Glossary

Maintaining biodiversity is a high priority for cotton growers around the world. Biodiversity is generally defined as a variety of plant and animal life.⁵ Variety in the natural environment is considered beneficial to all crops.

Bt, a bacterium formally known as Bacillus thuringiensis, kills a variety of insects that harm the cotton plant. In the 1990s, scientists encoded Bt directly into a plant. After rigorous scientific evaluation, Bt cotton was placed on the market in 1996, allowing growers to protect their plants while applying significantly less insecticide.

Carbon sequestration is also called carbon capture and storage. According to the U.S. Government, “Carbon dioxide is the most commonly produced greenhouse gas. Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide.⁶” Cotton is very efficient at capturing and storing carbon. Read more here.

Organic soil conditioner obtained by the biodegradation of a mixture principally consisting of various vegetable residues, occasionally with other organic material and having a limited mineral content⁷

Organic soil conditioner obtained by the biodegradation of a mixture principally consisting of various vegetable residues, occasionally with other organic material and having a limited mineral content⁸

Tillage is the act of preparing the soil through mechanical agitation, for example through plowing. Conservation tillage is defined by the OECD as “a tillage system that creates a suitable soil environment for growing a crop and that conserves soil, water and energy resources mainly through the reduction in the intensity of tillage, and retention of plant residues.”¹⁰

The cotton plant belongs to the Gossypium species and is a member of the hibiscus family.¹¹ It is grown across the world and is most commonly known for its use in natural, durable textiles – though other parts of the cotton plant can also be used for food and a variety of innovative products. Read more here.

Ginning is the process of separating cotton fiber from the seed. Ginning takes place in a cotton gin and goes through a process of drying and cleansing before the lint is removed by revolving circular saws. Ginned cotton lint is compressed into bales.¹²

Gossypol is a yellow substance found in the cotton plant. It is toxic to most animals when consumed, but when extracted it can be useful for different types of medicines.¹³ This compound is part of the plant’s natural defense to pests.

Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) allow for the holistic examination of the environmental impacts and resource utilization of a given product, from the raw materials used to create it all the way to that product’s end of life, when it is disposed. A fundamental part of an LCA is the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI), which quantifies relevant energy and material input and environmental release data associated with manufacturing and other processes.¹⁴ Read more here.

As a subsection of micro plastics, they are a synthetic fiber finer than one denier per filament that are either engineered specifically to be a micro fibre, or produced through degradation.¹⁵

A simple definition for microplastics is that they are plastic particles smaller than 5 mm. A recent study has defined microplastics more precisely as: “any synthetic solid particle or polymeric matrix, with regular or irregular shape and with size ranging from 1 μm to 5 mm, of either primary or secondary manufacturing origin, which are insoluble in water”.¹⁶

Pesticide law defines a “pesticide” (with certain minor exceptions) as “any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest.”¹⁷ These pests can be insects, fungi or weeds that are harmful to the cotton crop.

Regenerative agriculture is not a one size fits all prescriptive practice, rather it looks at the combination of practices that support resilience as well as build and nourish our ecosystem. Over time, regenerative practices can increase production and naturally reduce the need for external inputs. When these regenerative practices are implemented successfully, the health of the agriculture ecosystem and farmer economic stability can be improved. This is regenerative agriculture.

Shedding in the context of textiles refers to the release of fabric fibers during the laundering process or through natural wear and tear.¹⁸

Synthetic fibers are man-made textile fibers, including fully synthetic fibers made from crude oil and other plastics (such as polyester, acrylic and nylon), as well as those made from natural materials (eg. trees) through industrial processes, such as rayon made from cellulose.¹⁹ Cotton is a natural, not a synthetic fiber.