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Organic Cotton is grown without the use of toxic pesticides, fungicides, herbicides or chemical fertilisers.

Why go organic? In the words of Katherine Hamnett: "The farming of conventional cotton is a modern-day nightmare." 400 million cotton farmers are living in abject poverty due to the high costs and negative health impacts of pesticides used on cotton. Shocking new figures from the Pesticide Action Network suggest that up to 100,000 people are dying each year of accidental pesticide poisoning and up to 1 million a year are suffering from acute long-term poisonings. Farmers in the developing world are given virtually no information on the dangers of the pesticides they buy. Conventional cotton farming also causes long-term contamination of rivers, seas and air.

Benefits for the environment - Conventional cotton uses 10% of the world's pesticides and 16 % of insecticides. Producing organic cotton has the potential to have a massive impact on the amount of pesticides used each year. Natural farming techniques encourage bio-diversity and protect animal, plant and water life by preventing water and soil contamination.

Benefits for the farmers: Organic cotton production delivers an increase in income by cutting the cost of inputs (pesticides) by 40% and allowing farmers to access the 20% premium for certified organic. It also has significant health benefits to the farmers, their families and the community they live in.

An organic certification does not necessarily mean the garment has been produced ethically as it only relates to how the cotton has been grown.

Organic in-conversion means the cotton is produced using organic techniques and without using pesticides and insecticides. It takes two years for any agricultural product to become fully organic and during this period the cotton is ‘in-conversion to organic'. This is seen as a very positive process as it is helping more farmers to produce organic cotton.

Oeko-Tex Standard 100 is an international testing and certification system for textiles that limits the use of certain chemicals. The concept has become established as a safety standard throughout the textile manufacturing chain and enables checks to be made for any harmful substances at each stage in the production process. There are four Oeko-Tex product classes and the more contact a product has with the skin, the more stringent the requirements. Tests on the product are carried out by independent Oeko-Tex institutes and include testing their pH-value, formaldehyde content, the presence of pesticides, extract-able heavy metals, chlorinated organic carriers and preservatives such as pentachlorophenol and tetrachlorophenol, checking for any MAC amines in azo dyestuffs and allergy-inducing dyestuffs. If all components of a textile comply with these standards, the manufacturer will be entitled to use the Oeko-Tex label for a period of one year (this can be extended subject to further successful testing). Over 51,000 certificates have been issued for millions of different products, making the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 the best known label for textiles tested for harmful substances.

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PAN UK is an independent, non-profit organisation that campaigns to eliminate the use of hazardous pesticides and promote projects that demonstrate the efficacy of organic production as a means of providing farmers with economically viable, socially acceptable and environmentally sound livelihoods. PAN UK is an informative resource as it regularly publishes independent research on these issues.

Pesticides can harm both humans and the environment. The pesticides used in cotton farming to kill or control pests are acutely toxic. At least three of the chemicals used heavily in conventional (non organic) cotton production are in the "dirty dozen" - so dangerous that 120 countries agreed at a UNEP conference in 2001 to ban them, but so far this hasn't happened.

Plastisol prints may contain PVC & Phthalates. Many printers have opted to print with ‘phthalate and PVC' free inks, as these chemicals have been liked with cancer and birth defects, and can enter water systems if waste material is not treated or disposed of properly.

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Recycling

The chasing arrow symbol is used to show that a product or package can be recycled. It is often confused with meaning that the product contains recycled material. 

This symbol shows what % of the items contains recycled material. Some goods contain recycled materials but do not carry this symbol. Recycled content does not mean it is necessarily better for the environment, so this symbol can sometimes be misleading.

This shows that a fee has been paid for the recovery of the packaging in some European countries.

Recycled plastic/polyester. Clothing can be made using recycled plastic or polyester. It takes about 25 two-litre plastic bottles to make one fleece pullover and bottles can also be recycled into a smoother fabric to make T-shirts. The bottles are separated by colour, sterilised and then crushed, chopped and melted. The melted plastic is extruded through a showerhead type device, producing fibrous strands. Those strands are stretched to thin out, strengthened and are then woven to create fabric.

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Sustainable fabrics are made from plant sources that either have a minimum impact on the environment, or do not use up natural resources that cannot be replaced. 

SA8000 is a ‘Social Accountabilty' system to improve and maintain good labour conditions by developing and implementing social responsibility standards. A multi-stakeholder advisory committee created the system, which covers all widely accepted international labour rights. It is based on nine principles that take into account international ILO conventions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Soil Association certifies over 70% of Britain's organic produce and guarantees that the product has been grown or produced to the highest standards of organic integrity. The organisation also campaigns to raise awareness of the benefits of organic cotton, develop the organic market and influence policy.

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"Trade not aid" promotes trade and sustainable employment in developing countries, instead of that country depending exclusively on aid. This concept also looks at improving a country's ability to process raw materials to keep more of the ‘added value' of the finished product within the country. In Africa in particular, there are not currently enough facilities to process agricultural products into finished products so more often than not the raw material is shipped abroad, taking with it most of its value. 

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Unfair subsidies. The US pays billions of dollars worth of subsidies to its cotton farmers each year, despite the WTO ruling that subsidies violate WTO rules. Around 20,000 farmers benefit from the subsidies, which enable them to sell their cotton at a very cheap price, but still get paid a good wage. This artificially deflates the market value of cotton, meaning farmers in developing countries are forced to sell their cotton at the same cheap price, but in their case this does not generate enough money to live on. Oxfam comments that reforming US cotton subsidies would increase world cotton prices by 6-14%, generating enough money to help to feed an additional million children for a year or pay school fees for at least two million children living in extremely poor West African cotton growing households. A typical cotton-producing household in West Africa has about 10 family members, an average life expectancy of about 48 years and an adult literacy rate of less than 25%. Cotton is often the only source of cash income for these families  who live on less than $1 a day per person.

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WRAP (Worldwide Responsible Apparel Production) came about as a result of the sweatshop allegations made against various EU and US brands in the late 90s. It aimed to bring together as many stakeholders as possible to monitor and certify compliance with the WRAP standard, which ensures a given factory produces sewn goods under lawful, humane and ethical conditions. As the organisation outlines: "There is no such thing as a 100% guarantee about these things, but with WRAP we have tried to assemble a certification program that incorporates internal audits and compliance at a factory level, with the real focus on the factory managers and owners taking responsibility for compliance themselves."

Water based dyes are generally considered to be less harmful to the environment than conventional inks, while maintaining a high quality finish. They are usually free from phthalate, PVC's, formaldehyde and heavy metals. Water based dyes also wash off screens using water, rather than having to use harmful chemicals such as white spirit, limiting the number of chemicals used in the printing process.

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For more information contact: juliet@eponaclothing.com or go to the Epona website: http://www.eponaclothing.com/

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