What’s the Cotton-Pickin’ Idea?
Photo by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Grown in more than 70 countries, cotton fibers account for almost 50 percent of textiles worldwide. Conventional cotton, however, remains the most toxic crop in the world, using 3 to 5 percent of the world’s farmland but consuming 25 percent of all chemical pesticides and fertilizers. (Around 10 percent of all agricultural chemicals in the U.S. are used to farm cotton on 1 percent of all major agricultural land. To give us a context, cotton crops conventionally grown in six California counties alone are sprayed with 57 million pounds of chemicals per year. Jumpin’ Jehosaphat!) To get a leg up on crop management, we’ve even developed a genetically engineered cotton that exudes its own potent brew of insecticides, indiscriminating killing beneficial insects alongside pests, which, in turn, develop resistance at an equally feverish pace. The mono-crop cultivation of commercial white cotton (original varieties of au naturel cotton come in myriad colors) has its own sticky quagmire, too.
Other fun cotton factoids from the Sustainable Cotton Project:
In the United States, it takes about a third of a pound of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides to grow enough cotton for a T-shirt.
In California, five of the top nine pesticides used on cotton are cancer-causing chemicals (cyanazine, dicofol, naled, propargite, and trifluralin).
All of the top nine cotton pesticides in California are labeled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as Category I or Category II materials, the most toxic classifications.
Even when agricultural chemicals are properly applied by experienced workers who adhere to regulations, the run-off from fields and crop-dusting planes still dissolve into adjacent rivers, lakes, wetlands, and ground water, which can result in the loss and fragmentation of ecosystems. (In 1995, pesticide-contaminated run-off from cotton fields killed at least 240,000 fish in Alabama. Pesticides also unintentionally kill at least 67 million birds in the U.S. each year.) Because cottonseed oil is a common ingredient in baked food, snacks, and salad dressing, not to mention a major source of feed for meat and dairy cows, those noxious carcinogens also end up creeping into our food chain.
The World Health Organization estimates that at least 3 million people are poisoned by pesticides every year, resulting in 220,000 deaths worldwide annually. Cases of pesticides poisoning are especially prevalent in rural communities where poverty prevents small-scale workers from taking the necessary precautions. Miscarriages, premature births, and sickly children are par for the course.
Don’t count on the EPA to protect us from toxic chemicals that get buffeted by winds from cotton fields into wildlife habitats and our lungs, either. Or from errant crop-dusters. (Championing human health and the environment is HARD, y’all.)
Meanwhile, “in the San Joaquin’s cotton fields, for miles around no birds sing or insects hum; the air stinks, the eyes burn, toxins stain the irrigation ditches. Hired men with shotguns sit in lawn chairs by the ‘lakes’ in order to scare off waterfowl and shorebirds before they land in the toxic soup.”
Next: Is organic cotton all cracked up to be, then?
Further resources:
1. “Agriculture problems: cotton,” World Wildlife Foundation
2. “Agrochemicals, health, and environment,” World Health Organization
3. More cotton statistics, EcoChoices.com
4. NSW Legislative Council Hansard on cotton pesticides, Parliament of New South Wales
5. “Organic cotton: a case study,” Patagonia [via FiftyRX3]
c.e. said,
April 16, 2006 at 8:23 pm
Wow. Thank you for this post.
The Worsted Witch » Goooobly Gooook said,
April 17, 2006 at 1:48 pm
[...] I pulled out the fabric tag inside: 100 percent cotton. Made in China. I thought you knew better! [...]
The Worsted Witch » Hurray for Organic Cotton: Resources said,
May 26, 2006 at 4:45 pm
[...] (Read about the problems with conventional cotton here.) [...]
The Worsted Witch » Organic Cotton Textile Spotlight said,
May 28, 2006 at 10:39 am
[...] (Be sure to read the previous post on the detrimental impact of growing conventional cotton.) [...]
The Worsted Witch » Another BT Cotton Controversy said,
June 9, 2006 at 11:42 pm
[...] Bt cotton is cotton that has has been genetically modified by the insertion of one or more genes from a common soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis. “These genes encode for the production of insecticidal proteins, and thus, genetically transformed plants produce one or more toxins as they grow,” according to the University of Tennessee. (Read more about conventionally grown and genetically modified cotton in this previous post and about our friend and leading purveyor of Bt cotton, Monsanto, here.) [...]
The Worsted Witch » Clothes Call said,
November 17, 2006 at 4:23 pm
[...] GOOD: Buy organic clothing, i.e, no pesticides or chemicals were used in the making of this T-shirt, which is good for you and good for the environment. (See “What’s the Cotton Pickin’ Idea” for problems with conventionally grown cotton.) Other tree-hugging materials: hemp, bamboo, and soysilk. [...]
The Worsted Witch » New at Harmony Art said,
December 12, 2006 at 12:19 pm
[...] Related articles: 1. Organic Cotton Textile Spotlight 2. What’s the Cotton Pickin’ Idea? [...]
The Worsted Witch » The Deadly Chemicals in Cotton said,
April 23, 2007 at 1:14 pm
[...] Related article: 1. What’s the Cotton-Pickin’ Idea: Problems with Conventional Cotton [...]
The Worsted Witch » Hideaways said,
June 15, 2007 at 11:42 am
[...] I’ve always loved the idea of attractive under-bed storage that didn’t look like flattened, oversized Tupperware. Hable Construction has a looker of one, made from 53 percent sustainable linen (I’m not a fan of the conventional-cotton content, however) and handprinted in New England. If the $215 price makes your wallet go into toxic shock, Martha Stewart has a step-by-step guide to making your own under-bed storage box. [...]