ORF-E | 2013
1 x 45 min
English
Worldwide

Cotton is also known as white gold. After China, India is the world’s largest producer. But even white gold has dark shadows. Falling prices mean that millions of small farmers and harvesters in India have barely enough to survive on. And even though only five percent of farmland in India is planted with cotton, 50 percent of all of the pesticides used fall on cotton fields, which, in addition to being an economic catastrophe, is also an ecological one. But there is renewed hope for the small farmers and seasonal workers, as organic cotton experiences a boom. Minimum wages are guaranteed and child labour is forbidden. This is allowing many to dream again. Not of palaces and of gold, but of a somewhat better, fairer life.