MARCH 19, 2006
A
few years ago I spent several days in the cotton belt of Georgia and one day in the cotton belt of California. The conventional growing of cotton is harmful to the environment, yet I never seemed to make the connection between my pajama's and the issue of contamination.
There is another old spiritual that goes something like this: "When I was a little bitsy baby my mother would rock me in my cradle in them old cotton fields back home." Today, I am afraid to say, rocking in cotton fields would be a crime against ones own child because of the pesticide and herbicide use.
Sure, we all wear cotton clothing, but we probably do not give a whole lot of thought as to where and how the cotton was grown. We all are reading the labels more frequently, and our cotton clothing may not have been made in the USA, but wherever the source of cotton, conventional farming of those pretty white balls of fluff has many unintended consequences. Our pajama's have a dark side to them.
I always assumed that fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides were used, but I did not know about de-foliants. Cotton is the most chemically treated crop grown in America. Besides all the stuff to make it grow well and produce a high yield, a long staple and a low MIKE, cotton is sprayed to kill the leaves so that the harvester does not get filled with the by product. In other words, chemicals are used to bring the plant to maturity and chemicals are used to prepare the plant for harvest.
Cotton cloth is a necessity, and it is one fabric where petroleum use comes in the form of fertilizers, transportation, and manufacturing, but there is an alternative that can help.
We all cannot go around naked, we have to purchase clothing, but we can begin to find organically grown cotton fabric. Real Goods from Ukiah California offers organic cotton sheets, as well as a variety of clothes. Look at the label - look for grown in the USA on certified organic farms.
Next time you are buying PJ's, ask for organically grown cotton pajamas. If you can't find them, sleep naked.
--Peter