This morning when I did my first check of my social media streams, I came across a post from the fine folks at Cotton Incorporated who celebrate “the touch, the feel of cotton, the fabric of our lives.” The article begs the question “The Cotton Controversy: Does Green Have To Be At Odds With Our Whites?”

The author of the piece — Alden Wicker — and I differ significantly in our background knowledge and experiences with cotton, but we both appreciate dialog with people on other parts of the spectrum and realize that is an important part of learning. Her introduction to the article shows she listens to very different descriptions of cotton than you normally see here on my blog but I think it’s important that I acknowledge this sort of information is out there.

You wouldn’t think a nice, bland textile like cotton would be so controversial. But “The Fabric of Our Lives” has become a flashpoint in the battle for more sustainable and ethical clothing. Advocates of eco-friendly fashion accuse the cotton industry of heavy pesticide and herbicide use, dangerous working conditions, and even putting the consumer’s health at risk when we wear its products.

Given how passionate I am about the aforementioned issues, I jumped at the chance to debate a real, live cotton scientist. As a 12-year employee of Cotton Inc., Dr. Ed Barnes’ loyalties definitely lie with conventional cotton. But, I hoped he, being a scientist, would treat me to some real talk.

via Conventional Cotton Facts And Numbers- Is It Safe?.

It is clear that Alden listened and did some checking back on things too. One of the first questions she asked that Ed Barnes of Cotton Incorporated answered challenged what she knew & she checked his facts.

Alden Wicker: Thank you for speaking with me. As you know, the impetus for this interview was Amber Valletta’s April story for Refinery29. The first thing said was that conventionally grown cotton is one of the most heavily sprayed plants in farming.

Ed Barnes: That is definitely not the case. Critics like to say that cotton uses 25% of the world’s pesticides. It’s one of the urban legends that floats out there on the Internet. Global data is hard to get, but we use data from Cropnosis that tracks sales of pesticides around the world. It’s not the perfect data source, since it’s based on dollar values, but we know that cotton uses about 6% of pesticides used. This was surprising to me, but there’s a lot more pesticide use in fruits and vegetables.

Editor’s note: However, also according to Cropnosis, a private company in the U.K., cotton’s share by value of global pesticide consumption declined from 11% in 1988 to 6.8% (worth $3 billion) in 2008. Similarly, the share of insecticide use declined from 19% in 2000 to 15.7% in 2008.

The facts show what I have seen throughout my career — cotton farmers –like my friend Kenneth Hood in the photo — are always improving, doing better for their farms, the environment, their communities and their families. And while I know a lot of people say there is no perfect industry, I would suggest that continual improvement is perfection!

I can’t highlight all the interesting pieces in the article, cause to me all three pages were interesting and that would be theft if I ran more than a couple of excerpts but I encourage you to read Conventional Cotton Facts And Numbers- Is It Safe?.

Beyond the facts, there is a passion that, at the very least, matches Wicker’s, it even leads people like me to tweet about my love of cotton and to create series of posts about the natural fiber here… we also passionately seek improvements!

Related articles

• What’s with that Hayden Panettiere cotton commercial?
• C is for Cotton – an A to Z Series about Agriculture
• First Visit to a North Carolina Cotton Farm
• G is for GMOs – What are GMOs & Why Do Farmers Plant GMO Crops?

The post Taking Time to Check on Cotton Sustainability Facts appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

My friend Jasper Cunningham tweeted me one day asking me if I had some cotton facts on my blog. He seemed to enjoy several of the posts in my Cotton 101 series, especially the cotton dictionary, but I realized some quick and easy facts about cotton may be of interest too.

Type of Plant

Cotton is a perennial that farmers grow on an annual schedule. The plant wants to survive first and foremost. It focuses on maturing bolls and creating seed for future seasons second. Plants can differ in their growth from being columnar (where all the bolls are in fairly close to the main stalk) or bushy (where fruiting branches go longer & bolls continue to be produced further out on the branches.

Environment Needed to Grow Cotton

Cotton thrives in heat. It also prefers a bit of water now and then but doesn’t do well in soils that hold water in the root zone — that means loams and sandy soils are preferred to clay-types.

What states in the US has cotton farmers in the population mix?

Coming west to east: California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina  and Virginia. I have to tell you a few other states have played with cotton acres too — I’m an honorary lifetime member of the Nebraska Cotton Farmers Association.

Items Made from A Bale of Cotton

How many finished textile products can be made from a typical 500 lbs. bale of cotton lint? Below are a few examples of what might be made from a bale of cotton. (These numbers are approximations)

• Men’s dress and business shirts 800
• Men’s & boy’s jeans 325
• Ladies blouses and shirts 850
• Ladies knit & woven dresses 350
• Diapers 3,000
• Pillowcases 1,200

How much cotton does it take to make?

The following examples are estimated amounts of cotton required to make these common consumer items.

• 1 Pair Jeans 1.5 lbs. (24 oz.)
• 1 Man’s Shirt .6 lbs. (10 oz.)
• 1 T-shirt .5 lbs. (8 oz.)
• 1 Diaper .15 lbs. (2.5 oz.)
• 1 Bath Towel .6 lbs. (10 oz.)

Sources include: General knowledge I’ve built after decades in cotton, awesome friends at the National Cotton Council, Cotton’s Journey – The Story of Cotton – COTTON FACTS, Cotton Facts! Bet you didn’t know…...

The post Cotton 101: Facts about Cotton — The Crop & Products appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

This past week my Twitter pal @ArveyColumbus sent me a link to a report from one of the organic textile groups. The report said in part:

Despite the recession, manufacturer demand has helped increase global organic cotton production by 15% in 2009-2010, according to a new report by sustainable textile non-profit Textile Exchange, formerly known as Organic Exchange. The Organic Cotton Farm and Fiber Report reveals that India, Syria, and Turkey are the leading organic cotton producers in the world.

Organic Cotton Now Represents 1.1% of Global Cotton Production

Production of organic cotton has grown from 209,950 metric tonnes (MT) in 2008-2009 to 241,276 MT, which is just over 1.1 million bales, grown on 1.14 million acres of land in 2009-2010. According to the Textile Exchange, these figures show that organic cotton now represents 1.1 percent of global cotton production.

via Global Organic Cotton Production Increased 15% in 2010 : TreeHugger.

Since I’ve worked in the cotton business a long time, profess my love of the fiber in my Twitter ID and blog address so Cheri thought I may have some thoughts to share on the topic. Although we traded some quick tweets, its far easier to really put my thoughts together in a blog post. So I’ll touch on a few topics raised in this report. And I have to say, if any cotton experts read this, please point out if my logic or info is incorrect. I worked on this over the weekend, did my own research and would appreciate insight others in cotton can offer. 

Increased organic cotton production in 2010 — This report says organic production grew 15 percent in 2010. That sounds very plausible to me. If you look at cotton production in 2010 compared to 2009, there was about 14 percent increase globally of cotton production in total according to the USDA-Foreign Ag Service according to the January 12, 2011 report. (Screen capture here as I’m not sure how long that report will be live.) With that in mind, organic cotton seems to have increased similarly.

India, Syria and Turkey were the leading producers or organic cotton — Part of Cheri’s interest was about US organic cotton production. I know a few farmers who have grown organic cotton. The crop, like other organic crops, offers a premium to farmers who go through the certification program. This report cited production in foreign countries and there was some interest from Cheri about whether more organic, local cotton production was anticipated. From what farmers tell me the current premium & market doesn’t provide them the incentive needed to plant more organic cotton. Having been to two of the three countries listed (Turkey & India) and having seen their cotton production methods first hand, I think the ability to use manual labor and sometimes child labor has a direct impact on cost of production there whereas US crops are far more mechanized.

Part of the reasoning I’ve heard is that insects can be devastating to cotton — and if you aren’t familiar with the incredibly high insect populations we can have in the Cotton Belt, I’ve got friends in the Delta who would be glad to let you try to sit outside for an evening in July. There are bugs that will eat any and everything, moving or not. Cotton produces some great plant sugars, etc that attracts some of those insects when plants are flowering or putting on bolls. If you want to see some of the insects that can inflict economic damage on cotton, check out this photo library at Texas A&M (caution, seeing this near bedtime could be bad news for sleep patterns if you grow cotton!)

The boll weevil, long the enemy of cotton farmers, has been virtually eradicated as it is not native to the US. Major pests include worm species, aphids & plant bugs, etc.

How much cotton is produced globally or in the US? The USDA-FAS report cited above put 2010 production at 115.46 million bales, with 18.32 million bales of that being grown in the US. The US figure is a fairly dramatic increase compared to the previous crop of just over 12 million bales. There are a number of factors that made 2009 a tough year for cotton producers across a wide swath of the Southern US and the better weather patterns really showed up as did increased acreage.

What does demand for natural fibers look like? Is organic the major component? Cheri asked about with the rise in interest in “natural” categories as it applies to fibers, with a question to organic specifically. Cotton demand is pretty good these days and the price has reflected that — in fact, recently we had historic highs. Personally, I seem to fill closets & drawers with cotton — different styles & colors of jeans, a few more cherished hoodies and the move to business casual and the ubiquitous khakis has been good for cotton demand. But when you look at world fiber demand, you have more people in more parts of the world who as they gain economic buying power may want to purchase something more for their closet or home.

The natural fibers like cotton, wool, silk and linen feel so good that they are a primo choice! The efforts to assess the sustainability of cotton show what the environmental footprint of the crop looks like from farmers throughout the life cycle of the product. And when you talk with many cotton farmers in the US, biotech has enabled them to embrace some environmentally-preferred practices like conservation tillage. When you look at the footprint of cotton, it’s another reason to pick cotton!

I hope that helps answer some of Cheri’s questions. It provides at least my train of thought and experience as I looked at the article and the thoughts she raised.

If you are a person who prefers organic cotton, I’d be interested to know what leads you to that preference.

If you have cotton questions, please feel free to raise them in the comments section. I can either take a stab at answering them here (or in a blog post) or get someone else to since I tend to know a bunch of cotton peeps!

The post Report says Global Organic Cotton Production Increased 15% in 2010 & My Thoughts appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.