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Impact, irreversible-Dirty cotton

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Pests build up resistance to chemicals, farmer borrows money to buy more chemicals than before, and farmer gets less profit from crop, repeat until farmer is destitute. In parts of India agricultural chemicals take up 60% of the farmer's production budget.
In fact, 2.5% of all farmland worldwide is used to grow cotton, yet 10% of all chemical pesticides and 22% of insecticides are sprayed on cotton. Do a bit of maths, and you find that eight times more pesticide is used on one hectare of conventional cotton, than on other crops.
There are 60 million child labourers in India - nearly the population of the UK. Cotton is the "dirtiest crop" - 55% of all synthetic pesticides in India are used in cotton farming. 30 minutes. 60 million accounts to 55%.

Way out of Destruction

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Environmentally friendly: Organic cotton farming uses natural pesticides (usually containing a mixture of chilli, garlic and soap). This keeps pests off the crops, but does not destroy their natural predators - which survive to control their numbers naturally. Intercropping is also used. This is where secondary crops (often sunflowers or millet) are grown between and around small plots of cotton. These create a natural barrier against the boll weevils, which cannot sniff out their favourite snack through the extra foliage.

Sustainable

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Unlike the insatiably thirsty conventional methods of cotton production, our organic cotton is largely rain-fed. The soils are fertilized with natural organic materials, which help to give the soil higher humus content - making it better able to retain moisture and its fertility. Organic farming helps achieve a better water balance and better levels of water sequestration in the soil, which means lower CO2 emissions.

Fair Trade

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Fairtrade is primarily a social label and focuses on improving the working and living conditions of smallholder farmers in the South. However, Fairtrade standards also include environmental criteria.  Organic is explicitly linked to environmentally friendly agriculture. It is not just the environment that benefits from its ban on the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides; farmers’ health is all the better for it too. Fairtrade and organic complement each other perfectly. Combining the two is a way of strengthening the position of farming families socially and environmentally as well as supporting their development efforts.

Our Initiative

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Our Advantages of switching to the production of organic cotton – and organic cultivation generally – are far-reaching. It eliminates the use of synthetic chemicals and pesticides, helping reduce incidents of poisoning and minimises air and water pollution on cotton farms. It acts as a catalyst in the expansion of protective measures and implementation of regeneration schemes for the ecosystems where cotton and other organic crops are grown.
Perhaps the greatest benefit is seen in the measurable improvements it makes to the livelihoods of the farmers and their families.
As a global company, our investment in organic cotton also has a commercial aspect, so we believe that it will not only be of benefit to the growers and their environments, but also to the company, as we innovate our product range to include an increasing number of sustainable products, attracting existing and new customers