And in California, cotton ranks third in the state for total number of pesticide-related illness. For wildlife, the effects of pesticide use on cotton can be devastating. At least 13 pesticides documented as causing die offs in migratory birds are currently registered for use on cotton.
More insidious is the effect of some pesticides on the reproductive capac ity of fish and wildlife - harm may not occur right away, but species disappear as they cannot reproduce successfully. There is a general four-step process to turn a cotton seed into cotton ap parel. Step 1. Planning and growing. Organically grown cotton. Working with rather than against nature is the guiding principle behind organic farm ing.
Organic farmers use biologically based rather than chemically dependent growing systems to raise crops. While many conventional farmers are reacting to the ecological disorder created by monocultures, organic farmers focus on preventing problems before they occur.
By focusing on managing rather than completely eliminating troublesome weeds and insects, organic farmers are able to maintain ecological balance and protect the environment. Organic cotton is now being grown in more than 18 countries worldwide. In the United States, approximately 10, acres of organic cotton were planted in in the Mid-South, Texas and California.
The Soil:. Organic Farming starts with healthy soil. The soil is seen as a liv ing system and not simply a growing medium for plants. Compost, efficient nutrient recycling, frequent crop rotations and cover crops replace synthetic fertilizers to keep the soil healthy and productive. Weed Control:.
Organic Farmers have many options to control weeds includ ing: hoes and other mechanical weeding implements, crop rotations, planting several crops together intercropping , more efficient use of irrigation water, the use of mulches, and even adjusting the planting dates and densities of their crops. Pest Control:.
By encouraging biologi cal diversity, farmers create conditions which reduce the likelihood of any insect, bird or mammal doing any major damage to their crop. To control pests, organic farmers may use beneficial predator insects, crop rotations, intercropping, and biological pesticides such as neem oil.
Step 2. Conventionally Harvested Cotton. Af ter the toxic debacle of the growing season, the chemical woes only continue. During harvesting, herbicides are used to defoliate cotton plants to make picking easier. The global consequences are that chemicals pollute ground water and rivers with potentially carcinogenic compounds. Large harvesting machinery compacts the ground reducing soil productivity. Organic Harvested Cotton. Organic cotton is often hand picked, especially in developing countries, without the use of defoliants, machinery, or chemi cals.
Hand picking also reduces waste. Step 3. So far, we have journeyed only to the end of the cotton field, but the story doesn't end there. Manufacturing cot ton fiber into fabric and garments consists of several major processes cleaning, spinning, knitting or weaving, dyeing, cutting and assembly, finishing, and cleaning.
Before cotton fiber can be manufac tured from cotton plants, several cleaning steps are required. After the plants have been processed at a cotton gin, the product is distributed to fiber pro ducers.
The fiber manufacturer further removes plant material and other debris by dividing and carding the lint. The waste from this process is a mixture of stems, leaves, soils, and lint. Cotton is also an important food source for humans and animals. Once separated in the gin, the fibers go to textile mills, while the seed and various ginning by-products are used for animal feed and for human food, mostly in the form of cottonseed oil.
Cottonseed, which is rich in oil and high in protein, is a common ingredient in cookies, potato chips, salad dressings, baked goods, and other processed foods. Conventional Cotton By-Products. With conventionally grown cotton, the pesticide residues from the cotton seeds concentrate in the fatty tissues of these animals, and end up in meat and dairy products.
Organic Cotton By-Products. Organically grown cotton can be used to produce organic food products for people and animals. Organic cotton is important not just in the clothing chain but also in the food chain. Step 4. Conventionally manufactured cotton. Conventionally manufactured cotton must be chemically processed to be come the soft fiber that consumers love.
Although cotton is one of the most heavily sprayed crops in the United States, much of the pesticide and herbicide is bleached out or washed away during the manufacturing process, but a variety of toxic chemicals, oils, and waxes are used to manufacture, knit and weave con vention cotton fabrics.
The chemical residues of these processes constitute the major sensitivity problems experi enced by people suffering from Multiple Chemical Sensitivities.
Only in the spinning process where cotton fibers are spun into yarn is cot ton untouched by chemicals or oils. After spinning, the yarn receives a sizing to make the yarn easier to 'weave. After weaving, the fabric is then bleached. Half the companies use hy drogen peroxide, but half still use highly toxic chlorine.
Some of the companies where most garments are produced, are more likely to use chlorine. The sizing is then removed from the fabric with a detergent. Next, it is washed or "scoured" with sodium hy droxide. Finally, it is piece-dyed often with formaldehyde-fixing agents. An additional washing is needed to attempt to remove the formaldehyde fixing agents. The last step is finishing and this is where many chemical sensitivity prob lems begin. A urea-formaldehyde product which cross-links molecules is routinely applied to cotton to reduce shrinkage and wrinkling.
Cotton is a fiber designed by nature to absorb, and heat is used to lock finishes into 1he fiber. When heat is applied, this molecule expands and becomes permanently bound in the fiber. That is why it cannot be washed or dry cleaned cut.
De tergents and softeners are heavily used in making fabrics, and some of these will leave a residue that will never wash out completely. Knitted fabric goes through similar pro cesses. To be knittable, yarn must be waxed and oiled. The knit fabric is then washed in detergents and softeners. An anti-curl chemical is added to the wash for all jerseys and many fleeces. Knit goods that are piece-dyed after knitting follow the same course as woven fabrics.
Yarn-dyed knits are washed, framed, steamed, and finished with heat and, usually, formaldehyde resin. Sweaters and some circular knits are just washed with detergent and soft eners and tumble-dried to remove oils and to reduce shrinkage. No finish is put on them, but again their wearability depends on the chemicals used to wash and soften them.
As with woven fabrics, heat is used as part of the processing and can actually lock chemicals into the fiber. It is impossible to knot yarn without waxing and oiling and the oil must be washed out with some kind of deter gent.
Jerseys must be de-curled to lie flat on a table for cutting. Traditional cotton fabrics are often scoured, washed, and bleached with chlorine, APEO alkylphenoloxylate, a hormone disrupter , EDTA ethylenediamine tetra-acetate which binds with heavy metals in rivers and streams , and volatile organic compounds VOCs that react with sunlight to form ground-level ozone. These toxic chemicals are slow to biodegrade and recent research has shown links to the production of "probable" carcinogens.
Cotton fibers are shaved from the bales and sent through a series of cleaning and drying machines. The mixed and fluffed-up cotton goes into a carding machine which finishes the cleaning and straightening of the fibers, making them into a soft, untwisted rope called a sliver pronounced sly-ver. The sliver is drawn out to a thinner strand and given a slight twist to improve strength, then wound on bobbins spools wound with the thread-like product for storage.
On modern spinning frames, yarn is mare directly from the sliver. The spinning devices take fibers from the sliver and rotate it up to 2, revolutions in a second twist that makes fibers into a yarn for weaving or knitting into fabrics.
Spinning is the last process in yarn manufacturing. Today's mills draw and twist the roving into yarn and place it on bobbins. They do this quite efficiently. A large, modern mill can produce enough yarn or thread in 30 days to wrap around the earth times or go to and return from the moon times.
With the use of automatic winding, the yarn bobbins are transferred to larger bobbins called cheese cones. These cheese cones can be stored until they are needed in the weaving process. Looms weave cotton yarns into fabrics the same way the first hand-weaving frames did. Modern looms work at great speeds, interlacing the length-wise yarns warp and the crosswise yarns weft. Warp refers to yarns that run lengthwise in woven goods. While this method of cultivation is possible, an organically grown crop generally yields less usable cotton.
This means an organic farmer must purchase, plant, and harvest more acreage to yield enough processed cotton to make the crop lucrative, or reduce costs in other ways to turn a profit. Increasingly, state university extension services are working with cotton farmers to reduce chemical use by employing certain aspects of biological control in order to reduce toxins that remain in the land and flow into water systems.
Daniel, Pete. Breaking the Land. Johnson, Guinevere. Let's Investigate Series. The Cotton Pickin' Web. National Cotton Council of America. Education Materials. The Organic Cotton Site. January 2, Toggle navigation. Made How Volume 6 Cotton Cotton. Most steps involved in the production of cotton have been mechanized, including seeding, picking, ginning, and baling.
Samples are taken from the bales to determine the quality of the cotton. Other The Cotton Pickin' Web. Other articles you might like:. Also read article about Cotton from Wikipedia. User Contributions: 1. Many catalogs describe jeans, pants,shirts etc in ounces of cotton eg 8. I realize it refers to weight. But of what? Ounces per yard of material? Then how is that manufactured to produce whatever it is they are referring to? Nancy B.
How much cotton does it take to make on yard of muslin? Thank you. Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic: Name:. E-mail: Show my email publicly.
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