I'd like to give you a lesson today on organic cotton and why it matters.
If you've been a loyal follower/devoted reader of my blog then you know that I never shut up about it. "Organic cotton this and organic cotton that" but so far, I've given you little reason to care about it...until now ;].
Fortunately and unfortunately there is more to it than just the albeit simple and wonderful fact that it is good for the earth.
However, all of this, when broken down, is quite easy to comprehend. It's all a matter of, now everyone say it with me... "biodiversity".
Now that I've gone all Captain Planet on you guys, I'd like to take it a step further and define that term:
bi·o·di·ver·si·ty [bahy-oh-di-vur-si-tee, ‐dahy‐] : Biological Diversity. Diversity among and within plant and animal species in an environment.
Biodiversity is fundamental for the survival of all natural and human-engineered ecosystems. Think of it in terms of the food chain or photosynthesis or Nemo and his sea anemone.
Biodiversity is the sole reason behind organic cotton and farming; once conventional farming comes into play, the natural balance of the ecosystem is thrown off.
This turtle is ALL about biodiversity.
There are more than a few important distinctions between organic and conventional farming.
Organic Cotton seeds don’t treat crops with fungicides or insecticides (treatments farmers use to kill fungi and insects on crops) nor do they employ GMO’s-Genetically Modified Organisms on any of their plants.
Basically, they take the DNA from one organism and put it into another to completely change and recreate the make up of that organism in order to provide herbicide-tolerance and/or insect resistance to the plants (See: "Playing God").
One might think that GMO’s are beneficial as they increase lifespan and productivity of crops. However, it isn’t as simple as it sounds.
The effects that the GMO’s have on other species (humans included) is unknown.
It may also be possible that just as mosquitoes develop a tolerance to DDT in bugspray, pests and fungis can become immune to the GMO’s and thus be useless as well as detrimental.
Economically, GMO’s are costly to make, which raises the issue of running out small farmers and third world countries who can’t afford to grow crops using GMO’s.
There are 20,000 deaths from pesticide poisoning each year by field workers and townspeople ingesting the chemicals or from run-offs into their water supply.
That is on top of the countless, life-threatening side-effects, such as the pictures shown above.
Conventional farming is an industry based primarily upon mono-cropping.
Mono-cropping being the harvesting of one single crop every season without crop rotation, which is necessary for biodiversity and the healthy continuation of the land.
Mono-cropping destroys the land by ruining soil quality and depleting it of it’s organic matter so that growing crops is no longer a natural, inherent process but a man-made, chemically driven action.
It’s also very important to note that ridding fields of pests is not exactly effective farming.
Pests that are natural to the land are there to eat other bugs; so killing them off is really quite, ahem, dumb.
If the “Lion King” has taught you anything, it should be that the circle of life moves us all on the path unwinding and to let nature do it’s job.
Something like this...
...or this. Take your pick.
When all is said and done, the harvesting of organic cotton is really important for biodiversity because cotton as a whole satisfies half of all the world's fiber needs.
Organic cotton is grown using methods and materials that have a low impact on people and the environment.
It's just really good stuff.
Plus it's comfy and super-soft. Win-win.
Here are a few companies that use 100% or blends of organic cotton:
And now you get to watch the Lion King. Just as a reinforcement.
Peace, Love and Organic Cotton y'all <3
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