What is organic cotton?
Here is an interesting question that was asked on an old post:
What’s the difference between an organic cotton shirt and a regular cotton shirt or is it just a marketing distinction?
Organic cotton is basically like any other organic plant product you see at the grocery store. The natural (not genetically modified) cotton is grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizer, and which are later treated with non-toxic dyes - all of which has less of an ecological footprint on the planet and continues the fertility of the land. [Wikipedia]
Conventional (also known as traditional or commercial) grown cotton is ordinarily one of the crops most heavily sprayed with pesticides. To bring this delicate plant to harvest, it is heavily sprayed 30 to 40 times a season in extreme cases with pesticides so poisonous they gradually render fields barren. To create finished goods, fabrics are usually colored with toxic dyes and finished with formaldehyde. Worldwide, conventional cotton farming uses only about 3% of the farmland but consumes 25 percent of the chemical pesticides and fertilizers. In the United States alone, approximately 600 thousand tons of pesticides and chemical fertilizers are applied to cotton fields each season. To complicate matters, insects are quickly becoming resistant to recommended rates of pesticide application and ever increasing amounts are needed be effective. Consumers and environmental groups are becoming more alarmed and more vocal. [Ecochoices]
As with fruits and vegetables, saying a product is Organic requires certification. Otherwise it is simply "natural." For more, visit the National Organic Program or the Sustainable Cotton Project.
Tags: cotton, organic cotton, organic, sustainable, environment, ecology, shopping, organic buying
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