| Cotton is the most universally comfortable, breathable and softest of all
the fibers, natural or manmade. Cotton batting has been the mattress fill of choice for
decades. With purity and comfort, certified organic and natural cottons take the next step
forward.
Conventional (also known as traditional or commercial) grown cotton is
ordinarily one of the crops most heavily sprayed with pesticides. To bring this delicate
plant to harvest, it is heavily sprayed 30 to 40 times a season in extreme cases
with pesticides so poisonous they gradually render fields barren. To create finished
goods, fabrics are usually colored with toxic dyes and finished with formaldehyde.
Worldwide, conventional cotton farming uses only about 3% of the farmland but
consumes 25 percent of the chemical pesticides and
fertilizers. In the United States alone, approximately 600 thousand tons of
pesticides and chemical fertilizers are applied to cotton fields each season. To
complicate matters, insects are quickly becoming resistant to recommended rates of
pesticide application and ever increasing amounts are needed be effective. Consumers and
environmental groups are becoming more alarmed and more vocal.
"When the planes still swoop down and aerial spray a field in order to kill a
predator insect with pesticides, we are in the Dark Ages of commerce. Maybe one
thousandth of this aerial insecticide actually prevents the infestation. The
balance goes to the leaves, into the soil, into the water, into all forms of wildlife,
into ourselves. What is good for the balance sheet is wasteful of resources and harmful to
life." Paul Hawken, Ecology of Commerce.
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The Alternative
Certified organic cotton
is cotton grown in fields where the use of pesticides have been discontinued
for at least 3 years and where rigorous controls help rebuild the soil's natural
fertility. Organic farming is a farming system which relies on natural inputs only. No
synthetically produced pesticides or fertilizers are used. Mother Nature is
allowed to have much more of an influence. Beneficial insects are allowed to flourish to
keep pest insects in check. Crop rotations with legumes help maintain fertility and soil
microbiology. Weeds are controlled with precision tillage and the old fashioned hoe. The
successful organic farm requires much more intensive and innovative management. Cotton
Statistics
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