OMG! I Didn't Know That.

I happen to walk through the lounge the other night torch in hand, yes, I was about to go out on snail patrol, and on the T.V. was a doco about the journey of cotton from grower to T-shirt.
Now I'm not about to give you a lesson in cotton growing so I'll cut to the chase.
What made me stop in my tracks and stand watching the screen (torch still in hand) was the amount of chemicals used, but wait…there's more - cotton is used in our food! I didn't know that.


Let's start with the chemicals. Growers (obviously not organic growers) put chemicals onto their crops at every stage….and I mean EVERY stage - before, during at end - yup, they even spray to defoliate the plants for easier harvesting.

O.k. that's the spraying - now for the food.

Did you even know that cotton is used in our food? Well, cottonseed oil is used in a lot of processed foods such as tortillas and honey roasted peanuts among others. It's also used as a cooking oil.

But that's not all - meat eaters out there think on this……. cottonseed oil, the seeds and straw are all fed to the dairy and beef cattle - 1 and 1 makes, you guessed it…entering the human food chain via meat and dairy.

Now, because cotton is used in the manufacturing of garments it isn't regulated like food products are which means the growers can have a grand old time spraying away without any worries.

I'm going to stop there……I didn't get out on snail patrol that night, I just put the torch down and sat down like a stunned mullet!

I'll leave you with one more sobering fact: The World Health Organization estimates that 20,000 cotton workers die yearly from contamination.