People Tree warns on dangers of pesticides

The team behind People Tree have come up with a really informative guide to organic cotton and the reasons for choosing it over textiles that have been grown using pesticides. The guide was published as shocking figures from the World Health Organisation reveal that chemicals used in conventional cotton kill an estimated 20,000 farmers a year, and drive 100,000 others to suicide

Organic fortnight recently reminded us of the environmental and health benefits of organic farming of crops, but there is far less awareness of the dangers of pesticides used in cotton growing. Although only 2.5% of the world's farmland is used for cotton, 10% of all chemical pesticides and 22% of insecticides are sprayed on cotton. In other words, eight times more pesticide is used on one hectare of conventional cotton, than on other crops.

Until recently, you had to sacrifice style in order to avoid contributing to this horrific global problem, but with so many more fashionable labels like People Tree bringing organic cotton into the limelight, organic fashion is now both attractive and affordable.