Cotton is one of the biggest crops grown for use in clothing production. According to an article from Pesticide Action Network North America or PANNA, we ingest more of the harmful pesticides than we realize.
Organic cotton on the other hand is grown without pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, chemical fertilizers or any other chemicals. It uses agricultural methods designed to help sustain the land it grows on, the people who grow and harvest it, and the planet in general., and that makes it hugely different.
Conventional cotton crops alone account for $2.6 billion in pesticides used each year and is the definition of a chemically dependent agriculture. Even though cotton only uses 2.4% of all cultivated land, 25% of the world's pesticides and 10% of the world's insecticides are used on it yearly.
In other words, for every one pair of jeans and t-shirt produced, 1 pound of pesticides and chemical fertilizers are used. And that's just not bad for the planet; 20,000 deaths occur each year from pesticide poisoning in developing countries, many of these from cotton farming, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The problems with clothing production do not stop in the field. During the conversion of conventional cotton into clothing, numerous toxic chemicals are added at each stage - harsh petroleum scours, softeners, brighteners, heavy metals, flame and soil retardants, ammonia and formaldehyde…..and so on.
So,....What will you go for? Organic Cotton or Conventional Cotton?
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