I really wanted to write a post about the importance of authentic organic cotton, but nothing says it better then this press release that we just sent out:

“Gene modified cotton from India tagged as organic cotton”, read the headline in The Financial Times. As the market leader in organic clothing in Germany, this is news that the company finds critically important. “When a product is tagged as organic, it has to be organic,” says Rolf Heimann, director of the Department of Innovation and Ecology at hessnatur.  To make certain that all hessnatur organic fabrics are just that has been a mandate at the company for 10 years.

In the current collection of hessnatur, about 6% of all organic cotton products come from cotton grown in India.  Most of hessnatur organic cotton, 94%, originates in Turkey and at the hessnatur cultivation project in Burkina Faso.  In every test that hessnatur has performed, and there are many, no gene modified cotton has been found.  “In the interest of hessnatur and its customers, we have very strict standards in the supply chain.  We check and monitor every step along the chain – from the cultivation of the organic cotton to the final product,” states Heimann.  Besides their own monitoring, hessnatur partners with outside organizations that, regularly and independently, monitor to make certain that the supply chain is “clean and transparent”.  The company also has a stable and long-lasting relationship with suppliers who are open to being monitored and share the hessnatur standard for environmental and ethical production.

Approximately 2 years ago, hessnatur began working with an institute to determine whether the cotton in the final product has been gene modified or not.

As the market leader in natural textiles, hessnatur is vigilant regarding this problem. In their own pioneering project in Burkina Faso (West Africa), the company supports the cultivation of organic cotton. Working with Helvetas, the Swiss Aid and Development Organization, hessnatur has been monitoring cotton seeds since 2005. It is possible to tell by looking at the seed whether or not it is gene modified. Gene modified cotton has an extra gene, which can be seen in a laboratory. Without the extra gene it is a natural cotton seed.  There is an additional risk of contamination when the cotton is in flower. Tests have proven that pollen can travel 50 meters at the most. So to avoid contamination, the farmers in Burkina Faso plant their organic cotton fields at least 100 meters from the fields where conventional or gene modified cotton is grown.

“We do not check once in a while”, says Heimann, “we check on a regular and permanent basis.” This is how hessnatur ensures that when they tag their cotton, organic cotton, it is.

Tags: eco-consciousness, Environment, organic clothes, organic cotton, organic farming, sustainability

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 28th, 2010 at 11:00 am and is filed under Environment, Material, Production, Projects, Social responsibility. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.