Organic Cotton Fact Check... Part III of IV
Organic Cotton the Journey………
This is not about content and or care labeling nor third part organic certification.
If you would like to have more information regarding the USDA National Organic
Program labeling or third party certification criteria as it pertains to
organic cotton please see previous posts on this blog ( Part II of IV of this
post or previous post 2/19/08.) Also you can click here to visit Organic Trade Association.
It is also recommended that you review part one and part two as well.
Where we have been:
Organizations committed to organic cotton incorrectly utilizing
and reporting outdated data, that had not been updated for almost ten years. (See part I of III) Reporting; "1/3 pound
(150 grams or 5 ounces) of pesticides and fertilizers to grow enough cotton to
produce one tee shirt" reporting
this as a global number when it was actually data reported for US Cotton
in the 90's. Also not indicating the weight of the "one tee shirt?"
this is prevalent throughout the industry; comparison of a tee-shirt without specifying
the weight of that tee-shirt, enough to cause mass confusion right from the
start.
What can we do now?
Facts:
There are no known global
conventional cotton pesticide numbers by which to compare organic cotton to conventional cotton.
Cotton production worldwide varies
greatly by region, country and season.
According to PAN-UK "The
US is the only country in the world with accurate and publicly available data
on inputs used." There have never been globally reported numbers for comparing
organic cotton to conventional cotton:
The only current, quantifiable information is provided publicly by the USDA as it pertains to USA cotton which includes all cotton (conventional and organic.)
(Note; this report dated 5/06 is
the most recent report available. According to the USDA, 2007 report will be
available May ’08. Also this report does
not include fertilizers. That information has been requested, as that information is received it will be posted on
this blog and added to the calculation.)
Calculation method (A) from the
above document; Nine US
States grew cotton. Texas represents almost half of that; Texas also uses the least
amount of applied pesticides per acre.
In total, all nine states applied 55,738
pounds of pesticides divided by the total 12,425 planted acreage equals 4.4859
pounds applied per acre of cotton. 4.4859 pounds equals 71.774 ounces applied
per acre. For the documented year, the yield per acre was 831 pounds of cotton fiber
per acre. 71.774 ounces divided into 831 pounds of cotton fiber per acre equals 0.08637 ounces
of pesticides used to grow a pound of cotton fiber in the US. * US cotton application
of pesticides vary by State. This is
the preferred calculation method by Cotton Inc.
Calculation method (B) from the above document: Some organizations (see Part I of IV are choosing to look at each individual pesticide(type) per acre application. Then dividing that into the total of acres that the pesticide was applied to, when calculated this way the total is .1144 ounces of pesticides per pound of cotton grown. (Please contact me if you want the detail of this calculation.)
As mentioned previously, fertilizers are not included in these calculations. This information will be updated when it is received.
Facts:
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Environmental Marketing Guides.
“Your label claims CANNOT be deceptive.” “It is
deceptive to misrepresent, directly or by implication, that a product, package
or service offers a general environmental benefit.”
Additionally, claims should be adequately qualified to avoid
consumer deception. What claims can an organization committed to organic cotton
agriculture make? #1 Always abide by the FTC Guidelines:
A.) Supply Chain Transparency: Where does your cotton come
from?
If the answer is that your organic cotton was grown in the
U.S. then according to the rules set forth by the FTC, for your environmental marketing claims; if you are choosing to compare organic cotton to conventional cotton then you are
able to utilize USDA information, of 0.08637 ounces of pesticide application
per pound of cotton grown, While this number actually includes organic cotton, as
noted below organic cotton is a very small portion of US production.
B.) If you do not know the origin of your organic
cotton, or if it comes from a country other than the U.S. there is no comparative number to use at this time, and you
would not be able to make
an environmental marketing claim as it
pertains to organic cotton versus conventional cotton. If indeed you do have
qualified comparative conventional cotton information in the country where your
organic cotton was grown in order to quantify the claim you could report that
number. It is possible, though highly unlikely given the following statement
from PAN-UK.
C.) Some organizations are choosing to utilize the USDA 0.08637 ounces per pound comparison number for global organic cotton purchases. If you are such an organization, a disclaimer in your marketing materials indicating that you are using USDA conventional cotton comparisons to your global organic cotton purchases might be the right thing to do, this is a decision your organization will have to make and I would advise you to contact the FTC for full disclosure guidelines.
The US grows 16% of the conventional global cotton crop. The
US also grows 6.6% of the global organic cotton crop. The total number of US cotton bales in 2007 was 119 million bales (480
pounds per bale) of the 119 million bales of cotton produced in the US last
year, 11,537 bales were Organic Cotton or .0006% of the US production.
It is notable since the first post Part One of Organic Cotton Fact Check dated March 13, that several organizations have removed the outdated information of 1/3 pound of pesticides used to grow one pound of conventional cotton from their websites.
Again this is no longer viable correct
information of which to use in your marketing materials.
The purpose of the above reported information is to correct the facts which have been misused.
I remain committed to organic agriculture, make no mistake there are
harmful pesticides that cause harm to both our ecosystems and to our people
used in current conventional cotton production.
*The above calculation does not include fertilizers. That
information will be posted as it is received.
** Part I of IV the calculated pesticide application reported was
.1188 ounces of pesticides per pound of cotton grown. This was calculated using
the same data as above; by individual input rather than the sum total, in addition a
different yield number was used.
***Pesticide applications not only vary region to region,
season to season, but must be updated annually or whenever new data is reported.
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