[SANET-MG] use organic cotton

[jcummins <jcummins@UWO.CA>]

ISIS Press Release 15/03/07
Picking Cotton Carefully
Cotton is known as “white gold” in some parts of the world. But the 
price in pesticides poisonings and the decimation of ecosystems is too 
high to pay. Only a return to organic cotton farming will turn the tide. 
Sam Burcher

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Fashion leader backs organic cotton
Designer Katherine Hamnett d id something very different at London 
Fashion Week this year. Instead of showcasing her latest ready to wear 
clothes she featured a report and a film by the Environmental Justice 
Foundation (EJF) in collaboration with the Pesticides Action Network 
(PAN ), exposing the human health and environmental cost of pesticide 
use in global cotton production.

Hamnett is famous for inspiring a fashion campaign for bold, 
life-affirming slogans printed onto cotton t-shirts during the 1980s. 
Nearly thirty years later, her collections are still highly prestigious. 
But now, she is doing everything in her power to support organic cotton 
farmers, and produces her unique t-shirts only on certified organic 
cotton, and her latest slogan “Save the Future” is a testament to her 
values.

At the Museum of Natural History, which hosted this year's event , I 
asked h ow she felt about GM cotton. “I'm terrified of it,” she replied. 
“Bt cotton is of no benefit to farmers and has been a massive failure. 
Monsanto should be broken up! They have taken GM cotton to the scale of 
genocide in countries like India, and created devastation on all levels.”

ISIS shares her concerns about Bt toxins in GM crops [1]( GM Food 
Nightmare Unfolding and the Regulatory Sham SiS 33 ). We have also 
thoroughly documented the failures of GM cotton worldwide [2] ( GM 
Cotton Fiascos Around the World , SiS 25 ) The EJF and PAN joint report 
[3] on the deadly chemicals used in non-organic cotton is another da mni 
ng indictment of the agrochemical industry, and a wake-up call to the 
fashion industry and consumers to demand organic cotton across the board.

Potted history of chemical-free cotton
For over 5 000 years, global cotton production has occurred without the 
aid of hazardous agrochemicals. Cotton was planted at low densities and 
rotated with other crops to ensure the health of the soil. Pest cycles 
were taken into consideration before planting and harvesting. Things 
changed after World War II with the advent of neurotoxins such as DDT 
that were considered to be a cheaper way of controlling pests than 
strategic crop management and agricultural labourers. The recent new 
wave of GM cotton represents 30 percent of the global cotton and 
estimated to reach 50 percent by 2010 [4]. Today, only 0.15 percent of 
the world's cotton is guaranteed to be free of pesticide, and organic.

In fact, cotton accounts for 16 percent of global chemical pesticide 
use, more than any other single crop , and reaps US$2 billion for the 
chemical industry every year [3]. Of that , US$112 million is spent on 
Aldicarb, an acutely toxic pesticide classified by as “WHO1a” by the WHO 
, or “extremely hazardous.” One drop is sufficient to kill an adult male 
. Yet one million kilos of Aldicarb was applied to cotton crops in the 
USA in 2003. At least 1 million agricultural workers around the world 
are hospitalised because of acute pesticide poisoning each year.

Polluted food chain and water supplies
Cotton is noted as the biggest and most important “non-food” 
agricultural crop in the world yielding 21.8 million tonnes per year. 
But some 34 million tonnes of high protein cottonseed is also produced 
for food and feed annually. Around 24 million tonnes of whole 
cottonseed, cottonseed husks and meal is used in animal feed, and can 
make up a quarter of a dairy herds' total nutrition. A further 3.1 
million tonnes of cottonseed oil is used for cooking by 8 percent of the 
world's population. In some areas as much of 65 percent of the cotton 
harvest can enter the food chain. The FAO and WHO recognise that the 
chemical pesticides applied to cotton can contaminate cottonseed and its 
derivatives. While several other studies have shown that cottonseed is a 
“significant pathway by which hazardous pesticides applied to cotton may 
enter the human food chain.” Therefore, Monsanto has deliberately misled 
regulators by stating that Bt cotton is not used for food.

Cotton is grown mainly in China, USA, India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, 
Brazil, Australia, Greece and West Africa. Numerous studies have 
documented detectable levels of lindane and endosulfan, (both 
organochlorines known for adverse health and environmental impacts) in 
local water resources in these areas. In India, over 3 000 tonnes of 
endosulfan is applied to cotton crops annually. In Brazil, samples were 
taken from streams, rivers and surface water in the Mato Grosso cotton 
state, of which 80 percent were contaminated by endosulfan. In Ghana's 
Lake Volta lindane was present in 22.7 percent of samples and endosulfan 
present in 18 percent. In the US, an organophosphate called dicrotophos 
used extensively in cotton growing was detected in some 35 percent of 
samples.

Children and workers at risk
The worst affected by pesticides are the developing countries, where 99 
percent of cotton production takes place. The WHO report three million 
pesticide poisoning per year and 20 000 unintentional deaths largely in 
developing countries among the rural poor [4]. Human causalities are 
unsurprising as pesticides are designed to inhibit the growth of 
organisms by impairing biological processes necessary to life. Symptoms 
of acute pesticide poisoning include vomiting, skin rashes, headaches, 
tremors, respiratory problems, muscle cramps, blurred vision, lack of 
co-ordination, seizures and death.

India has 8.3 million hectares under cotton, the largest area in the 
world. Despite using only 5 percent of land area, cotton accounts for 55 
percent of the annual total of US$355 million spent on pesticides. A 
staggering US$255 million is spent just on controlling the bollworm 
cotton pest every year . Children of farm workers are particularly 
vulnerable to agrochemical exposure as they play or help in the fields 
[3]. A 2003 study in India compared 899 children living in cotton 
regions with those where few agricultural pesticides were in use. The 
results showed that children living in cotton producing areas performed 
significantly worse in tests assessing mental ability, cognitive skills, 
concentration, balance and co-ordination. A 2005 study in three 
different villages all farming cotton recorded 323 separate instances of 
ill health over a five months period, 83.6 percent of which were 
associated with pesticide poisoning. ISIS has reported from India on the 
benefits of organic farming for rural communities [5] ( Organic Cotton 
Beats Bt Cotton in India , SiS 27 ).

There is a chronic lack of protective apparatus, poor labelling of 
pesticides and inadequate safeguards to protect farm workers and their 
families in developing countries. Cotton workers are often so poor they 
are forced to store pesticides within their homes, improvise with their 
own utensils to apply chemicals to cotton and to re-use the empty 
pesticide canisters as water vessels. A case study in a return to 
natural and organic practices demonstrates how to avoid the dangers and 
environmental damage resulting from conventional farming [6] ( Stem 
Farmers' Suicides with Organic Farming , SiS 32 )

West African cotton farmers dependent on pesticides
Over ten million people are dependent on cotton grown in French speaking 
Benin and Mali [4]. There, resourceful farmers produce their cotton 
crops by relying entirely on rainwater. But farmers are dependent on 
privatised cotton companies that control the infrastructure of seeds, 
fertilisers and pesticides supplied to them on credit. Because farmers 
are also dependant for collection of their unsubsidised harvest they 
must adhere to a pesticides spraying regime of at least 6-10 chemical 
sprays per season.

By 1999 , the cotton pests had become resistant to the commonly used 
pesticides , so a research company attached to the French Government 
recommended that endosulfan be used for the first two sprays of each 
season [3]. Shortly after that, the authorities reported the deaths of 
37 people within farming communities and a further 36 with serious 
health problems. These complaints were followed up by an NGO , the 
Organization Beninoise pour la Promotion de l'Agriculture Biologique , 
which confirmed 24 fatalities and estimated a further 70 deaths in 
cotton areas. T he independent investigations were continued for a 
further two spraying seasons; 577 chemical poisonings and 97 deaths were 
recorded between 2000-2003 , of which 69 percent were attributable to 
endosulfan.

Organic cotton better for African farmers than GM
There is hope for African cotton farmers in growing organic cotton [4], 
as many African countries are fighting to remain GM-free under intense 
pressure [7] ( Zambia Holding Firm to GM Ban Amid Aggressive GM 
Awareness Campaign , SiS 28 ) Currently Mali produces 1 500 tonnes of 
organic cotton. Retail giant Marks and Spencer is buying much of this 
under fair trade and demand outstrips supply. However, the difficulty 
with mainstreaming organic cotton in Mali is that the soil fertility has 
declined through conventional cotton farming and the methods to improve 
the soil such as composting, green manure, and cattle dung requires land.

Monsanto has pushed aggressively into neighbouring Burkino Faso where 
trials of B t cotton are underway [4]. If GM cotton gets a foothold in 
West Africa it will be harder to establish an effective organic 
production system. A citizen's jury of farmers to consider GM cotton met 
with representatives of government, NGOs, research and others farmers 
who have been growing Bt cotton in South Africa [3]. The jury 
unanimously voted to ban GM cotton in favour of improving traditional 
varieties, low input agriculture and local seed varieties. Other 
benefits for organic cotton farmers are lower costs, higher prices for 
harvests and reduced health problems.

Uzbekistan – State enforced cotton slavery
In Uzbekistan the use of chemicals in cotton production has gone 
overboard [8]. It is estimated the between 20kg and 90kg of pesticide is 
used per hectare of cotton. This has contaminated 90 percent of the land 
and groundwater at 100-150metres with DDT and lindane. The state forces 
children, teachers and doctors away from their desks to spray pesticides 
and harvest cotton in the fields. Children are often beaten and 
underpaid for their efforts. Studies on children in rural areas reveal a 
litany of diseases linked to environmental heath problems and toxicology 
such as immunodeficiency , chronic renal and lung disease, developmental 
retardation, and hypothyroidism. Downstream of cotton plantations , a 
NATO study recorded DNA mutations 3.5 higher than normal , rendering 
populations vulnerable to cancers.

The Aral Sea has been drained of water for cotton irrigation that has 
decimated ecosystems and traditional livelihoods. According to Medecins 
Sans Frontieres, an estimated 43 million tonnes of pesticide-laden dust 
is blown throughout Central Asia every year from the dried up seabed and 
contaminated soils. The region suffers the highest incidence of throat 
cancers in the world.

Choosing the right cotton
The reports by the EJF and PAN [3] [8] underline the urgency of changing 
the ways cotton is farmed and purchased. I asked Katherine Hamnett what 
else could be don e . “ I would like to see a ban on cotton from 
Uzbekistan, cotton should be organic, and the cotton subsidies in USA, 
EU, and China should be stopped,” she said, “It's not about choosing 
something else, it's about choosing the right cotton.”

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