Oh my cotton!

I love when you are skimming through a book and an interesting factoid jumps out at you.  I just got The Balanced Plate by Renee Loux from the library.  A section about cotton caught my attention quickly.  I'll start with the first fact that I read, which is actually  at the end of Loux's list.

She states:

In California, it is  illegal to feed cotton leaves, stems, and short fibers to livestock because of the concentrated pesticide residues.  Instead, the short fibers are used to make mattresses, pillows, tampons, swabs, and cotton balls.

Now, if you sleep eight hours a day, that means you spend 1/3 of your life in that bed made of all those pesticides.  (Not to mention all the flame retardent chemicals on the mattress.) Doesn't exactly make me want to curl up in my nice warm blankets with a good book -  and trust me, that's saying something!   Cozy bed?  Ew...

Using organic cotton products is better for you and the environment.  Organic cotton, according to Loux, is grown in "fields where pesticide use has been discontinued for at least 3 years to rebuild the soil fertility and safety.  No synthetic fertilizers or pesticides are used to grow organic cotton."

Need more reasons to use organic cotton towels, sheets, blankets, clothes, cotton balls, and swabs?  How about these additional stats from Loux:

• 25 percent of all pesticides and insecticides used globally are on cotton - though cotton occupies only 3 percent of farmland.

• 600,000 tons of pesticides are used on cotton crops in America alone - that's 300 pounds per acre, or 1/3 of a pound of pesticides for every pound of cotton!

• An average cotton crop is sprayed 30 to 40 times per growing season.

• Five of the top nine pesticides used on cotton in the United States are known to cause cancer - all nine are classified by the EPA as "Category I  and II," which are  the most dangerous of all chemicals.

• The most acutely toxic pesticide registered by the EPA, aldicarb, is standard for cotton crops.  The number of states where aldicarb is detected in ground water?  Sixteen.

If aldicarb is found in the ground water of sixteen states and it is standard for cotton crops, does that mean cotton is grown in only sixteen states in this country?  So, is it then 100 percent contamination?  Any way the percentage comes out, it's not good!

That's what that nice , cuddly, fluffy cotton sweater is doing to your land, your water, and your body.  Organic sounds worth it now, doesn't it?