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Home > Textiles and Design > Australian Textile, Clothing, Footwear & Allied Industries > Organic cotton

Australian Textile, Clothing, Footwear and Allied Industries

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Organic cotton

In the Area of study: Australian Textile, Clothing, Footwear and Allied Industries you will investigate and debate a range of issues impacting on the textile industry. One of the current issues affecting the industry is changing consumer demands for clean, green textile products. Clothing made from organic cotton is one possible solution to this demand.

The Australian cotton industry is striving to be recognised as clean and green around the world. In a media release, Cotton Australia Chairman, Charles Wilson, predicted the cotton industry's Best Management Practices (BMP) program would become consumer driven with shoppers demanding cotton products from sustainable farms. (Media Release Cotton Australia 22 August 2000) www.cottonaustralia.com.au/MR_22 AugustBMP.html

The Australian cotton industry is committed to reducing the impacts of cotton farming on the natural environment, neighbours, workers and the community through its Best Management Practices program: a guide, combining sound science and practical farm management for growing cotton in the best way possible. As yet these BMP do not involve the production of organic cotton.

This tutorial will assist you in investigating the issues surrounding the production of organic cotton.

Activity 1

Use the information in this tutorial to investigate the advantages and challenges of growing organic cotton. Develop a mind-map summarising the issues.

The questions and case studies below will help guide your investigation.

Case study: Goondiwindi Cotton Company

The Goondiwindi Cotton Company is the Coulton family-owned cotton growing business and value-added venture. Concerned about the amount of chemicals used for growing cotton, and anticipating a market niche, the Coulton's grew organic cotton in the early 1990s. They grew one bale to an acre where traditionally you grow three bales to the acre. To grow a bale was costing them as much as traditional cotton. In the end they found the market wasn't prepared to pay three times as much for the product. As a result the Coulton's ceased growing organic cotton, believing they were probably ten years ahead of their time. Take a look at the information on these web sites:
www.abc.net.au/landline/stories/s215257.htm

Genetic modification of the Heliothis grub

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/stories/s283626.htm debates the issue of new environmental concerns over the genetic modification of the Heliothis grub, which could assist in the organic farming of cotton.

Activity 3

Click on the ABC site and answer the following questions:

1. How will a genetically modified Heliothis grub provide a solution for the thousands of tonnes of pesticides sprayed over cotton crops, to protect the plant from the pest?
2. How have scientists genetically modified the Heliothis grub?
3. According to Ralph Shulzee, Director of the Australian Cotton Research Centre, how could this new technology have major benefits for Australia's cotton industry?
4. What are the potential problems of this modified pest being released outside the laboratories, to test its performance on cotton crops in the open air?

Suggested answer for Activity 1

Answers for Activity 2

1. Cotton grown without the spraying of chemicals.
2. With the use of natural methods like food sprays and beneficial insects.
3. More than 30. Pests eat and damage the plants and ruin the quality of the cotton fibre.
4. Helpful insects in the growing of cotton. These insects may eat the pest insects or help pollinate the cotton plant.
5. The Heliothis caterpillar. It eats and destroys the flower buds and cotton bolls.
6. It is harder to grow organic cotton. Farmers make much less cotton than do conventional cotton farmers and this makes the cotton more expensive for manufacturers to buy.

Answers for Activity 3

1. The genetically modified Heliothis grub has the ability to spread infertility across the species.
2. The modified grub contains a gene from a jellyfish, which stops the pest from reproducing.
3. It would help avoid the possibility of the insects developing resistance to BT. It could reduce the dependence on traditional pesticides.
4. The unpredictable results it could produce, environmental concerns for bird species that depend on the grub, who in turn control a range of other insects that cause problems; if a modified biological control, like Heliothis, spreads, who will be accountable remains unknown.