Organic Cotton

Organic cotton is cotton that is grown without pesticides from plants which are not genetically modified.

Testing for harmful substances is a must.

The trend for consumers to prefer organic and fair trade products are the important aspects to be considered while designing  products made of Organic Cotton.

Cotton is grown in more than 100 countries and some 350 million people are employed in this industry world-wide.

As of 2007, 265,517 bales of organic cotton were produced in 24 countries and world-wide production was growing at a rate of more than 50% per year.

Though organic cotton has less environmental impact than conventional cotton, it costs more to produce. Side-effects of conventional production that are avoided in organic growing methods include:
High levels of agrochemicals are used in the production of non-organic, conventional cotton. Cotton production uses more chemicals per unit area than any other crop and accounts in total for 16% of the world’s pesticides.
The chemicals used in the processing of cotton pollute the air and surface waters.
Residual chemicals may irritate consumers’ skin.

Naturally colored cotton has also been grown successfully with organic methods.

Despite price, demand for organic cotton is higher than ever.

Demand for organically grown cotton has increased continually in recent years. Excluding pesticides,genetically-altered seed,and sustainable method of crop-rotation are,however,not without cost. Organic cotton is almost twice as expensive as conventionally grown fibres. As in the past,the major portion of the annual harvest of some 60,000 tonnes is grown in selected projects located primarily in India and Turkey.

Compared to conventionally grown cotton, which has annual harvest of 25 million tonnes, the amount of organically grown cotton produced each year barely accounts for a shadow on the scale. Even in the long-term, this is not expected to change, because for producers, the cost of switching to organic production and the residual risks of maintaining sustainablity criteria are too high.

A further positive development is beeing driven by the entry of traders coming onto the scene who ensure organic farmers will retain markets by commiting themselves to use continually organic cotton for processing into specially labelled shirts and jeans. Cotton that has been raised organically does not differ chemically from its conventionally grown counterpart. As a result, evidence that cotton has been organically grown, processed,and worked into a final product in a sustainable way can only be documented conclusively by certificates issued by independent,third parties.