According to the 2007-2008 Organic Cotton Market Report, released yesterday by Organic Exchange, the global market for organic cotton hit $3.2 billion in 2008, up from $1.9 billion in 2007.
Among the biggest drivers for this demand are companies that have announced plans to or have already begun offering products made with organic cotton. Organic Exchange released a list of the top 10 companies for organic cotton use around the world to coincide with the report:
1. Wal-Mart (USA)In addition to all these companies, some of whom we've covered before on GreenBiz.com, in the past year alone we've written about organic cotton initiatives from Target, JCPenney, KMart, Toys 'R' Us, Marks & Spencer and American Apparel (the last of which is not purely organic, but "Cleaner Cotton," which includes organic and reduced-pesticide cotton-growing methods).
2. C&A (Belgium)
3. Nike (USA)
4. H&M (SE)
5. Zara (Spain)
6. Anvil (USA)
7. Coop Switzerland
8. Pottery Barn (USA)
9. Greensource (USA)
10. Hess Natur (Germany).
The growth of organic cotton is obviously good news: cotton as a crop is a huge user of insecticides and pesticides -- 25 percent and 10 percent, respectively, according to the Organic Trade Association. Those chemicals not only can pollute soil and water, but have serious impacts on the health of cotton growers and neighboring communities. The Pesticide Action Network of North America puts it bluntly when it writes:
Conventionally grown cotton uses more insecticides than any other single crop and epitomizes the worst effects of chemically dependent agriculture. [...] Cotton growers typically use many of the most hazardous pesticides on the market including aldicarb, phorate, methamidophos and endosulfan. Cotton pesticides are often broad spectrum organophosphates -- pesticides originally developed as toxic nerve agents during World War II -- and carbamate pesticides.But there are two facts that make Organic Exchange's annoucement just the silver lining on an otherwise relatively dark cloud.
First, organic cotton still represents a miniscule fraction of the overall cotton market: about 400,000 acres of organic corn were planted last year (161,000 hectares), according to Organic Exchange, but the USDA announced in March that cotton acreage would fall 2 percent this year, and would only be planted on about 73.4 million acres. The total amount of cotton harvested is likewise tiny: over 668,000 organic bales harvested compared to about 110 million conventional bales.
The second downside of this report is that supply is growing quickly enough that Organic Exchange fears that speculators are flooding the market. "Farmers who planted on speculation or expanded without market partners may have shifted the market into a state of oversupply in 2009," said LaRhea Pepper, Organic Exchange's senior director.
So while it's great news that there is an increasing amount of organic cotton being grown, there is still obviously plenty of room for improvement and some concern that oversupply could strip away the profit margins that are so necessary to encourage farmers to go organic.
Cotton photos CC-licensed by Flickr users kash_if and flydime.
labeling
Perhaps better labeling of cotton and cotton products are needed?
The labels should include:
- country of origin of cotton
- amount of pesticides used
- water usage and carbon production in each step of growing and production
- wage levels of workers, exploitation rating.
- government subsidies provided in it's growing and production.
- other indicators like land stewardship
Then, purchasers could look at the label and decide for themselves.
Organic Cotton
Traditionally cotton growing uses an enormous amount of pesticides and insecticides, nearly 1/3 a pound is used for every one pound produced.
Traditional cotton manufacturing often employs sweat shop labor. Manufacturers have, for years, resisted any kind of product labeling that would imply non-sweatshop labor used in it's production.
Traditional cotton manufacturing also is a somewhat water-intensive industry.
U.S. cotton growers receive subsidies for growing cotton. This tends to promote "corporate" cotton farms and mono-cropping which requires high level of pesticides and insecticides. Also, these subsidies crowd out 2nd and 3rd world farmers and contributes to world-wide poverty.
Although I applaud the "organic" push, which will certainly cut down on insecticide useage, an organic label does not address issues like sweat-shop labor, water-intensive production, subsidies and encouragement of poverty.
There is a certain element of "greenwash" going on in the organic cotton movement. Reducing pesticides is a good thing and should be encouraged. However, the cotton industry is trying to divert our attention from other serious issues with cotton that still need to be addressed.