About Organic

There are many reasons why purchasing Organic products are important. Because organic agriculture doesn’t use toxic and persistent pesticides, choosing organic products is an easy way to help protect yourself. These are a few of the reasons we consume and purchase organic products for our children pets and our home.

Over two-thirds of the world’s cotton is grown in developing countries and the former Soviet Union. Cotton, over a $30 billion dollar/year crop should be improving lives. But this ‘white gold’ too often brings misery. The unsustainable, inequitable and abusive conditions under which much of the world’s cotton is produced, continues.(EJF)

Toxic chemicals have an enormous effect on all of our bodies and health. They are absorbed through our water, food and the products that we use. As far as chemical exposure to toxins, children and pets as well are extremely vulnerable. A child's developing body is vulnerable to toxic harm from small doses that are received at the wrong time. Phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates) are a class of chemicals found in many consumer products—from cosmetics to children's toys and baby products. They are commonly used to soften PVC plastic, are found in fragrances and are known to interfere with hormone-driven reproductive development. Why should you even be concerned about Plastic Toys? Because PVC (pthalates) the most toxic plastic, is most often used in soft children's products - bath toys, squeeze toys and teething rings. Since everything that their little hands pick up, goes into their little mouths & bodies, these Phthalates can be ingested, inhaled and absorbed through the skin. Almost all soft plastic toys for infants and toddlers contain PVC (Phthalates) added to make the PVC soft and squishy to manufacture infant toys that are chewed and sucked primarily to relieve teething irritation. Some other nice ingredients such as heavy metals - Lead & Cadmium, are added to make the stiff type of PVC, more durable for use in older children's toys. These chemicals can leach out and show up in your children's blood and have been linked to cancer, kidney damage and interference and development of the reproductive system. Disposal of PVC plastic releases dioxins; known to be highly toxic even in small quantities. Therefore, it is best to ensure that PVC toys go to a landfill site, not to a municipal incinerator.(Oregon Toxics Alliance). There are no labeling requirements, so there is no way for even the most careful shoppers to know whether a toy or other product contains phthalates. There are toy companies in the USA and abroad that are making toys without the use of phthalates. Parents just need to find them. What you can do as a parent, a consumer, is avoid buying anything that is made of PVC plastic.Purchase unpainted wood blocks or dolls made from organic cotton or wool and wooden toys that are solidly constructed and will last long enough to be passed on to younger children.

Why we need to clean up Cotton and Buy Organic

Child Labor and Cotton 

Over 250 million children across the world are compelled to work, 70% of them from West Africa to Egypt, India to Turkmenistan, they are employed in a variety of tasks from cottonseed production, to pesticide spraying and the annual cotton harvest, with an enormous  exposure to pesticides, chemicals and hard forced labor. This pesticide exposure  is particularly damaging to children because of their smaller body size, differing metabolism and rapidly growing and developing organ systems.(EJF).  Each year in Egypt  is estimated that one million children between the ages of seven and 12  manually remove pests from cotton plants for the duration of up to ten weeks each year, eleven hours a day, seven days a week, earning US $.68 to US $0.95 per day.I n the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, it is  estimated 100,000 children below the age of 18  work 13 hours/day in cottonseed production earning less than half a euro per day. Even though children are extremely vulnerable to poisoning, child labourers throughout the world risk exposure to hazardous pesticides through participation in cotton production. they are often the first victims of pesticide poisoning, even if they do not participate in the spraying, but due to the proximity of their homes to cotton fields,  or because of the re-use of empty pesticide containers.

Pesticides and Cotton

Cotton grows on 2.4% of the world’s arable land, yet it is responsible for the release of over US$2 billion of chemical pesticides each year. Almost  half of these chemical pesticides are considered toxic enough to be classified as 'hazardous' by the World Health Organization. (EJF) Pesticides, hazardous by design  manufactured with the aim of killing, repelling or inhibiting the growth of living organisms, by impairing biological processes essential for the maintenance of life. (EJF) It is estimated that 1 million to 5 million cases of pesticide poisoning occur every year, resulting in 20,000 reported deaths among agricultural workers and at least 1 million requiring hospitalization. (EJF)  A powerful nerve agent named Aldicarb,  is one of the most toxic pesticides applied to cotton, yet it is also the 2nd most used pesticide in global cotton production. A single teaspoonful of aldicarb on the skin would be sufficient to kill an adult. In total the world’s cotton accounts for 16% of global insecticide releases by market share: far more than is applied to any other single crop worldwide.(EJF)
It is estimated that 1 million to 5 million cases of pesticide poisoning occur every year, causing 20,000 reported deaths among agricultural workers with at least 1 million needing hospitalization. Developing countries account for less than 30% of global pesticide consumption and most of thepesticide poisonings occur in a developing world scenario; including an estimated 99% of pesticide induced deaths.
A few of the common pesticides used in cotton:The average cotton T-shirt is only 73% cotton fiber; the rest is chemicals and resins. Did you know that it takes about 1 cup of pesticides and chemical fertilizers to make one conventional cotton t-shirt.

World Water and Cotton

 

 Did you know that Cotton is the world’s thirstiest crop requiring more than six pints of water to produce just one cotton bud and a total of 2,000 liters to produce one cotton t-shirt. As over half of the world's cotton crops are irrigated because they produce higher yields per unit of area, they use 550-950 liters of water/sq.meter, which adds up to an alarming total of10,000-17,000 liters of water just to produce 1 kg of cotton lint. It has been estimated that almost half of the world's water problems are related to cotton growth and processing because of the high foreign demand for cotton.  This high global cotton consumption is estimated to be responsible for 2.6% of water used globally,  yet 44% of the water used is not for serving the domestic market but for export, however, much of the impact is not felt in the country where the cotton is consumed, but where it has been produced, with major impacts particularly in India and Uzbekistan. Freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity are also greatly affected in cotton production  impacting activities such as excessive water withdrawal for irrigation, runoff from fields, drainage, pesticide application, dam construction and land reclamation, resulting in a range of impacts from salinisation, pollution to loss of soil and biodiversity.(EFA)

What is Organic Cotton 

Organic Cotton production is the only farming system whereby cotton is produced entirely without the use of chemical pesticides and therefore without the risk to human health and the environment from toxic chemicals.
Commercial organic cotton production is now underway in some 22 countries across Africa, Asia, the Mediterranean and the Americas. In sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Mali are the main producers, and production in Benin and Senegal is increasing rapidly. Production also recently started in Togo, Zambia, Malawi and Kenya. (EJF)
Over the last few decades organic cotton production has grown from just 30 farmers producing 113 tonnes of cotton fiber, to a global total of more than 31,000 tonnes of organic cotton. Although these figures still only represent a small fraction (0.15%) of world cotton production, they are important proof that contemporary cotton production can occur without the use of hazardous pesticides. This proof  means a more sustainable way of producing cotton for small farmers in the developing world. Much of the supply of organic cotton has been fuelled by demand for organic products among Western consumers, which is substantial and growing. The number of brands using organic cotton are also on the increase. Major clothing retailers, including Wal-Mart, Harrods, Marks and Spencer, H&M, Coop Switzerland and Italia, Migros and Monoprix, now offering organic clothing range

Advantages to Wearing Organic Wool

Organic sheep farmers must provide organic feed, refrain from using antibiotics or growth hormones. They do not practice "sheep dipping". In organic wool production, if the price of organic wool goes down, farmers cannot increase their production/unit of land, as is done with conventional farming, causing overgrazing. Organic farmers must always use farming practices that ensure long time viability and productivity of the land on which their animals depend. Processed without harsh chemicals, detergents, dyes and other irritating substances. Cruelty Free for the sheep. Organic Wool is the healthier choice. 14,000 pounds of pesticides were applied to sheep in the USA in 2000. In 2005, top 3 pesticides used were fenvalerate, malathion, permethrin, all mildly to acutely toxic to humans. These pesticides used by workers in sheep dips have been linked with damage to the nervous systems, not to mention how the sheep may be affected. Oxytetracycline & chlortetracycline, 2 antibiotics approved for growth promotion and used in the feed for sheep, contaminate surface waters, ground waters , drinking water and compromises the effectiveness of antibiotics in human use. (Organic Trade Association, The O'Mama Report). Buying Organic Wool strengthens family farms, protects community values, enhances rather than exploits the environment, renews natural & economic resources for our children. There are no petroleum products used in the creation of wool. It is a natural fire retardant. Organic wool naturally wicks moisture away from your skin, is breathable, a natural insulator.