Organic Cotton Accelerator puts the farmer first
26/03/2019
It includes a number of leading brands, retailers and manufacturers from the cotton supply chain, who are working together to create an organic cotton sector that benefits everyone, from farmer to end consumer. With its brand partners responsible for 70% of total organic cotton procurement, it believes it has the “critical mass” to bring about real change in this industry.
Those were the words of Crispin Argento, OCA executive director, who spoke to WSA in Amsterdam. He explained that the organisation’s work begins at farm level, building around four pillars: integrity, quality, supply and impact.
Among the projects it is currently working on is its farm engagement and development programme, through which it provides a direct link between the brands and the farmers who supply the organic cotton that goes into their products. The key aim of this initiative is to ensure organic cotton farmers receive the premium they deserve for the extra work required to produce organic cotton.
Beyond the obvious financial benefits for the farmers, this scheme can also increase the uptake of organic cotton growing, leading to an overall more sustainable industry. For the brands, it gives them guarantees about the practices used to grow the cotton they purchase.
OCA is currently working with Fashion For Good on a traceability pilot, the latest results of which will be contained in a report due for release this summer. During the initial phases of this project, the partners have trialled a number of techniques to trace organic cotton from farm to finished product.
The methods that Mr Argento mentioned include a microbial tracer that can be implemented at farm level, a synthetic DNA-based tracer, and a tracer at the ginning and spinning level that involves the insertion of a fibre that can be scanned throughout the value chain. This would not be traceable back to a specific farm, per say, rather to a farming collective or region.
Mr Argento told WSA that the purpose of the pilot phase has been to find a tracing solution that is effective and that has the potential to be scaled up. This is the challenge OCA now faces.
The forthcoming report will assess the feasibility of the different solutions, which will in turn guide the next steps of the process. He revealed that early testing has shown that many of these solutions are able to survive the chemical processes they undergo before the final product is created.
Share this story:
