Australian cotton enjoys a global reputation as a crop grown under decent working conditions. However, once our cotton is shipped offshore and enters the global value chain, visibility is lost to an opaque system.
Textile manufacturing is one of the industries where modern slavery occurs, with women and children disproportionally represented.
Are workers in our value chain treated fairly? Or are they among an estimated 50 million people across the world working under modern slavery conditions, 24.9 million of whom are in a form of forced labour? And, can Australian cotton growers help prevent this exploitation?
We asked a research team from the Queensland University of Technology, University of Technology Sydney and University of Notre Dame Australia to find out.
Their findings are outlined in this article from The Conversation.
