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The High Cost of Conventionally farmed Cotton
Cotton is a notoriously heavy consumer of powerful pesticides and insecticides.
Worldwide, cotton only accounts for about 3% of total farmland, yet consumes
a staggering 25% of the chemicals used globally.
To bring the delicate cotton plant to harvest, it is heavily sprayed,
from between 30 to 40 times a season in extreme cases, with pesticides
so poisonous they gradually turn fields barren. Many chemicals used in
cotton farming are acutely toxic. To create finished goods, fabrics are
usually coloured with toxic dyes and finished with formaldehyde.
It is estimated that less than 10% of the chemicals applied to cotton
are accomplishing their tasks, the rest are absorbed into the plant, air,
soil, water and eventually, our bodies. Additionally, cotton seeds are
used for cotton seed oil, a cornerstone of many processed foods.
The Human Impact
"The worst affected by pesticides are the developing countries,
where 99 percent of cotton production takes place. The WHO reports three
million pesticide poisoning per year and 20 000 unintentional deaths,
largely among the rural poor in the third world ]. Human casualties are
unsurprising as pesticides are designed to inhibit the growth of organisms
by impairing the biological processes necessary to life. Symptoms of acute
pesticide poisoning include vomiting, skin rashes, headaches, tremors,
respiratory problems, muscle cramps, blurred vision, loss of co-ordination,
seizures and death.
Children of farm workers are particularly vulnerable to agrochemical
exposure as they play or help in the fields. A 2003 study in India compared
899 children living in cotton regions with those where few agricultural
pesticides were in use. The results showed that children living in cotton
producing areas performed significantly worse in tests assessing mental
ability, cognitive skills, concentration, balance and co-ordination. A
2005 study in three different villages all farming cotton recorded 323
separate instances of ill health over a five months period, 83.6 percent
of which were associated with pesticide poisoning.
There is a chronic lack of protective apparatus, poor labelling of pesticides,
and inadequate safeguards to protect farm workers and their families in
developing countries. Cotton workers are often so poor they are forced
to store pesticides within their homes, improvise with their own utensils
to apply chemicals to cotton and to re-use the empty pesticide canisters
as water vessels. " Institute of Science in Society.
Increased Demand for Organic Cotton
The good news is that there is growing demand for Organic cotton, as
these recent figures demonstrate.
Organic cotton grown by farmers worldwide increased 152 percent during
the 2007-2008 crop year, according to the Organic Cotton Farm and Fiber
Report 2008 released by Organic Exchange. As a result, organic cotton
production reached 145,872 metric tons (MT), equaling 668,581 bales, grown
on 161,000 hectares in 22 countries.
India took over Turkey's long-standing position as the leader, seeing
its production increase by 292 percent to reach 73,702 MT, or about half
of world organic cotton production. Other leading organic cotton producers,
according to rank, were Syria, Turkey, China, Tanzania, United States,
Uganda, Peru, Egypt and Burkina Faso.
Choose Organic Bedlinen
Choosing to buy organic cotton bedlinen, towels or bathrobes may feel
like a small act, but it gives positive support for a better way of farming
and a better way of living.
Click here for
our collections of organic bedlinen, organic
throws, organic
towels and organic bathrobes
Previous: Benefits of Organic Cotton
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