Julie Boulton (the greening of) — Issue #10
A few weeks ago a friend asked me to write about where she should go to buy organic underwear. Then I bought my daughter some new pyjamas — that were made from cotton but were not organic. Daughter wore the pyjamas straight away and, in the morning, found an itchy, red rash under her lovely, non-smelly, child armpits.
Irrespective of the fact that I had not washed the pj’s first — daughter was a little too excited and absolutely could not wait — I do find it kind of worrying that you can end up with a skin rash from less than ten hours of wear. It makes you wonder exactly what went into making these pyjamas.
Did you know that modern day non-organic cotton production is a really, really chemically intensive process. It is said to use more chemicals per unit area than any other crop — almost 1 kilogram of pesticides for every hectare of cotton.
“Cotton covers 2.5% of the world’s cultivated land, yet it accounts for 25% of the world’s insecticide market and 10% of global pesticide sales annually, making it the most pesticide-intensive crop grown on the planet” WWF
The impact of these pesticides is not good: polluted air and water, reduced bio-diversity and decreased soil quality are some of the environmental consequences. And then there is the health of the people who work directly with the cotton — more than 1 million hospitalisations per year for the people who cultivate the cotton and between 25 million and 77 million cotton workers worldwide are thought to suffer from “acute pesticide poisoning.
Kind of makes you want to buy organic, right. Organic cotton is cotton that is grown without the use of pesticides, or other nasty chemicals, and without the use of genetically modified seeds. But it is not that easy to come by. According to the Organic Trade Association, certified organic cotton is grown on 220,765 hectares of land, which is approximately only 0.7% of cotton growing land globally and amounts to around 1% of total cotton grown (there are around 148,000 organic cotton farmers in the world). In 2012–13, (the most recent stats I could find), the largest organic cotton producers by volume were India, China and Turkey, Tanzania and the United States. Organic cotton is not widely grown in Australia. Cotton Australia says that a small number of Australian cotton growers have experimented with organic cotton but a number of factors have prohibited it from entering long-term commercial production in Australia.
I think maybe we need to do something about this. One way, is to be like my friend and search out organic where you can. As a start, look for companies that are referencing the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) or, the Australian specific standard, Australian Certified Organic. Two Australian underwear companies that use both are Mighty Good Undies and Bhumi. Happy organic underwear shopping!
See you next week.
jb
a (not so fun) fact
Water use in cotton production is really, really high. Cotton Australia says that the Australian cotton industry has had a 40% increase in water productivity over the last decade. I’m not entirely sure what this means but I hope it means it is using less water then before because guess how much water is needed produce one t shirt? 20,000 litres of water is used to produce 1 kg of cotton and 1 kg of cotton produces one t-shirt and one pair of jeans! Amazing.
handy resource(s)
Some more info on how cotton is produced, why fair-trade cotton is important and work being done on making cotton production sustainable — it involves the Prince of Wales so it has to be good! From my reading, sustainable cotton is not necessarily organic cotton but it is all about regulating the cotton industry to make sure it is better for the environment and the farming communities so it’s a start.
How Your T-Shirt Can Make a Difference — WWF — YouTube — www.youtube.com
Did you know that the t-shirt on your back has a major impact on the planet? Producing it took 2,700 liters of water, plus it takes a lot of energy to get it…
Fairtrade International (FLO): Cotton — www.fairtrade.net
Ninety percent of the world’s cotton farmers live in developing countries, which is where Fairtrade focuses its efforts. Products made from Fairtrade cotton include clothing, bags, and homeware items such as towels.
Home — Better Cotton Initiative — bettercotton.org
The Better Cotton Initiative exists to make global cotton production better for the people who produce it, better for the environment it grows in and better for the sector’s future, by developing Better Cotton as a sustainable mainstream commodity.
International Sustainability Unit | Sustainable Cotton — www.pcfisu.org
The Prince of Wales’s International Sustainability Unit is delighted to announce the signing of a sustainable cotton communiqué by 13 of the world’s most renowned clothing and textile companies. Through this communiqué, these companies have committed to ensuring that 100% of the cotton they use comes from sustainable sources by 2025.
i’m reading/watching
Where did my undies come from? by Julie Boulton on iBooks — itunes.apple.com
If you want to talk to your kids about cotton and undies, you may like to do it as a bedtime story! Facts and figures about turning cotton into undies are in my book. “Where did my undies come from?” You can read this book with iBooks on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Mac. Hard copy available via this link.
Empire of Cotton : Sven Beckert : 9780141979984 — www.bookdepository.com
Empire of Cotton by Sven Beckert, 9780141979984, available at Book Depository with free delivery worldwide.
The History of Cotton | Cotton Documentary — Documentary Films — YouTube — www.youtube.com
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the family of …
SEKEM Image Film (English) — YouTube — www.youtube.com
Introductory film to the SEKEM Initiative — all about turning the Egyptian cotton industry into a sustainable and organic trade.
Do you know why Egyptian cotton is so prized? It is to do with the quality of the cotton: apparently, Egyptian cotton has longer fibres which results in thinner, but stronger, threads. This means you get more threads per material measurement (this is the thread count) and the higher the thread count, the more luxurious the feel!
on the blog
Why organic cotton? (rule no. 3) — Julie Boulton — www.julieboulton75.com
Cotton being used for clothing, (and for margarine and soap), is like potatoes and the potato chip: the first person to realise that the potato — a brown, lumpy, hard, oval thing that you dig up from under the soil — could be cut up, deep fried and become a glorious chip was a genius.
