The Truth Behind Organic Cotton

If you spend a lot of time around clothes you may have noticed that many places now say they use organic cotton in their products. However the label doesn't clearly define or even explain to consumers what organic cotton is.

This appears to me to be some of the issues with many areas of the fashion industry - people just don't understand the differences or understand at all what the product are referring to.

So what is the difference between organic cotton and your bog standard cotton? Organic cotton aims to minimise the negative impacts and promote the positive ones. This means the method is far more sustainable and so doesn't use synthetic fertilisers or pesticides. Instead, natural products are used. Additionally genetically modified seeds can also not be considered for the cotton production.

One issue with organic cotton is that sadly there is no certification required, unlike the food industry. There are however some labels where standards are required to be met such as the Global Organic Textile Standards or the Soil Association symbol meaning that you when you see the symbols you know that a set standard must be met.

As the demand for organic cotton has risen, this has helped lower the price but it can still be more expensive than your cheap standard cotton alternative. The reason why? Well, the price includes investment made by the farmers with benefits being clearly seen. These included the use of methods that have a reduced impact on the environment. Organic cotton has enabled a reduction of soil degradation, resulting in a maintained soil fertility helping to protect the environment and also reduces water uses, thus conserving water.

With farmers and workers no longer using synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, the harmful toxins previously released are no longer a threat to health. This also means that the toxins have no way of entering into the water systems from run off having resulting in a large positive effect on not just local communities but also the ecosystems in the area. The real impact of the toxin you ask? Well, the World Health Organisation calculated that 20,000 deaths each year are caused by pesticide poisoning in developing countries which is a terrifying amount of lives that could be saved.

Organic cotton is now on the up in a big way with the likes of H&M being the worlds largest buying and plenty of other large and small brands are also buying their fair share of the organic cotton available. Even Primark have helped many farms go organic because they understand the health and environmental reason showing that even the companies who you least expect are trying to make a positive change.

I hope this post has helped you understand a little more about organic cotton and why, when our choices are literally killing people supporting those companies who use organic cotton is more important than ever.

For more information go check out the Better Cotton Initiative
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Erin