Cotton is a wonderfully versatile and globally important fiber that is used for a vast variety of fiber and food products, making it one of the most widely traded commodities on earth. Versatility, softness, breath-ability, absorbency, year-round comfort, performance, and durability are just a few of the qualities that have earned cotton its popular status. Not only is cotton the most popular and best selling fabric in the world, due to its huge commercial value, cotton also represents an essential component of foreign exchange earnings for more than fifty countries. So the value and reach of cotton truly extends far past the fashion runway.
But, the global cotton industry has a dark side which most of us are not aware as we fill our shopping bags with inexpensive cotton shirts from major clothing stores. The simple act of conventionally growing and harvesting the one pound of cotton fiber needed to make a T-shirt takes an enormous and devastating toll on the earth’s air, water, and soil that impacts global health. Also, policies and practices within the cotton industry from crop subsidies to garment sweatshops create poverty and misery that stretch around the world. Cotton industry trade organizations spend millions and millions of dollars attempting to convince American consumers of the hoax that conventional chemical cotton is pure and friendly to the health of the wearer.
Cotton, the most widely used textile in the world, is grown in over 60 countries but the U.S. is still one of the largest producers of cotton. Farmers in the United States apply nearly one-third of a pound of chemical fertilizers and pesticides for every pound of cotton harvested. When all nineteen cotton-growing states are tallied, cotton crops account for twenty-five percent of all the pesticides used in the U.S. Some of these chemicals are among the most toxic classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. What’s scarier still is that in developing countries, where regulations are less stringent, the amount of herbicides and insecticides used and their toxicity is often even greater than in the U.S.
The stunning truth: less than 3% of the world’s crops are cotton yet it accounts for 24% of the world’s insecticide market and 11% of global pesticides sales, making it the most pesticide-intensive crop grown on the planet. Every T-shirt made of conventionally grown cotton requires 1/4 pound of harmful chemicals to produce.
What to do? Buy organic cotton!
Working with rather than against nature is the guiding principle behind organic farming. Organic farmers use biologically-based rather than chemically dependent growing systems to raise crops. While many conventional farmers are reacting to the ecological disorder created by monocultures, organic farmers focus on preventing problems before they occur.
By focusing on managing rather than completely eliminating troublesome weeds and insects, organic farmers are able to maintain ecological balance and protect the environment. Organic cotton is now being grown in more than 18 countries worldwide.
- In Peru, cotton farmers have saved over $100 per acre in pesticide and fertilizer costs by switching over to organic production.
- In Tanzania organic cotton farmers plant sunflowers to encourage beneficial ants that feed on the larvae of the bollworm, and fertilize the soil with manure from their cattle.
- In India organic farmers intercrop cotton with pigeon peas and make insecticidal sprays from garlic, chili and the neem tree.
- In California, organic cotton farmers plant habitat strips of vegetation such as alfalfa near their fields as a refuge for beneficial insects.
Even beyond the farm there are major differences in how organic cotton impacts the environment. At each manufacturing step, organic clothing manufacturers do not add petroleum scours, silicon waxes, formaldehyde, anti-wrinkling agents, chlorine bleaches, or other chemical processes. Natural alternatives such as natural spinning oils that biodegrade easily are used to facilitate spinning; potato starch is used for sizing; hydrogen peroxide is used for bleaching; organic color grown cottons and low-impact dyes and earth clays are used for coloration; and natural vegetable and mineral inks and binders are used for printing on organic cotton fabric. These natural alternatives are used to reduce and eliminate the toxic consequences found in conventional cotton fabric manufacturing.
Recycled Cotton is another more earth-friendly choice in cotton clothing. Recycled cotton is cotton fabric which has been made from recovered textiles that would otherwise be cast off during the spinning, weaving or cutting process. Another term for this use of industrial excess is “upcycling” and it is a wonderful new method in the industry to reduce waste and consumption.
Recycled Cotton is another more earth-friendly choice in cotton clothing. Recycled cotton is cotton fabric which has been made from recovered textiles that would otherwise be cast off during the spinning, weaving or cutting process. Another term for this use of industrial excess is “upcycling” and it is a wonderful new method in the industry to reduce waste and consumption.
Organizations such as The Sustainable Cotton Project, www.sustainablecotton.org, are committed to promoting fair trade organic and sustainable cotton clothes. They are building a large network of consumer activists, designers, students, labor unions, farmers, social and economic justice groups, clothing manufactures, and environmentalists to increase consumer demand for organic and sustainable cotton apparel in our communities, companies and campuses. The key element is the consumer. The clothing business is big business, and while there is big resistance to change from chemically-dependent processes in clothing manufacturing, the bottom line is demand. Manufacturers will do what the consumer dictates, so the change to environmentally responsible organic cotton clothing begins with you the consumer.
Resources: Organic Consumers Organization, Organic Trade Association, Environmental Working Group, The Sustainable Cotton Project
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