Lately, it seems that organic cotton is everywhere I look. Why does it matter if our clothing is organic? After all, we aren’t eating it.

Organic is not just about what we eat. Although the USDA does not claim that organically produced food is safer or more nutritious than conventionally produced food, many choose organics because they care about the environment and they want to cut back on chemical exposure. Cotton is one of the most heavily sprayed crops. In fact, according to the simplelife.com Web site, it takes 17 teaspoons of synthetic fertilizers and _ teaspoon of active ingredients: pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, and defoliants to raise 9 ounces of cotton, enough to make one T-shirt. Furthermore, 25% of all insecticides used worldwide annually are used on cotton.
The pesticide residue in the foods we eat is not my only concern. Pesticides may also be found in groundwater and farm workers suffer a high rate of chemical-related illness.
I am thrilled to see more organic cotton available. I have organic cotton puffs in my medicine cabinet as I write this, and I am eyeing some new organic cotton styles that are not only easy on the environment, but stylish, as well.