Is Genetically Modified Cotton a Sustainable Alternative?

Cotton is the most widely used natural fiber in textiles and almost all of the cotton grown worldwide is genetically modified (GM). Introduced in the late 90s, GM cotton reduces the massive use of pesticides in the industry, as such having a less negative impact both on the environment and on the workers’ health.

Is GM cotton actually a sustainable alternative? In many cases, as with everything, GM cotton is way more sustainable than non-GM cotton, as for pesticide use. However, there are some exceptions that make GM cotton unsustainable.

Let’s go deeper into the bright and dark sides of a widespread GMO.

Why is sustainability a hot-button issue in the cotton industry?

Approximately half of all textiles worldwide are made of cotton but the plant lint and seeds are also turned into edible cholesterol-free oil (mainly used in cooking, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals), and high-protein meals for animals.

Despite cotton is the main source of livelihood and income for 1 billion people – it is mainly grown in Central and West Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa – its production has a relevant and polluting impact on the environment.

Indeed, more than half of cotton land area is irrigated inefficiently, causing water stress in some world regions. A striking example is the Aral Sea in Central Asia – once the world’s fourth largest lake – that completely dried up in 2014 due to the 1.47 million hectares of cotton crops being grown inefficiently for decades with water from the rivers that fed the lake. 

Cotton production also requires heavy pesticide use – the cotton industry is responsible for the application of 16% of insecticides and 6.8% of herbicides globally – that inevitably wash into water sources, contaminating them.

Bright sides of GM cotton

Since its introduction in 1996, GM cotton has been a great innovation for many growers that keep adopting it thanks to the yields higher than ever, and the safety of GM cotton for non-target species (like pollinators and other beneficial bugs).

Use of pesticides

GM cotton has been introduced in response to the high use of pesticides. Indeed, it is a pest-resistant cotton engineered with a gene from the bacteria Bacillus Thuringiensis, also known as “Bt”. As a result, GM cotton produces a toxin that kills the bollworm, one of the crop’s primary pests.

On average, GM cotton reduces pesticide applications by 50%, with the largest reductions of 70% occurring in the most toxic types of chemicals.

Poisoning

GM cotton has reduced the problem of pesticide poisoning in developing countries where usually no adequate protection is used by workers while spaying cotton crops with chemical substances. Since GM cotton requires fewer pesticides, the risk of poisoning is consequently reduced too. On average, GM cotton-adopters experience 1.8 fewer cases of pesticide poisoning than non-adopters.

Income

On average, farmers have had an increase in their income due to the reduction in the need for pesticides, related health cost savings, and increase in yields despite the higher cost of GM seeds which, in any case, have to be bought back every year.

However, these GM cotton advantages are not alone. There are increasingly emerging downsides that are challenging this GMO.

Dark sides of GM cotton

Unfortunately, some of the worst risks linked to GM crops since forever have also been found with cotton. Let’s deepen the major GM cotton disadvantages.

Costs

The potential benefits listed above offered by GM cotton have made many farmers dependent on these seeds incurring higher input costs and major debt levels. Indeed, GM seeds, which farmers have to buy from seed companies every year, are from 3 to 8 times more expensive than conventional hybrid seeds. The rising costs may not be offset by the average increased income.

Resistance

The cotton bollworm, Bt’s target pest, is increasingly developing resistance to the toxin produced by GM cotton, forcing farmers to use more pesticides to control it.

To make matters worse, because of the initial reduction in bollworm populations in GM cotton fields, pests that did not previously pose a significant threat to cotton crops have become more prevalent. Farmers are now forced to use highly toxic pesticides to manage these new pest problems, as such resulting in increasing costs to combat pest resistance and the emergence of secondary pests.

Therefore, in the long run, the pesticide reduction associated with GM cotton may no longer be that high.

Should you buy a GM cotton product?

Many people tend to consider GMOs as unsustainable consequently avoiding them simply because of their genetic material that has been altered in a way that does not occur in nature. After seeing the main pros and cons of GM cotton, you may be confused!

Is GM cotton a sustainable alternative? Unfortunately, there is rarely a single answer. It’s never black or white, it’s always a matter of perspective! Let’s examine again the use of pesticides: on one side, GM cotton helps to reduce the amount of chemical substances used in cotton crops but, on the other side, the bollworm is learning how to resist and secondary pests are popping up requiring new pesticides.

So what? Preferring a GM cotton product to a non-GM one, in the short run, is a sustainable choice! Indeed, this choice contributes to reducing the use of pesticides, improving the well-being of cotton farmers. However, in the long run, the same GM cotton product may be less and less sustainable, contributing to cost rising and toxin resistance, thereby increasing the use of pesticides.

Is there a sustainable alternative?

In my opinion, as our world is going through difficult times, we should focus on the impact our actions will have – as a whole – in the long run. And therefore, if GM cotton is not so sustainable over time, we should prefer an alternative that is apparently less attractive (in terms of the money needed to buy it today), but capable of guaranteeing us and the next generations a better future.

Organic Cotton, for example, is an alternative fiber not very well known (only 0.7% of global cotton production is organic!). The fabric has the same quality as conventional cotton, but definitely a less negative impact on the environment.

Organic cotton grows from non-GM seeds and it doesn’t need pesticides. Moreover, organic farmers use ancestral farming methods, such as crop rotation, mixed farming, or no-till farming to preserve the soil. Also, organic cotton requires up to 71% less water than conventional cotton!

Do never forget that certification (examples are GOTS, USDA-NOP, Organic Content Standards, IVN, and Naturland) is the only proof that a product is truly organic.

Always question yourself, be curious and look for alternatives!

Related question

Has the COVID-19 outbreak impacted the cotton industry? Despite the actual impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on the cotton industry are still unclear, it is undeniable that the pandemic has affected the cotton production activities, as such damaging cotton plantation and textile factories.

 

Sources:

• https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/ssi-global-market-report-cotton.pdf
• https://cban.ca/wp-content/uploads/CBAN-GM-Cotton-Factsheet-Feb-2013.pdf
• https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion-blog/2014/oct/01/cotton-production-linked-to-images-of-the-dried-up-aral-sea-basin
• http://www.ask-force.org/web/Cotton/kouser-impact-bt-cotton-pesticide-2011.pdf
• https://www.sustainyourstyle.org/en/organic-cotton
• https://blog.frontiersin.org/2018/09/28/gm-agriculture-mexico-cotton-environment/