Comments on: Report says Global Organic Cotton Production Increased 15% in 2010 & My Thoughts

By: Julie Mellor-Trupp

Julie Mellor-Trupp — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 03:03:48 +0000

A little late to the party, but I wanted to thank you for pointing out the #1 reason I should avoid organic cotton- child labour. This is something that i never considered when weighing the options. 🙁

By: My Thoughts on The Fraying of a Nation’s Decency | a colorful adventure

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:51:20 +0000

[…] with the same broad brush. I especially know this because when I wrote a post last year about organic cotton being reported as up in acres (so was conventional/biotech), my good friend Emily Zweber says that as an organic producer, she has more than a single […]

By: JPlovesCOTTON

JPlovesCOTTON — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 04:18:26 +0000

In reply to zweberfarms. Thanks Emily. Glad I could repay you for some of the dairy things you & Tim have taught me! I agree people need to look at at least a few factors on most things. I absolutely prefer natural fibers. I own a decent amount of wool, linen and silk. I like to know where they were produced too. But since the US textile industry has dwindled so much, it's really tough to find Made in the USA labels sometimes but I keep looking! jp

By: zweberfarms

zweberfarms — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 02:37:56 +0000

Interesting post Janice!
As an organic farmer, I try to support other organic farmers as much as possible. That being said, buying USA is my first choice. I haven’t ventured to “organic” textiles yet for the reasons you stated above and I hate to support farming practices that I don’t find moral. I also check for the Made in USDA cotton label. I am a huge fan of other natural fibers (wool, linen, etc) They are easy to care for, wear well and support farmers right here at home. Thank you for teaching me something new about cotton!

Emily

By: JPlovesCOTTON

JPlovesCOTTON — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 17:25:18 +0000

Anastasia, Thanks for the comment. I agree on child labor. Talking to Kurdish children who were pulled out of school for months traveling with their family to pick cotton hurt my heart to no end. There was one kid… well, I may need to write that up as a blog post. I’ll get some of the figures in front of me on some of the other questions and may get a couple of friends to way in. Thanks again!

By: Anastasia

Anastasia — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 03:04:51 +0000

I would like to buy Bt cotton and avoid organic cotton. I know this might sound strange to some but I do not like child labor at all and do my best to avoid supporting it. I also do not like the fact that organic yields of cotton are lower than for conventional, meaning that more land must be used to produce the same hoodie and jeans, leaving less habitat. I have two questions for you – Do you know anything about yield comparisons of organic vs conventional (and Bt vs non-Bt)? I’d love to have some hard numbers. Do you know if most cotton items that can be bought in the US were made from Bt cotton?