• Clothing

    • A T-shirt is not just a T-shirt. Most clothes are made from cotton and cotton is one of the dirtiest industries in the world. When you buy cotton products, you risk taking part in some really bad stuff!

    • Clothing

  • Organic cotton

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  • tons produced
  • globally, this year

    • The solution

    Organic fair trade cotton is free of chemical pesticides and is produced with respect for the workers' rights and safety. Global production is still small but has increased 5-fold over a period of just 4 years. Organic cotton is now grown in over 22 countries around the globe.

    A life-saver

    “Organic farming (…) saves lives from not using pesticides. We no longer have debt problems. Income is all profit at the end of season. Land and soil are preserved”. Farmer Gera Paul, Benin.

    A huge potential

    At one Egyptian farm project, organic cultivation has boosted cotton yields by more than 30 percent, and the fiber is processed into textiles without any synthetic chemicals. In Uganda, organic cotton farms are more productive than the conventional farms.

    It makes a difference

    Each 100-percent organic cotton T-shirt you buy eliminates the use of 150 grams of agricultural chemicals.

    Still a long way to go

    At present, only 17 countries have imposed bans on any of the top 10 hazardous pesticides used in cotton production. And only 2 of these are major cotton producing countries.

    Another alternative

    Hemp has been used to make clothes for 12,000 years and is more robust than cotton so it does not need large volumes of chemicals. You can get three times more hemp fibre from the same area compared to cotton. Hemp also requires less water and energy than any other fibre - and it’s cheaper than cotton.

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