Organic Cotton

It's back to school time!  Today on the schedule is back to school clothes shopping (also cleaning the rat cage, the bathroom, the floor and laundry, but those aren't as interesting to blog about!).  I have 4 kids so I can't just go to the mall and browse.  It creates chaos.  So I research before I go.  I look online, make sure I know what clothes my kids have, how many of each item they'll need, note sizes that fit and that don't, anything that will help me get in and out of the store with as little drama as possible (a few years ago Caden found a backpack at the Gap that he liked, put it on, then decided to go out to the middle of the mall to the vending machines to get a gumball...alarms sounded everyone looked...drama.) So as I was shopping online I noticed that Gap now has an organic collection, which I think is great!  I try to buy organic cotton items for my kids whenever possible, but sadly, that's not very often.  You're probably thinking, "I don't EAT the cotton.  Why would I buy organic clothes?"  The answer is, cotton is know as the dirtiest crop. 
Because it ISN'T eaten growers DUMP pesticides and insecticides on it like crazy.  How crazy? "In fact 2.5% of all farmland worldwide is used to grow cotton, yet 10% of all chemical pesticides and 22% of insecticides are sprayed on cotton. This means that eight times more pesticide is used on one hectare of conventional cotton, than on other crops."

 What does this mean for you? Well, obviously it's bad for the environment.  Adding all those pollutants to the planet isn't good for the soil, water, ecosystem or you. Even on a smaller scale though, those chemicals don't wash off.  They leach into the fibers of the cotton, then put them next to your skin for 24 hours a day so that it can leach into our bodies through our largest organ, the skin.  So why choose organic?  Not only are you protecting the planet from harmful chemicals (organically grown cotton does not use chemical pesticides) but also you're getting a better product.  Ever soaked clothing too long in bleach?  It weakens the fibers.  Same is true for dousing the cotton plants in chemical pesticides and insecticides.  It too weakens the fibers.  You're getting a better product when you buy organic cotton. 

This is especially important for babies, since they're skin is 5x thinner than adult skin and therefore absorbs these chemicals easier.  That's why it's MUCH easier to find organic onesies than organic child-sized tees.  But they're out there, you just have to look!