Sustainability of Cotton

Cotton, being the most popular fiber on the planet, has many perks but also many downfalls. While cotton itself may be somewhat sustainable, the abundances to which the plants are grown causes unsustainable impacts. Overuse of water and endangerment to animals are just a few negative impacts of growing the plant excessively. Using water to grow the cotton is unsustainable if the plant requires more water than the Earth can produce with rainfall and more than often this is the case. Pesticides have been known to stream into rivers and pollute the water that humans and animals often drink.

While reading The Sustainability of Cotton I found that there is cotton is not very sustainable at all. Organic farming is a positive alternative to being sustainable if the conditions of the workers and the surrounding environment are treated fairly. If a forest has to be cut down in order for farmers to plant organic cotton, that is not becoming sustainable. If workers are mistreated and use of child labor is happening on an organic cotton farm, that is not being sustainable either. Organic cotton still requires an abundant amount of water for growing. Mobile irrigation seems use the least amount of water but requires trees to be cut down. Flood irrigation does just that, flood. Drip irrigation is the most effectively sustainable way because the system only gives the plant exactly the amount of water needed and distributes at the root of the plant. However, less than 1% of cotton farming irrigation is done this way because of the high cost of the system.

Cotton Inc. is conducting tests and projects for cotton growing to become more economically friendly. Some of their projects include evaluating new pest-management technologies, changes in row spacing, planting patterns, plant populations, that may improve the way cotton is grown. In the Cotton and Water video, they claim to have found a way to use by far less water in farming and manufacturing cotton. Precision irrigation is what they are starting to use in which a pipe is ran underground to the plant's roots directly. Some scientists are also trying to make a cotton plant that lacks water drought genes so the plant will be resistant to drought. The goal is to make cotton plants that require half as much water which would have a major impact.