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| In the year 2000 Bishopston Trading Company was delighted to finally find a reliable source of organic cotton being grown by Agrocel in Gujerat in Northern India. This cotton is not only organic but grown from seed that has not been genetically modified (non GM) and is fairly traded. We now use 13 tonnes of organic cotton a year for all our handwoven cloth, calico and denim and we are able to sell our clothes at a very competative price to encourage people to choose this fabric and improve the situation of cotton farmers in India. From November 2005 Agrocel's cotton has been certified as fairtrade by the Fairtrade Foundation and will carry the FAIRTRADE Mark as an independent guarantee. |
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| Cotton can be successfully grown without pesticides and fertilizers by enrolling the help of insects and fungi that attack the cotton pests. Once chemical pesticides are no longer used the beneficial insects increase dramatically - some, such as Trichogramma wasps can be introduced using cards inlaid with their eggs. Artificial traps, trap crops and host crops can help to control the pests. Other strategies are the use of organic manures, crop rotations, intercropping, drip irrigation and weeding by hand. |
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| Most fabric used for clothing has many chemicals added to enhance the feel and colour and to reduce creasing. We use good quality non-azo reactive dyes to stand up to machine washing and the only treatment to the yarn is a rice water starch on the warp threads to enable the weavers to span the looms - this will quickly wash out. Our white cloth is bleached without the use of chlorine. Our dyeworks is in Pondicherry which has a municipal effluent plant for all waste water. |
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| For further information please go to Agrocel's website www.agrocel-cotton.com. The cotton is certified by SKAL and is now certified as Fairtrade by the Fairtrade Foundation & carries their well recognised label. |
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