Organic cotton? What’s the point?

When I’m looking for ethical clothes online, I tend to find a lot of shops selling organic cotton. But why is organic cotton more ethical?

I found that non-organic cotton uses a quarter of the world’s pesticides while organic cotton only uses 16%. Pesticides contain toxins that contaminate air and water, putting the farmers who have to use them at high risk of falling ill or dying. That’s not all...

• The largest producer of cotton is India, and according to the Environmental Justice Foundation in Andhra Pradesh, India, over 100,000 children have been documented working for 13 hours a day on cotton farms for not much more than peanuts.

• 7 of the top 15 pesticides are more than likely to contain carcinogens, which are known to cause cancer.

• Have you noticed that sometimes a non organic cotton wearer’s skin can get irritated and cause eczema? One of the reasons is because the chemicals in the garment are reacting or chaffing against the skin. People with sensitive skin have to be especially careful. So if you have found your skin getting drier and itchy, the finger of blame could be pointed to your t-shirt.

So why IS organic better than non-organic cotton? Non-organic cotton is bad for our skin, our environment, our health and the health of the people involved in the process.

So then, why do we use it? The answer to this is simple and the same answer we give for everything else, it is cheaper and faster to grow. Clothes are now in higher demand than in the last few years, but we forget that cotton does not grow as fast as we consume the clothes.

Should we continue the way we have been going, or do you think slowing down fashion and letting nature catch up with our thirst for more is worth it?

Perhaps this will help answer the question...