Conscious Choice Seattle: Clothes Call

Conventionally grown cotton is the second most pesticide-laden crop in the world — after coffee and before tobacco. It takes an estimated one-third pound of chemicals to grow enough cotton to make just one T-shirt.

100-Percent Cotton Facts

Here’s a cotton-picking fact that might surprise you: The majority of organic cotton is not grown in the United States.

Most of the organic cotton comes from Turkey and India. Cotton is a labor-intensive crop and for many American farmers, at this time, it is very hard to compete with the global market. That said, consumer demand is a powerful voice in the marketplace.

"Right now about 12 percent of the world’s organic cotton is growing here in the U.S.,” says Rebecca Callahan, president of the Organic Exchange trade organization. “But [farmers] need to see a bigger market.”

Callahan suggests that consumers start talking to representatives of their favorite stores and brands, asking for American-grown organic cotton. She points out the misconception our individual voices don’t matter.

"It doesn’t take a lot,” she explains. “With most companies, when you start to hear from 50 or more people it is a trend."

Lynda Grose, a fashion designer, says the “vigilante consumer” can power-boost the organic cotton market into the mainstream jet stream. Grose worked for Esprit in the 1990s and designed its first organic cotton line. She currently works as a marketing consultant for the Sustainable Cotton Project (www.sustainablecotton.org), which is committed to building bridges from organic cotton farmers to manufacturers and consumers.

“Spotted in the early 90s this person is not going away,” says Grose, referring to the vigilante consumer who will boycott and simply not buy products from companies with policies that they don’t believe in.

Grose says that at a time when global warming is taken more seriously almost by the day, conventionally grown cotton is a vulnerable crop.

“Even [paper makers] have sustainably harvested trees,” says Grose. “That industry is way ahead of cotton. As people become more and more aware about how toxic [conventionally-grown] cotton can be, it makes sense that organic cotton would become popular.”
—Ritzy Ryciak

September 2006 | Feature Story

Clothes Call

More consumers are connecting organic to their wardrobes. We make a case for organic cotton.

By Ritzy Ryciak

For many of us, organic food makes sense. The notion that we really are what we eat has finally resonated. Pesticides are simply unacceptable.

But clothing is different. We don’t eat our outfits, While organic clothing has become much more fashionable and available, do we really have to worry about whether those sweet jeans, the ones that fit perfectly, are made from organically grown fiber?

Yep.

Especially if we are talking about babies, toddlers and some young adults, who actually do eat their outfits. Moms and dads are famous for wanting the best for their children. Whether the product in question is milk or cotton, this attention to safe alternatives has a lot to do with an organic movement that began with food, and has quickly expanded to the clothes that we wear.

Here’s why.

Conventionally grown cotton is the second most pesticide-laden crop in the world—after coffee and before tobacco. It is estimated that it takes approximately one-third pound of chemicals to grow enough cotton to make just one T-shirt.

That alone may help explain why a new trend in children’s clothing is emerging and why a growing number of companies are making pesticide-free and recyclable fiber a big part of their business.

"Consumers are starting to wonder,” says Rebecca Callahan, president of Organic Exchange (www.organicexchange.org), a nonprofit trade association based in Oakland, Calif., that works to expand the use of organically grown cotton. “They are starting to look a little more deeply into all things in their lives."

For one thing, Callahan believes consumers are having the same set of “aha moments” with clothing and fiber that many of them previously experienced with food.

A common thought: “There are a whole set of things happening before this shirt comes to me,” Callahan says.

True enough. Five of the top nine pesticides used on cotton in the U.S. (cyanide, dicofol, naled, propargite and trifluralin) are known cancer-causing chemicals. All nine are classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as serious-level Category I and II.

They are among the most dangerous chemicals out there.

"It is not just pesticides,” adds Callahan. “When you grow cotton you use a lot of different kinds of chemicals: herbicides, fungicides, growth stimulators, defoliants, which force plants lose their leaves-agent orange is a defoliant, and synthetic fertilizers. Most farmers use 200 to 300 pounds of synthetic fertilizers (mostly made out of petroleum)."

One irony is that most of these toxins don’t even get to the plant. Instead, they run off into the water, the river systems, fish. Cottonseed is a common food for dairy cows.

Parent power

While organic cotton clothing sales figures show that adults without kids are a strong buyers, there is no doubt that parents are primarily fueling the increased attention from clothing makers. To wit organic infant’s clothing and diaper sales grew 20.5 percent in 2005. By coincidence—or maybe not—organic foods sales in this country have increased roughly 20 percent annually for the last dozen years.

Annabeth Jamieson is a Seattle-based clothing designer and owner of Natural Fiber Clothing on top of Queen Anne Hill. She is also the mother of Alex Jamieson, who was featured in Seattle Conscious Choice with “Super Size Me” documentary maker-husband Morgan Spurlock, in a June story about green weddings.

Annabeth Jamieson refers to her store as a “wearable art” clothing studio. She creates and sews anything that her customers can envision. One of her specialties? Hemp wedding dresses.

"What you put into the earth is what the plant takes up,” says Jamieson, a high-energy Texan, who has been sewing for her children since they were in diapers. “That is true with what you eat and what you wear. If you are using all kinds of chemicals in the soil it goes into the fruit, vegetables or natural fiber."

Jamieson’s store carries organic fiber brands like Blue Canoe and its baby line, Baby Canoe. With recent news that her daughter Alex is pregnant, Jamieson says she is now preparing for a “Nanabeth role.” Grandma is sewing a baby robe out of hemp cotton French terry fabric, plus a baby blanket and wrap out of color-grown organic cotton.

Jamieson says she believes any and every consumer who goes organic with first one, then more items of clothing, can make a difference.

"Take care of business where you can, and it will affect everything” she says. “It seems like a small thing but when it is grassroots it changes everything."

Consumerism with a conscience

It appears that conscious consumers get the “vote at the cash register” concept.

"In three years our business in organic cotton has grown by 575 percent,” says Karen Bradenburger, director of technical design and quality assurance for the Hanna Andersson clothing company.

In the spring of 2003, the company carried its first line of organics (a limited run of pastel long johns) and sold 63,000 units. By last year, that number was more than 428,000.

"Our long-term goal is to make all next-to-skin garments out of organic cotton,” says Bradenburger, who adds that part of Hanna’s basic philosophy is just to do what is right. “People are definitely looking for places to make better choices and organic is a better choice on all fronts."

One challenge, especially related to the kids’ organic cotton, is price.
While most of us can justify an $80 jacket because we will wear it forever, parents can’t quite use the same rationale with fast-growing kids.

Companies like Hanna Andersson offer products with absolute durability, unconditional guarantees and range sizing. For many parents, who pass the Andersson clothing on from child to child and wear some of the items themselves, that is more than enough.

"We aren’t trying to get our customers to buy a lot of stuff,” adds Bradenburger. “We are trying to sell them the best."
It is a sharp right-hand turn away from the buy-it-cheap and throw-it-away mentality prevalent today.

"Around here that’s something that we struggle with,” says Jill Dumain, director of environmental analysis at Patagonia, a company that switched exclusively to organic cotton 10 years ago.

Patagonia is known internationally for its commitment to product quality and environmental activism.

"We keep our same quality standards for our kids line, knowing that people do pass down our kids clothing because of the durability of it,” says Dumain. “We don’t compromise on our quality or the environmental initiative for our kids clothing."

Last year, Patagonia was the first company to launch a garment take-back recycling program. So far the company has collected over 2,000 pounds of used Capilene to be recycled into new garments. And this fall, in addition to an entire line of organic cotton children’s clothing, Patagonia is introducing recycled and recyclable Capilene base layers through its Common Threads Recycling Program (linked from www.patagonia.com).

"I do know moms who have gone to the second-hand market and have had no trouble reselling Patagonia’s children’s clothing,” offers Dumain. “People always see the value"

That value is important to many consumers.

In 2003, according to the Organic Trade Association’s manufacturer survey, organic fiber sales in the United States grew by 22.7 percent to reach $85 million, Consumers are buying more organic fiber and even teens are in on the trend.

"It is getting cool to be organic if you are a teen or an older child,” says Barbara Haumann, a spokeswoman for the Organic Trade Association (http://ota.com), which works to promote and protect the growth of organic trade. “It is definitely becoming more “in” to wear organic items as a teen. It is definitely a trend. It is exciting."

Haumann attributes the increasing popularity to growing availability.

"You are seeing it in more places and in a wider variety of stores,” says Haumann. “Companies like Nike and Patagonia are on the bandwagon—the word spreads."

Ritzy Ryciak is a regular contributor to Seattle Conscious Choice.

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