Farmer to Farmer _________________________________________________________________ WHO'S GOING ORGANIC? Retailers and Manufacturers Comment on the Demand for Organic Cotton An increasing number of major retail corporations are showing an interest in organic cotton, including Esprit International; Patagonia; O Wear, a division of Vanity Fair; Seventh Generation and Ecosport. According to the January 27 issue of Women's Wear Daily, Esprit's retail division president Lisa Engler forecasts that Esprit's Ecollection could hit $6 million in international sales this year. In the US, Esprit recently sent out a 28-page catalog to 500,000 people in an effort to broaden its base of distribution of environmentally responsible clothing. O Wear, which launched last fall and has plans for distribution in 100 specialty and department stores throughout the country is predicted to exceed $10 million in sales by the end of this year. Recently the GAP added its retail muscle to the move toward organic cotton. The GAP, a three billion dollar company with 1,300 retail stores in the US, Canada and the UK is making a commitment to using organic cotton in their products. According to John Duane, "The GAP believes there is an opportunity to make organic products competitive and is willing to invest in doing so." Do Consumers Really Care? Most people don't make the connection that a t-shirt has anything to do with pesticides or defoliants or other toxic chemicals, or even the fact that an American farmer was involved in its production. They must be educated about organic cotton before they understand its real value. Esprit, O Wear, Eco Sport and other retailers all have devoted space in their catalogues, marketing and advertising campaigns to explain to their customers why the organic or environmentally friendly products they offer are important. The national media is also interested in the cotton story and often tell it from the point of view of the good, the bad and the ugly. A recent article in E Magazine reported that, "In the late 1980s, cotton comprised three percent of the world's cropland, but consumed a quarter of all insecticides." The article went on to say that, "When deadly gas escaped the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India in 1984, the facility was making pesticides primarily for use on cotton crops. Over 3,000 people died and tens of thousands were seriously injured....In the U.S., some 800 million pounds of pesticides are used on cotton each year....Cancer clusters have been documented near California's cotton fields." Retailers themselves aren't exactly telling the story that way and, in fact, are concerned that while they want to promote consumer interest in environmentally safe products, they don't want to shoot themselves in the foot by making their main product lines unpopular. This accounts for the cautious approach taken by some retailers. Nonetheless, few would disagree that the consumer market for organic cotton products is about to expand. Just Another Fad or A New Trend in Buying Habits? According to Dan Imhoff at Esprit, "In many ways, fashion or at least great clothing design, is a reflection of the times. If any industry can, I think fashion will bring the issues of sustainable agriculture to the surface. This is because people care so much about what they wear and how they look and how the labels they buy project the image they want to be associated with. There is no doubt that environmental issues are among our top concerns today. This is not to say I think the present integration of "ecology and fashion" is a fad. If anything it's a trend, a shift of American consciousness toward environmental values which most poll takers agree is unprecedented in our society." George Akers, founder and Executive Vice President of O Wear says that "Closets are full of fads from the buying binge of the 80s." He feels consumers in the 90s are wiser and are looking for quality over quantity and value over price. If a product has the added benefit of being environmentally friendly, then they will buy it. Akers says, "Many environmental problems of today were caused by consumerism and they will be solved by consumerism. If we spent one hour a week teaching children and young people how to purchase wisely, in twenty years we would see a difference in the kind of products out there." Mike Duke, Vice President of Merchandising at Dixie Yarn, one of the largest yarn companies in the United States says his company has seen a tremendous interest in organic yarn and customer demand is definitely up from last year. While he feels it will take some time for people to catch on, he says "I can see that one day all the cotton we use could be organic, and you don't have to be an environmentalist to think so. It's a no-brainer. We are going to have to stop putting chemicals into the earth. It may be 5, 10, or 25 years but it will happen." An Emerging Industry When compared to total sales figures for the major corporations who are launching organic cotton products, the figures for their organic lines are small. For example, O Wear's projected $10 million in sales is an impressive figure for a new company but Vanity Fair's total sales for 1991 were $2.6 billion. In the October 1992 issue of In Business, Robert Stec, president of O Wear commented, "We see O Wear as a little company with a big idea that represents a major first step in changing the way our industry does business." What seems to be emerging is a new industry and with it, new ways of not only growing cotton, but manufacturing it into cloth, dyeing it and even selling it. For example, conventional clothing manufacturers use formaldehyde and other chemicals to stiffen fabrics and prevent shrinkage and wrinkling. The dyeing process requires the use of solvents and heavy metals. These methods are being replaced by production techniques that maintain environmental quality throughout the process. The Need for Industry Standards Most retailers and manufacturers agree that some form of national certification needs to be in place so that they can trust what they are buying. Imhoff comments, "The integrity of the description organic must be maintained. In Europe, consumer interest groups test cloth for any traces of pesticide or other chemical residues. Those responsible for those fibers, including the farmers or gins or mills, will not directly take the blame for any fraud. The retailers will. That is a great risk they are taking in this new industry." Esprit guarantees a paper trail for their organic cotton and has set an industry standard by giving funds to help establish a certification program for organic cotton. Currently several types of certification exist around the country. In California, the Organic Foods Act of 1990 establishes standards for food grown or sold as organic in the state. As of January 1993, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) began to register organic cotton growers in accordance with the Act. Ground must be farmed in accordance with the law for one year before it can be registered with the state. Paul Branum of CDFA estimates there are six or less registered organic cotton growers with the state at the present time. Other private organizations such as the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) provides certification to growers following a three year transition to organic. CCOF presently has four certified organic cotton growers and nine others in the program. Will Allen, of the California Institute of Rural Studies (CIRS) has been working with several growers in the San Joaquin Valley to establish an Organic Cotton Council. According to Allen, "Growers not only recognize the need for retailers to certify their products, they have their own needs as well. They need economic and technical support to transition from conventional growing practices to organic. They need links to other growers, buyers, and researchers around the country. The marketing questions are enormous. They need help and representation with their concerns." At the Ecological Farming Conference at Asilomar in January, several growers met and suggested establishing a per bale tax to help set up the council. Supply: Is There Enough? According to Mike Duke of Dixie Yarn, they have been able to meet their needs for organic cotton this year. He adds that, "We're looking to grow the business and more farmers will need to learn how to grow organically to meet the demand." Duke emphasized the need for national certification to eliminate manufacturer concerns over boot-legged product. Branum of CDFA says that his office has seen, "tremendous interest in organic cotton from retailers and manufacturers from the US, Japan and Europe." At O Wear, Akers reports that they have enough cotton to meet their needs, although to satisfy current demand they have established a category called "transitional organic." Transitional cotton is grown without the use of unapproved chemicals but the land may have been farmed with them in recent years. Akers says about 75 percent of the farmers he's dealing with are transitional growers, converting only 10 to 20 percent of their acreage to organic cotton at the beginning. Akers estimates that "about five percent of our total production will come from transitional farms this year." O Wear works with growers in California, Texas, Arizona, Missouri and Tennessee. CCOF estimates that they will have 5,600 acres of cotton in their organic program this year. Other projections for 1993 have been estimated at 10,000 to 12,000 acres in California. The emergence of any new industry brings with it problems to be solved as well as the excitement of potential growth. While many manufacturers, retailers, and growers are still taking a cautious approach, it is their commitment to this industry that has made it happen. Most seem to agree that it is, in fact, the trend of the future. Farmers will be the suppliers of the raw materials for the products they expect to sell. California's San Joaquin Valley cotton, organic or conventional, produces some of the highest quality cotton in the world. How much of it will be organic or transitional? We'll let you know. For more information on growing organic or transitional cotton contact Will Allen at the California Institute for Rural Studies, (916) 756-6555. _________________________________________________________________ Problems, Questions or Comments, contact: www@organic.com (c) Copyright 1994 Organic Online, All Rights Reserved