TEACHING RESOURCE: The Real Price of Cotton

This teaching resource from Just Business is aimed at 14-19 year old Business Studies and Economics students, although fashion tutors at higher and further education level may also find it useful. The resource can be used to explore the social and environmental impact of the cotton industry from a business studies perspective.

The resource is available to borrow from Fashioning an Ethical Industry or to buy/download from the  Just Business website.

The Real Price of Cotton is a text-book style resource that contains case-study material that can be photocopied, resource sheets and data. The activities include:

- The real price of cotton: group activity exploring the cost of cotton in its social, environmental (externalities) and monetary sense and why the price does not reflect the overall costs of cotton production.

- Cotton choices: Students decide where to set up a factory manufacturing simple cotton products and re-examine their choices in light of emerging ethical, social and environmental issues.

- Cotton fields: Students explore the unsustainable and intensive conditions under which cotton is produced around the Aral Sea in Central Asia (Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan). Available for free download at http://www.jusbiz.org/resourcesonline/cotton/

- Organic cotton case study: Students explore how the impact of business on various stakeholders, auditing, the impact of organic vs industrial cotton production and discuss why organic production is still uncommon.  Available for free download at http://www.jusbiz.org/resourcesonline/cotton/

- GM cotton case study: information about GM-cotton is supplied

Publisher: Just business  

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