Organic Cotton Clothing
Eco-Friendly Fabric Makes Sustainable Fashion
Organic cotton clothes are increasingly popular among fashion designers, retailers and consumers as an ethical, environmentally friendly choice for sustainable apparel.
Why Organic Cotton?
Cotton is probably the most universally comfortable, breathable and soft of all the commonly worn textile fabrics. From your most fashionable skinny jeans to your favorite old T-shirt, everyone loves cotton.
Not only does cotton keep the body cool in the summer and warm in the winter because it is a good conductor of heat, it is one of the easiest fabrics to dye, which makes it extremely popular among fashion designers.
Regrettably, when traditionally grown, the "fabric of our lives" is associated with devastating abuse of the planet and the people who inhabit it.
Growing Non-Organic Cotton
According to the Sustainable Cotton Project's Care What You Wear Initiative, the simple act of growing and harvesting the one pound of (non-organic) cotton fiber required to make a T-shirt takes an enormous toll on the air, water, and soil, not to mention the health of people living and working in cotton country.
To bring this delicate plant to harvest, each cotton crop is sprayed roughly 30 to 40 times a season in extreme cases, with chemicals so poisonous that they eventually render fields barren.
According to Ecochoices.com and the Organic Trade Association (www.ota.com), conventionally grown cotton uses only three percent of farmland, yet is responsible for approximately 25 percent of the world's insecticide use.
What does this translate to? In the United States alone, approximately 600 thousand tons of pesticides and chemical fertilizers are applied to cotton fields each season.
In addition to saturating the actual cotton plants themselves, these toxic pesticides and insecticides make their way into the ecosystem, the water supply, and therefore onto and into our bodies. And if you think these chemicals are harmless, consider that the Environmental Protection Agency considers seven of the top 15 pesticides used on cotton in 2000 in the United States as "possible," "likely," "probable," or "known" human carcinogens.
Growing Practices Associated with Organic Cotton Clothes
Garments made with organic cotton fibers are cultivated without pesticides, chemical herbicides or synthetic fertilizers that can be harmful to the environment. To ensure the environment is not contaminated, organic cotton is grown in fields where the use of these synthetic chemicals has been discontinued for at least three years, and where rigorous controls help maintain and restore the soil's natural fertility. All of this reduces the exposure to pesticides and other chemicals that pollute the local ecosystems where the cotton is grown.
Availability of Organic Cotton Fiber
Unfortunately, the supply of 100 percent organic cotton is quite limited: only 0.03 percent of worldwide cotton production is organic, according to data from the Pesticide Action Network of the UK and the Organic Trade Association. The good news is that the organic cotton fiber market is growing – with sales expected to grow an average of 15.5 percent annually.
Apparel companies are developing programs that either use 100 percent organically grown cotton, or blend small percentages of organic cotton with conventional cotton in their products. As a result of consumer interest, organic cotton fabric is increasingly being used in clothes of all kinds and styles for women and men, and especially in organic children's clothing and organic baby clothes.
Buying Organic Fashion Makes a Difference
Purchasing and wearing organic cotton clothing, and asking for organic cotton products at your favorite and local clothes stores are just a few ways you can support and bolster organic cotton production. It's as easy as choosing an organic cotton T-shirt or wrap dress next time you go shopping; who knew being eco-chic was so easy?
