Cotton: peril and promise; Gentle and breathable to wear; harsh and suffocating to work with. Richard Swift unpicks the world's favourite fabric.(INTRODUCTION)

From: New Internationalist | Date: April 1, 2007| Author: Swift, Richard | Copyright information

If you want to make money from cotton, best to stay well away from it. Historically, that's how it has always been.

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Take the big planters of the US South, who cooled their heels in old New Orleans or perched up in their genteel Natchez mansions on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. Not for them the snake- and bug-infested bottomlands where their slaves and overseers worked the fields.

Similarly, the shareholders of...

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