A battle is brewing over identifying clothing as being made of “organic†cotton when it contains strains of genetically modified cotton seed.
Things got heated last week when the German edition of The Financial Times newspaper reported that clothing labeled as “organic cotton†and sold by major retailers contained genetically modified cotton from India.
The expos caused a stir within the industry, and several companies and organizations mentioned in the article are now coming forward and questioning the validity of the newspaper’s report.
The Control Union, a cotton certification group that works with the Swedish clothing company H&M — one of the stores identified as selling mislabeled apparel — issued a statement arguing that the data was skewed.
“It was mentioned that 30 percent of the organic cotton sold in Germany contains BT-seed cotton,†the statement said, referring to a common strain of cotton genetically modified to resist insect damage. “For us it is unclear which data was used to come to this conclusion, and how the link with India was made,†the Control Union said…MORE
-Sindya N. Bhandoo
(Via New York Times)
Photo: EPA