Organic Cotton Creating Revolution

Altwire 27apr01

People everywhere are waking up to the necessity of conservation and preservation. Cars are becoming more fuel-efficient. Ozone depleting gases are being outlawed. Reduce, reuse, recycle is the mantra of many concerned citizens. Yet many in the clothing industry lumber blindly forward, hopelessly behind the times, using manufacturing practices and employing business ethics that make the environmentally conscious population wince.

To many of us, cotton is the "natural" fiber - the environmentally healthy alternative to polyester and other synthetic fabrics. Cotton, we think, is the clothing industry's answer to the electric car or solar power. But cotton bears ugly, unspoken fruit.

It will come as a shock to learn that the growing and processing of cotton over the last three hundred years has led to some of the greatest social and environment disasters in all of human history. Fortunately, an alternative is on the horizon. Organic cotton is poised to revolutionize the way clothing is made and worn.

A bit of background: The actual origin of cotton is a mystery. Evidence shows that people in India, Central and South America domesticated separate species of the plant thousands of years ago. Fragments of cotton cloth more than 4,000 years old have been found in coastal Peru and at Mohenjo Daro in the Indus Valley. By 1500 A.D. cotton had spread across the warmer regions of the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa.

Cotton was always a fabric of the well to do. The removal of its seeds, nearly half the weight of cotton per boll, was a labor-intensive undertaking, making cotton an expensive, though highly desirable, fabric.

Today cotton provides half of all textiles. Cotton is grown on about 125,500 square miles worldwide. That is an area roughly the size of New Mexico. In the US cotton, is grown on about 22,000 square miles, roughly the area of Maryland, Vermont and Connecticut, all together. Over 40 billion pounds is grown annually. The business revenue generated, over $50 billion dollars in the U.S. alone, is greater than that of any other field crop.

The impact of this pervasive crop on society and the environment is immeasurable. Within two decades of Eli Whitney's great invention, the cotton gin, over 2 million Africans were enslaved to grow and pick it. To spin and weave it, the infamous and barbaric garment factories of England flourished on the labor of women and children for nearly two centuries. The toll of human misery and suffering is staggering.

Cotton's effect on the environment has been equally devastating. Here in the U.S., 53 million pounds of toxic pesticides are applied each year to conventional cotton fields. Cotton uses less than 5% of the Earth's agricultural land, yet it consumes 25% of the chemicals applied.

In growing conventional cotton, it takes 1 pound of chemicals to produce three pounds of cotton - enough to make a pair of jeans and a tee shirt. Not only are huge amounts of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides used on cotton, but defoliants, cousins of Agent Orange, are also applied during the harvesting. And that is only the beginning. In the spinning, weaving, dying, and curing process another arsenal of toxic chemicals are used in conventional cotton. There is a growing percentage of the population that has become so chemically sensitive that wearing conventional cotton immediately brings hives and swelling to their body.

In addition, cotton is now one of the most genetically engineered of all crops. According to reports, about 50 per cent of the United States' cotton acres were planted with genetically modified varieties in 1999. The long-term effect this is going to have on our natural environment is yet unknown.

The men and women working in the field are most immediately impacted by the extensive application of poisons. The highest rate of chemical-related illness of any occupational group in the U.S.A. is among farm workers. The number of pesticide-related illnesses among farm workers in U.S.A. each year is approximately 300,000. The number of people in the U.S. who die each year from cancer related to pesticides is over 10,000. Cotton's history is bleak, but an organic alternative is a visible beacon of a brighter future.

The organic approach starts with a holistic vision of the farm. The farm is seen as a living organism, not a factory, whose care and long term health is in the hands of the farmer. The bottom line is important, but it is not the only measure of success. Under the farmer's stewardship the farm is cultivated to be healthy, sustainable, and beautiful. The tools the organic farmer uses are always sensitive to the inter-relatedness of all aspects of the farm. This includes the use of all organic soil additives, the practices of composting, inter-cropping, and crop rotation. The organic farmer watches his farm and always acts with appropriateness through the diversity of the crops and animals he raises. The organic farmer is at the center of a delicate balance between science and art, economics and life.

Organic cotton is already successfully being grown in 18 countries around the world, including the USA, Turkey, India, Peru, Israel, Egypt and Uganda. The USA has been the initiator in cultivation, though the marketplace here has been limited. Currently about 16,000 acres of organic cotton are being planted in the US. 900 acres of organic cotton were planted in 1990, 3,290 in 1991. It reached a peak in 1995 with 25,000 acres planted. But the market collapsed as supply began to exceed demand. Much of the crop had to be sold at conventional prices and so the farmers lost money. In 1997 planted acres dropped to 9,000. Today, the market is again growing.

Despite this growth, organic cotton currently amounts to about .1% of the acres grown in the USA. We believe that this is only the beginning. With support, the farmers could turn that amount into 20% or 40% or more. The question we must ask is, "If organic cotton can be grown, why isn't organic cotton clothing more readily available?" Ten years ago that same question was asked about organic foods in general. Now organic produce is available in nearly every supermarket from California to Maine.

Why is organic clothing a decade behind the curve? The reason is because consumers have not yet been educated to make the connection. The clothing industry is dominated the short term bottom line. No major company in the garment industry has backed organic cotton long enough for consumers to understand. It takes three years of organic practices for a farm to be considered organic. The effort must be sustained to be successful. You are the solution. Buying organic cotton not only adds style, comfort, and quality to your wardrobe, it also makes the world a better place.

Chi Pants, Inc. is located at 71 Mariner Green Dr., Corte Madera, CA 94925. You can email laury@chipants.com or call 415-927-1116.