Guest Editor: Frans Prins - Organic Cotton, a Travel Story

Eco fashion is hot. It is cool that green lifestyle is in the trend but let’s make it more than that. I hear some people say that organic cotton is already a bit over. Now it’s eco silk! Bamboo! Whatever as long as it is eco chic!

Well, there are more reasons to wear organic cotton than because of its coolness or quality. And these reasons last for longer than a fashion season. Conventional cotton kills. Worldwide thousands of people die yearly because of pesticide related illnesses. Not to speak of the children getting blind or the environmental impact of all those chemicals. There is a clear alternative: organic cotton is free of pesticides and pays off better for the farmers. And that cotton carries wonderful, positive stories.

Last year I visited organic cotton farms and production places in Turkey and Uganda. In Northern Uganda, in the region around Lira, there is as much as 27 thousand farmers growing organic cotton.

It was quite a trip from Kampala, it takes about six hours on extremely bad roads. This area has been under control of the cruel guerilla Lord’s Resistance Army until very recently. Now the area is calmer and the farmers, who lived in refugee camps, are living on their lands again. Until one, two years ago they had to go to their lands with fear and go back to the camps before the evening fell.

The farming life now looked all quite romantic to me: traditional huts, some chickens running around, people chatting or working on their fields. But of course there is a lot of extreme poorness and insecurity about life’s basics as well.

The farmers have small fields with different crops. They do not make use of irrigation, so depend on the rain seasons that occur a few times per year. Next to cotton they grow sesame, red peppers and vegetables for local consumption. The income from cotton and sesame, which is exported, gives income which the farmers can use to send their children to school or buy medicines from. From the extra income they gain with growing organic, the farmers can afford building small houses which give more security and protection.

The farmers are united in a cooperative with chosen representatives. What makes a difference here, is that the organic farmers are trained in methods to prevent their crops in a natural way. For example by planting red peppers around the cotton. Animals don’t like peppers and as a side effect you also produce peppers. Another part of growing organic is using crop rotation. The different crops use the ground differently, which keeps the soil fertile, so one does not need artificial fertilizers to pumped into the ground. The crop rotation also results in a more efficient use of the landfill and a higher production. In this way it is also more economic. And of course the non-organic farmers are very interested to see what their neighbors are doing…

In the end, the social effect of this organic cotton project might be even bigger than the ecological impact. The farmers get a guaranteed price and buy for their cotton, they get training and a organic bonus of twenty percent. This can really mean the difference for sending their children to school or having a proper housing.

Frans Prins is managing director of the Grass Routes Foundation, a young international NGO working in the field of sustainability and design. He is also one of the founders of the new, green fashion label Pamoyo. For the first collection, Pamoyo used organic cotton from Turkey and Uganda and recycled vintage elements.
www.grass-routes.org
www.pamoyo.com

Filed under Guest editor, Nature & wildlife, Food, Fashion |