Published by Vanessa Brunner under Clothing

Organic Cotton: The Popular One.

Organic cotton is the most popular of all organic fabrics.  Between 2005 and 2006, demand for Organic Cotton doubled (according to the Organic Consumers Association). Part of this is due to cotton’s flexibility, since it can be used in clothing as well as personal care items (such as cotton swabs, baby diapers, paper, sheets, and towels).

Organic Hemp: The One Who’ll Always Be There

Hemp is a highly durable, natural fiber. Hemp is a highly sustainable material since it requires no pesticides and very little water to grow. Not only that, but hemp is a renewable resource, leaving the soil intact after it is harvested. This means that farmers are able to grow hemp crops year after year. Hemp is another flexible material, and can be used in skin products and paper. Hemp fibers are often blended with cotton or silk to make the fabric softer.

Organic Wool: The Complicated One

Organic wool is certified as organic according to specific standards set by the USDA. Because wool involves livestock, there are rigid guidelines that farmers producing organic wool must follow. These include: livestock feed must be certified organic, no synthetic hormones/pesticides/genetic engineering are used, and producers encourage livestock health through good management practices.

Organic Silk: The Wild Child

Silk is a more difficult material to monitor, since it is a naturally occurring process and is generally considered “organic.” However, many providers of organic silk insist on using wild silkworms instead of the blind and helpless Bombyx mori silkworm, making the practice more ethical and even more organic.

Sustainable fabrics include those made from bamboo, soy, and woodpulp. These materials can also include new hybrids made from recycled by products such as plastic soda bottles, old billboards, and other innovative ideas

Bamboo is considered a good choice by many farmers, since it grows very quickly and can be farmed without pesticides or chemical additives. Bamboo is also 100% biodegradable, and is great for sportswear since it naturally holds antibacterial and moisture wicking properties.

While all of these fabrics are starting to become available at most retail stores, many tend to avoid them because of the hefty price tag. While there are many reasons for the high price of organic clothing, even more important are the larger reasons for purchasing these materials:

-In the US there are about 12.8 million acres of conventional cotton, with about four pounds of cotton produced per acre. Approximately 55 million pounds of pesticides are sprayed on that acreage, making cotton the third most pesticide dependent crop (behind corn and soybeans).

-Conventional cotton uses up to 10% of all agricultural chemicals and 25% of insecticides on 3% of arable land.

-The use of pesticides on cotton adds up to about a third a pound of chemicals for one t-shirt and  ¾ a pound of chemicals for a pair of jeans.

-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).

When it comes down to it, choosing organic is about letting nature take its course. I love this description of organic farming from How Stuff Works: “It may sound like an elusive concept, but the basis for organic farming is actually very simple: Allow nature to do what nature does best.”

Sources:

How Stuff Works

Pesticide Facts

Green Fashion Facts