As in India, tragedies surrounding cotton are occurring simultaneously in many parts of the world.

Uzbekistan is a former Soviet republic located in Central Asia. It accounts for 8% of the world's cotton exports. During the former Soviet Union, a planned economy gave Uzbekistan a role in the cultivation of cotton.

However, Uzbekistan has always been a region with low precipitation. Eighty percent of the country is covered by desert, and the rest is arid wilderness, with only about 10% of the land available for effective cultivation.

It takes approximately 2,000 liters of water to produce one T-shirt, the final product (depending on dyeing and other processes). （Without access to large amounts of water (which varies depending on dyeing and other processes), cotton cultivation would be impossible.

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union therefore came up with the idea of supplying water from the Aral Sea through large-scale irrigation facilities (canals) to grow cotton in the areas surrounding the Aral Sea.

(Cotton could be grown in the salty waters of the Aral Sea. Now the salinity has increased six-fold since the beginning of cultivation, and is seen as a contributing factor to the decline in cotton productivity).

As an inland lake, the Aral Sea has no rivers flowing out of itself. It is a lake that loses water only through evaporation. In just half a century, the area of the Aral Sea has been reduced to 10% of its volume before cotton cultivation began. If cotton cultivation continues at its current rate, the Aral Sea is expected to disappear from the map in another 10 years.

A friend of mine once told me about his visit to the Aral Sea and its surroundings when he was working for an international organization that provides economic assistance to poor countries.

One thing that made a deep impression on me was that "this must be what the world will be like after the end of scientific civilization. He said that it was a desolate place, with a dust storm of pesticides, insecticides, and other chemicals mixed with salt blowing in front of countless abandoned fishing boats.

Here is a list of information regarding cotton in Uzbekistan. (I will omit linking to sources as it would be quite voluminous)

・One-third of the population is forced to engage in cotton cultivation.
・Cotton is the country's main industry. Major exports are to Asia and Europe. Exports are valued at US$1 billion. It is an important strategic commodity for earning foreign currency.
・A quarter of the population lives in absolute poverty, unable to meet their minimum daily caloric needs.
・Schools are closed for three months during the cotton harvest. Harvest quotas are imposed on both children and teachers. There are penalties if the quota is not met. Students who refuse to harvest are expelled from school.
・At least 25 species of fish and shellfish that once inhabited the Aral Sea are now extinct.
・Fishermen become economic refugees and move into cotton farming and related businesses. Farmers who produce cotton on state farms are not allowed to migrate.
・Half of all deaths among Uzbekistanis are due to respiratory diseases caused by pesticide and fertilizer residues in the air.
・Many children suffer burns and temporary blindness from insecticide spraying.
（The suicide rate was 74th in the world, lower than that of other former Soviet Union countries (Commonwealth of Independent States), perhaps due in part to the large Muslim population.)

In response to the nation-wide campaign against child labor in Uzbekistan, many environmental and human rights groups in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, where fair trade and CSR procurement are popular, have called for a boycott of cotton produced in Uzbekistan.

In September of the year before last, over 50 Western clothing manufacturers signed a pledge not to try cotton made in Uzbekistan. The European Parliament has also decreed that no cotton products will be allowed to be exported to Europe until Uzbekistan "confirms that no forced child labor is being used" to harvest its cotton.

However, it is not seen as the only solution to the problem.

Even without directly importing Uzbekistan cotton, if a supplier from an Asian country with a thriving spinning industry purchases cotton as raw material, manufactures the product, and exports it to Europe, it is almost impossible to confirm whether the cotton is from Uzbekistan or not, as a result of having visited a number of spinning mills. I think it is safe to say that it is almost impossible to confirm that the cotton is from Uzbekistan.

It is quite difficult to trace whether cotton from Uzbekistan processed in cotton ginning mills (equipment to remove cotton seeds = ginning mills) or spinning mills (equipment to make yarn from cotton = spinning mills) is made into products without being mixed with cotton produced in other countries. This advantage is also not available to the cotton processors. It only increases production costs.

In order to make such distribution transparent and healthy, Fairtrade certification bodies have been set up in Europe. However, it is not possible to have reliable inspectors on the ground at all times. Unannounced on-site inspections of traders are also impossible, as they are not a public authority.

While the Fairtrade certification system has been recognized as having a certain level of effectiveness, there are many who criticize it as nothing more than an advertising gadget for sales promotion. One reason for this is that companies with mass production and mass consumption as their business model have joined Fairtrade certification organizations.

There is another problem. If cotton cultivation, a valuable means of earning foreign currency in Uzbekistan, declines, it will have a major impact on the nation's finances. The Commonwealth of Independent States is a region where child trafficking is a major social problem. The reality is that cotton farming is in a back-and-forth situation with the reality that the last thing to be sold could be "children.

Cotton was one of the first products to go global. Current production is approximately 25 million tons. The deeper into the world the cotton supply chain goes, the more unimaginable it becomes to the end consumer.