Get news, tips and articles emailed every month!
Why Buy Organic Cotton?
Organic Cotton is grown in soil that has been certified free from pesticides, herbicides and other cytotoxins for at least three years. In addition, organic cotton can not be grown from genetically engineered seed. Choosing organic cotton is a choice for a crop which safeguards human health and the environment. Furthermore, by using methods like crop rotation and encouraging beneficial pests, organic farming can be cheaper for the farmer. In Peru, cotton farmers have saved over $100 per acre in pesticide and fertilizer costs by switching over to organic production.To really understand why you should choose organic cotton, check out the facts on conventional cotton:
Heavy Use of Pesticides
Just 2.4% of the world’s arable land is planted with cotton yet it uses 24% of the world’s insecticides. Conventional cotton is the second most pesticide laden crop in the world after coffee, before tobacco.Monoculture
Planting a single variety on thousands of acres is a practice known as monoculture. This is standard practice with conventional cotton. Hundreds of cotton varieties have been replaced with only a handful through industrial agriculture and consolidation in the seed industry. These monoculture crops are much more vulnerable to pests and disease and must be aggressively managed with insecticides and herbicides.Upsetting The Balance of Nature
The pesticides used by farmers kill off beneficial insects as well (such as ladybugs and parasitic wasps) leaving cotton pests without any natural enemies, making them stronger and forcing farmers to use even more pesticides.Pesticides Are Bad For Us
- In Egypt, more than 50% of cotton workers in the 1990s suffered symptoms of chronic pesticide poisoning, including neurological and vision disorders.
- In India, 91% of male cotton workers exposed to pesticides eight hours or more per day experienced some type of health disorder, including chromosomal aberrations, cell death and cell cycle delay.
- The World Health Organization estimates that at least three million people are poisoned by pesticides every year and 20-40,000 more are killed.
- Cotton uses five of the top nine pesticides in the U.S. (cyanide, dicofol, naled, propargite and trifluralin) and they are known cancer causing chemicals.
- The pesticides and synthetic fertilizers used on cotton routinely contaminate groundwater, surface water and pollute the water we drink. 90 percent of municipal water treatment facilities lack equipment to remove these chemicals.
- Fish, birds and other wildlife are also affected by the movement of these chemicals through the ecosystem. Millions of fish and birds are killed every year.
Cotton is Food Too
Once separated, the cotton fibers go to textile mills, but the seed and various by-products are used for animal feed and human food. Milk and beef cattle eat about 6 to 8 pounds of cottonseed per day. The pesticide residues from these cottonseeds concentrate in the fatty tissues of these animals, and end up in meat and dairy products. Cottonseed, which is rich in oil and high in protein, is also a common ingredient in cookies, potato chips, salad dressings, baked goods, and other processed foods.Source Clothes For a Change
