Why organic?

The term organic is now widely used to describe the products of agriculture that use no pesticides or synthetic fertilisers. Organic methods consider the whole eco system and use natural techniques to assist plant growth, repel pests and protect and encourage wildlife habitats. Organic agriculture aims to maintain and increase soil fertility and give livestock humane living conditions.

Planet

Many pesticides are known irritants and suspected or known carcinogens. Two of the most prevalent chemicals used on cotton include tribufos (a defoliant that can cause respiratory problems and considered a human carcinogen by the Environment Protection Agency and methyl parathion (one of the pesticides which flowed into the Big Nance Creek, Alabama, in 1995, contaminating the water supply and killing over 245,000 fish).

1 Pesticides have thus been shown to enter the food chain and disrupt the natural balance of the eco-system. They can be carried through the atmosphere too, and traces of the pesticide DDT (banned in the 1970s) have been found in the fat of arctic penguins.

You and your children

But pesticides don't only harm the earth. By eating or absorbing pesticides you are exposing your body to its effects. The chemicals used do not always fully wash out, so any non-organic foods you eat place traces of these chemicals directly into your system.

Some sources report that 60% of field workers in the cotton industry show symptoms of permanent poisoning. Equally worrying is that these pesticides have not only been linked to declining sperm counts, they have also been found in the milk of animals and nursing mothers.

In contrast, organically produced clothing are grown by working in harmony with nature and without the use of any pesticides or genetically modified organisms. Living an organic life is most certainly about being healthy, but it is also very much about re-creating a healthy planet for the future.

Organic Cotton

In addition to the dangers of pesticides during cultivation, cotton is subjected to further chemical treatments after it has been picked. To achieve colored cotton some manufacturers use heavy metal dyes such as chromium and copper. These are highly toxic, and due to cotton's natural resistance to dyes about half the chemicals used end up as waste, polluting rivers and soil.3 Even white T-shirts are not naturally white - most will have been bleached using chlorine, another extremely toxic pollutant.

The most commercially viable alternative to using heavy metal dyes is to use low impact dyes. These dyes do not contain any heavy metal, and still produce vivid, long lasting colour. There is also a simple alternative to chlorine bleaching; hydrogen peroxide, which is the eco friendly choice where light or bright colours are required.

After the dyeing process, cotton garments are typically subjected to the 'Permanent Press Treatment'.This aims to lessen the creasing of your bed linen or clothing and usually relies heavily on formaldehyde, a known irritant and suspected carcinogen.Organic cotton will not be subject to this process and instead tends to be treated with potato starch to help with the weaving of the fabric.