LUMA organic home luxury

Why Organic Cotton?

Because you might be unpleasantly surprised by the alternative:

“Far from being as pure as the driven snow, your bedlinen is more than likely, in environmental terms, to be evil incarnate. The textile industry is one of the largest polluters in the world…”
Telegraph Magazine, 5 August 2006

“… although the global inorganic cotton crop accounts for only 2.5 per cent of land, it accounts for 10% of pesticides used and 22% of insecticides. Not only does the toxic residue from these pollute soil and water sources and kill wildlife, but the World Health Organisation estimates that 20,000 cotton workers die every year from contamination. Those who don’t are typically driven towards poverty, taking loans to pay for the chemicals deemed necessary to create a more profitable product (all while US and EU cotton growers are heavily subsidized for their large-scale production).”
The Independent, 6 July 2006

Organic cotton is grown without the use of dangerous chemicals. Instead, traditional farming methods, such as crop rotation, organic manure and the use of beneficial insects, produce quality cotton without damaging the environment or anybody’s health in the process. The quality of organic cotton is often better as it is usually picked by hand, which is more accurate than machine and allows the workers to select the best. Nevertheless, the price of organic cotton is often similar to that which is mass-produced. As there are fewer middlemen involved, savings can be made and prices held level, despite the premium given to organic cotton farmers.

LUMA organic cotton carries the EKO quality symbol of the prestigious Dutch foundation, Skal. This guarantees that all of our organic farming, manufacturing and processing services have been subject to a rigorous independent inspection to ensure that only safe, natural processes have been used. Furthermore, we’ve gone to great lengths to find quality factories in developing countries that are leaders in fair trade practices. Our factory in India is a fair trade partner with Oxfam and Greenpeace. Our Peruvian supplier has just received fair trade certification for the organic cotton supplied to Luma. This provider has also been a driver in a successful initiative to revive native cotton farming and recover land from coca leaf cultivation, used for cocaine: several thousand hectares of land have been recovered to date.

Further information:
www.soilassociation.org
www.organicexchange.org