Typically when I think about wearing natural fibers I think about one of my favorite dresses made of tree bark that I picked up in Finland some years ago. Recently however, I was pleasantly reminded that I wear a plant fiber with some regularity - jeans!
I attended
a "conversation" about cotton at Cotton, Inc. (Madison Ave. logo above) recently which brought
to light something that, while known, just was not obvious to me before. It's a plant! Cotton that is, not my
jeans obviously…
That
means, if I left cotton outside with exposure to water it would degrade just
like any other plant would. It is grown
and gets harvested like any other crop. Go figure!
Now, I
have always known that cotton is grown and I knew that it was spun into a
fiber. I guess the fact that it's degradable in its purest form was a concept I had not thought of. Have you?
Those in
the cotton industry not only “get” this but there has been a marketing move towards
a greater acknowledgment of it being a natural fiber. This of course, makes sense, because it is!
Some of
the fun facts I learned about cotton include that 90% of cotton comes from the
northern hemisphere. There is a distinct
"cotton calendar" as well.
March -
June: planting season
March -
Oct.: growth season Aug. - Dec.: harvest
In the
U.S. cotton is grown in 17 states. Included in this "cotton belt" are
TN, MS, AK, LA, and TX, among others and these states alone account for 40-45%
of the U.S. cotton market. This is the
equivalent of how much cotton is grown in Uzbekistan to give you a reference
for U.S. cotton as compared to other countries.
70% of the
world’s total cotton comes from China, India, USA and Pakistan. Therefore, events that occur in these markets
affect global cotton markets as a whole.
In terms
of who is consuming cotton, the largest countries are China, India, Pakistan,
Turkey, Brazil, USA, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mexico and Vietnam.
Vietnam's
consumption has actually increased by 88% over the last 5 years, which points
to China's diminishing competitive advantage.
As for
organic cotton, disappointingly it only makes up about 2% of the market and
will probably stay that way (so I was told).
The reason being that unlike with food, consumers are not willing to pay the premium for a growing process that is pesticide free that results in the same pair of jeans as would result from the normal way of processing - that is one with pesticides.
What’s your position on organic cotton and other
eco-friendly products? Post below or
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