Organic cotton is softer, more pleasant to the skin, has a hypoallergenic effect, does not destroy the environment, leaves five times less wastewater than GMO cultivation. All for five, our people would say. So why is the world flooded with 99 percent GMO cotton even though it is among the most polluted crops, for the cultivation of which more than 10 percent of all pesticides and up to 25 percent of all insecticides are used, while the cultivation of organic cotton in the world is currently decreasing
Why should you buy organic cloths? Organic cotton is softer, more pleasant to the skin, has a hypoallergenic effect, and leaves five times less wastewater than conventionally grown cotton. This is how our ancestors grew it before the chemical revolution, when nature was still pure and innocent, and this is how it should be today. Everything for five, our people would say, but why is the world flooded with 99 percent GMO cotton, and there is only one percent organic?
Well, ask mass consumers in countries of mass consumption with global fashion chains and the formula for business success: goods must reach the buyer as quickly as possible at the lowest price and must be replaced with a new model in the shortest possible time. Just imagine Zara, which produces 840 million pieces of clothing annually, enough for every eighth person on Earth to wear a new Zara piece every twelve months. Of course, Zara is not the only one, and that requires a lot of energy and raw materials, including cotton. Lots of cotton. And you will get a lot of cotton by growing new varieties, genetically manipulated to give as much as possible, so in search of the most profitable type, the Moscow Biotechnical Institute alone supposedly grows 500 new ones a year . And by using pesticides to prevent pests from eating the fruit, and to that you will add artificial fertilizers and lots and lots of water – 10,000 to 17,000 liters per kilogram of GMO cotton – almost twice the amount consumed by a kilogram of organic cotton.
The politics of 'clean fashion'
When they filled their pockets with GMO cotton, global chains acknowledged the benefits of organic cotton. It is now fashionable and more expensive on the market , which is a challenge to fraudsters, who, under the declaration of '100 percent bio cotton', have deceived well-known chains such as H&M, Topshop, Zara and C&A itself with a mixture of GMOs, which caused a major textile scandal in Germany in 2010, for which the companies had to apologize to consumers.
And following a 'clean fashion' policy, C&A intends to switch entirely to organic cotton by 2020 at the latest , and has already increased orders by 78 percent in 2012. 'For the past ten years, we have been working with growers, NGOs and suppliers to organize an organic cotton supply chain,' their press release states.
And this is where the problems begin, because there is not enough raw material on the market . While the demand is growing, the supply decreased by eight percent in 2012 alone. There are many reasons, from natural disasters and politics to the breeding process itself. After India and Turkey, one of the largest growers of natural cotton, Syria (it exported 20,000 tons annually) is shaken by bloody events , during which exports were suspended - until when, it is not known. The largest grower in the USA, Texas, was hit by catastrophic droughts last year and the entire crop was destroyed . Although 50 percent of producing countries have increased production, crop yields are declining, largely due to a lack of knowledge about organic farming.
Organic cotton becomes 'white gold'
Farmers cannot follow the new trend overnight, because for the natural cultivation of 'white gold' the soil needs three years of rest to get rid of all toxins, and they also need time to master the best cultivation methods. In the meantime, they have to make a living from something, so most of them hesitate, preferring to stick to established businesses. India grows 74 percent of the world's organic cotton, but production is declining because growers have difficulty obtaining quality, non-genetically manipulated seeds and cannot wait that long for their first profit, so with the support of C&A - as the company emphasizes - they have recently established a special committee that should ensure that they can obtain quality seeds as easily as possible .
Many small producers are afraid of change, taught by tragic examples of manipulation of GMO cotton growers. It is a 'GMO genocide ', as the British Prince Charles called the Bt-cotton case, after whose tragic consequences he founded the Buhumi Vardaan Foundation in India with the idea of helping small growers and promoting organic farming.
The seeds used are the so-called Bollgard I, II and III cottons of the powerful Monsanto corporation , which have the Bt genes built in, responsible for producing a specific protein toxin that is deadly to cotton pests. With the support of government agencies and scientists, the seed producer Monsanto launched a fierce advertising campaign claiming that new crops do not need to be sprayed with insecticides, which means lower costs, higher yields, environmental protection and much higher profits. Commercial sowing of the first GM crop, Bt cotton, was allowed in 2002 in six Indian states, farmers massively took out loans to purchase seeds, and soon 780 hybrids with Bt genes were sown on 9.4 million hectares (about 90 percent of the area under cotton).
But the cotton bollworm quickly became resistant to the Bt cotton toxin , and some previously harmless secondary pests began to decimate the fields. It turned out that Bt cotton required higher investments in mineral fertilizers and irrigation, as it was particularly sensitive to drought during the boll formation period, which caused farmers to spend more money. A scientific study by the Indian organization Navdanya confirmed that Monsanto's Bt cotton was irreversibly destroying the soil . When India was hit by drought, many farmers saw no way out. In the state of Maharashtra alone, 3,141 farmers committed suicide in 2010.
Source: Tportal
