Bad stuff about the textile industry, cotton growing project
One of my fiber garden projects is growing cotton from seeds a friend saved and gave to me (Actually, she gave me a grocery bag of cotton bolls she grew for me to spin! So they all had the seeds in them and now I have like thousands of cotton seeds).Cotton is such a complicated plant to engage with because for hundreds of years it's been a focal point of systemic oppression, exploitation, and abuse. To this day it's often grown under atrocious conditions, with low paid (if they are paid) workers exposed to tons of pesticides while enormous amounts of water are used to irrigate the fields of monocrop. Organic and fair trade farming mitigate some of these harms, but with few exceptions it's still part of an incredibly destructive, unsustainable textile industry.
Other ways are possible, (cotton has also been a plant of resistance to imperialism in India and an important plant in many indigenous cultures in the Americas!) and I am privileged to have access to some outdoor space in which to experiment with fiber production I can take responsibility for with pride, and friends to learn from and be inspired by. So I started some of these cotton seeds in a paper towel in a little tub in a bag in my room. They need a long growing season, and my friend suggested starting them indoors in January.
5 out of about 30 germinated. I think cotton may have a fairly low germination rate in general, and these were saved almost 20 years ago so I'm delighted as many sprouted as did! I moved them to these little pots of dirt that will live in the kitchen until it's time to plant them outside.
My hope is to grow these plants with reclaimed water in a way that supports good soil development, and then spin the fiber into yarn, weave it into fabric, and if I have enough sew it into clothing. So we'll see what happens, I'm just at the beginning of having a relationship with this plant. #cotton #spinning #fiberart #weaving #gardening #textiles
