The New Cotton Debate: What is sustainable cotton?

Mudd &Water's 'Glade Dress' with sustainable cotton as seen on http://thejunctionboutique.co.uk/glade-dress-p-75.html.

While rummaging through the Cotton, Inc. web site (which is a fascinating and well done site), I quickly realized that the Great Cotton Debate is being recast. During the early growth of organic clothing in the late 1990s and early 2000s, organic cotton was recognized as the healthy choice – healthy for the individual, healthy for the environment, and healthy for workers growing and harvesting cotton. Conventional cotton relied upon heavy doses of toxic chemical herbicides and pesticides. We’ve all seen the statistics:

Conventionally grown cotton accounts for 25% of all agricultural pesticides used in the U.S

1/3 of a pound of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is used to grow each pound of cotton harvested which is the amount of cotton needed to manufacture one cotton t-shirt;

Unfortunately, the statistics often cited about chemical pesticide usage for conventionally grown cotton are now incorrect.  They were derived from studies conducted in the 1990s such as the report from Allen Woodburn Associates, Ltd titled “Cotton: The Crop and its Agrochemicals Market” published in 1995. Since then, there has been a change in the playing field … or perhaps we should say in the cotton field.

Conventional cotton is being recast as the sustainable savior and organic cotton is being portrayed as the tiny niche bungler, the old and inadequate solution that is as out-dated as last year’s fashions. The organic cotton vs. conventional cotton debate is being reshaped by the conventional cotton industry through a series of Cotton Incorporated sponsored conferences on sustainable cotton and web articles trumpeting conventionally grown as “sustainable cotton”, “an important eco-fiber”, and a fiber that is “making the eco-movement matter” while promoting claims such as:

Sustainability is defined “as balance between growing profitability, protecting the environment and promoting social responsibility”

“Technology is the driver behind more eco-friendly agriculture and manufacturing, finding alternative fuel sources and reducing the environmental footprint”

Biotechnology and the resulting genetically modified varieties of cotton are helping drive environmental improvements;

Recent advances in cotton manufacturing have helped the “global textile industry be more cost-efficient and environmentally-friendly”;

According to their three requirements for sustainability, conventional cotton production has become sustainable and conventional cotton now qualifies as sustainable cotton

Cotton grown by conventional agricultural methods is renewable, biodegradable and environmentally-friendly – all adding to their claims for sustainability;

Conventionally grown cotton has become more drought- and heat-tolerant and requires less chemicals and pesticides;

Environmentally-concerned consumers are more apt to buy conventionally-grown, sustainable cotton textiles over organic cotton because of the greater selections in styles and designs;

Organic cotton will never be a viable option for large retailers such as the British department store chain Marks & Spenser because it “costs upwards of 100 percent more than conventionally grown cotton due to lower yields, a segregated supply chain and reliance on manual labor …”

"Organic" is a limited term that doesn't adequately address spent energy and resources across all phases of cotton growing, ginning, spinning and fabric manufacturing.

Conventionally grown cotton has undergone an amazing PR transformation from being the most heavily poisoned crop on the face of the earth to being proclaimed the new sustainable eco-fiber. There are several factors that have contributed to this astounding morphing:

Improvements in general agricultural practices such as integrated pest management practices, no-till farming (reduced soil erosion and lower carbon emissions from farm tractors) and lateral move irrigation (improved irrigation efficiency resulting in lower water consumption). The integrated pest management practices are teaming up with improvements in pesticides (comprised of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides) that allow for lower application levels and more targeted application. The improved pesticides are not necessarily less toxic or harmful to workers or the environment;

Improvements in textile manufacturing facilities and processes to reduce toxic chemicals lost in waste waters and released into the environment;

And the most important and ubiquitous factor is the rapidly increasing use of GMO cotton seed stock in U.S., Australia, India and China. The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) estimates that in 2005 about 28% of the global cotton field acres were planted in transgenic GM cotton, according to “Cotton Outlook to 2010-11” by Drum, Roberts and Smirl. The USDA reports that 87% of the U.S. cotton crop was genetically engineered in 2007.

Claims for conventional GMO cotton sustainability are based upon the generic three-cornered definition of sustainability: growing profitability, environmental protection, and social responsibility. So go green and buy sustainable cotton from www.thejunctionboutique.co.uk!