes) is a multimedia publication that uses video, audio, images and text to describe how indigenous communities are drawing on their knowledge and cosmovisions to rethink the priorities and governance of food and agricultural research in the Andean Altiplano of Bolivia and Peru. 

Download the full publication or individual chapters in English or Spanish here.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has emphasized the urgent importance of agro-ecological solutions to address the dismal state of U.S. agriculture which it describes as a "dead end". Citing how the country's industrial food production system has been detrimental to air, water, soil and human health, it says that agro-ecological farming or what it calls "healthy farms" are the way forward for sustainable food production and will be far better for the people, the environment and the economy.

It provides a clear description of what a healthy farm will be. First of all, a healthy farm will satisfy three critical indicators: high productivity; economic viability (which includes fair working conditions); and environmental stewardship. To meet these criteria, a healthy farm will be characterized by four factors: (1) multi-functionality, meaning that it serves food production as well as social, economic and environmental goals; (2) regeneration of soil and biodiversity; (3) biodiversity in choice of crops, livestock and land; and (4) interconnectedness with the environment around it. A healthy farm will thus necessarily apply the following ecological practices: (1) a landscape approach which optimizes the beneficial role of uncultivated areas on a farm; (2) the use of crop diversity and crop rotation; (3) integration of crops and livestock; and (4) the use of cover crops. Download the full report here.

Directory of IFOAM Affiliates 2013

The Directory of Affiliates 2013 not only includes an individual listing of the over 870 IFOAM Affiliates (Members, Associates, and Supporters) in 120 countries, it also provides an introduction to IFOAM's numerous groups.

To access the online Directory click here.

Please click here to download a PDF version of the Directory.