WHAT IS ORGANIC COTTON?
Organic Cotton Vs Conventional Cotton
Did you know that cotton is one of the oldest fibres, which can be traced back to about 5000 B.C.? Still today cotton is used on a huge scale, making it the most popular natural fabric in the world.
What the majority of people don’t know is how harmful conventional cotton production is for people and the environment. For example, cotton covers 2.5% of the cultivated land in the world but at the same time uses 16% of all pesticides, giving cotton the famous name of ‘The Dirtiest Crop’.
With six countries producing 80% of the world's cotton you can imagine the detrimental effects being had from the harmful ways of growing ordinary cotton, from pollution to social issues.
But why is organic cotton better than conventional cotton?
1. The Seeds - Organic Seeds are untreated and not genetically modified. Whereas, non organic cotton seeds are typically treated with insecticides, and are always genetically modified. This is so the crops yield more cotton, and are immune to diseases. However, this creates a huge dependency on chemicals
2. The Soil and Water - Non organic cotton productions always apply synthetic fertilizers, and rarely rotate the soil. Importantly it can take between 10,000 to 20,000kg of water to produce just 1kg of cotton, the equivalent to one t-shirt. Alternatively organic cotton uses no toxic chemicals, doesn’t damage the soil and uses 71% less water and 62% less energy.
3. Pest Control - Organic Cotton farming keeps a healthy balance between pests and natural predators through healthy soil, using natural insects to control pests. Whereas in non organic cotton farming insecticides are heavily used.
4. Social issues - The heavy use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers not only harm the environment but threaten human health, wildlife, clean water and soil. There is also evidence of ongoing forced child labour in cotton colvation with children as young as five working in factories in countries sucha as India and Egypt.
All Foofy Loungewear comes with full, documented GOTS certification to ensure that extra piece of mind that all of our products have been grown and treated with the utmost care that the deserve.
