IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/agrhuv/v19y2002i4p325-336.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Producing the natural fiber naturally: Technological change and the US organic cotton industry

Author

Listed:
  • Mrill Ingram

Abstract

Organic cotton productionboomed in the early 1990s only to fall steeplymid-decade. Production is currently rising, butslowly, and has yet to reach previous levels.This is in marked contrast to the steady growthin organic food production during the 1990s.Why, when other areas of organic productionexperienced steady growth, did organic cottonexperience a boom and bust? A study of thecotton production and processing industryreveals a long and heavily industrializedproduction chain that has presented numerouschallenges to growers and processors trying tointroduce an organic product. In addition, muchof the surge in demand for organic cotton clothoriginated with clothing manufacturersresponding to increased consumer environmentalconcern and interest in improving theirenvironmental reputations. This demandevaporated when clothing companies encountereda lack of consumer awareness of theenvironmental costs of conventional cottonproduction and the benefits of organic cotton.Organic clothing lines were abandoned and manycotton farmers, left with no market for theirorganic bales, were forced to either store thebales or sell them on the conventional marketfor a loss. An examination of the social andtechnical aspects of organic cotton productionidentifies some of the critical variables, suchas the risks farmers face in agriculturalproduction, the organic standards, sources ofinnovation in technological change, and the roleof consumer demand in supporting moresustainable technology, all of which shape thecontinuing development of organic products. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2002

Suggested Citation

  • Mrill Ingram, 2002. "Producing the natural fiber naturally: Technological change and the US organic cotton industry," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 19(4), pages 325-336, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:19:y:2002:i:4:p:325-336
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1021140001193
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1023/A:1021140001193
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1023/A:1021140001193?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Glade Jr., Edward H. & Johnson, Mae Dean & Meyer, Leslie A., 1995. "Cotton Ginning Charges, Harvesting Practices, and Selected Marketing Costs, 1993/94 Season," Statistical Bulletin 154878, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    2. Glade, Edward H. Jr. & Johnson, M. Dean & Meyer, Leslie A., 1994. "Cotton Ginning Charges, Harvesting Practices, and Selected Marketing Costs, 1992/93 Season," Statistical Bulletin 154818, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. Laura Raynolds, 2000. "Re-embedding global agriculture: The international organic and fair trade movements," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 17(3), pages 297-309, September.
    4. Patricia Allen & Martin Kovach, 2000. "The capitalist composition of organic: The potential of markets in fulfilling the promise of organic agriculture," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 17(3), pages 221-232, September.
    5. Greene, Catherine R., 2001. "U.S. Organic Farming Emerges in the 1990s: Adoption of Certified Systems," Agricultural Information Bulletins 33777, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Victoria Gonzalez & Xingqiu Lou & Ting Chi, 2023. "Evaluating Environmental Impact of Natural and Synthetic Fibers: A Life Cycle Assessment Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-16, May.
    2. Baydar, G. & Ciliz, N. & Mammadov, A., 2015. "Life cycle assessment of cotton textile products in Turkey," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 104(PA), pages 213-223.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alessandra Arcuri, 2015. "The Transformation of organic regulation: The ambiguous effects of publicization," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(2), pages 144-159, June.
    2. Elizabeth Barham, 2002. "Towards a theory of values-based labeling," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 19(4), pages 349-360, December.
    3. Daniel Jaffee & Philip Howard, 2010. "Corporate cooptation of organic and fair trade standards," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(4), pages 387-399, December.
    4. David Goodman, 2000. "Organic and conventional agriculture: Materializing discourse and agro-ecological managerialism," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 17(3), pages 215-219, September.
    5. Erin Nelson & Laura Gómez Tovar & Rita Schwentesius Rindermann & Manuel Gómez Cruz, 2010. "Participatory organic certification in Mexico: an alternative approach to maintaining the integrity of the organic label," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(2), pages 227-237, June.
    6. Aimee Shreck & Christy Getz & Gail Feenstra, 2006. "Social sustainability, farm labor, and organic agriculture: Findings from an exploratory analysis," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 23(4), pages 439-449, December.
    7. Raynolds, Laura T., 2004. "The Globalization of Organic Agro-Food Networks," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 725-743, May.
    8. Rafi Grosglik, 2011. "Organic Hummus in Israel: Global and Local Ingredients and Images," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 16(2), pages 88-98, June.
    9. Sarah Bowen & Kathryn Master, 2014. "Wisconsin’s “Happy Cows”? Articulating heritage and territory as new dimensions of locality," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(4), pages 549-562, December.
    10. Shoshanah Inwood & Jeff Sharp & Richard Moore & Deborah Stinner, 2009. "Restaurants, chefs and local foods: insights drawn from application of a diffusion of innovation framework," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 26(3), pages 177-191, September.
    11. Seufert, Verena & Ramankutty, Navin & Mayerhofer, Tabea, 2017. "What is this thing called organic? – How organic farming is codified in regulations," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 10-20.
    12. Sini Forssell & Leena Lankoski, 2015. "The sustainability promise of alternative food networks: an examination through “alternative” characteristics," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(1), pages 63-75, March.
    13. repec:ags:ijag24:345263 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Lohr, Luanne & Park, Timothy A., 2003. "Improving Extension Effectiveness for Organic Clients: Current Status and Future Directions," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 28(3), pages 1-17, December.
    15. Ximena Rueda & Andrea Paz & Theodora Gibbs‐Plessl & Ronald Leon & Byron Moyano & Eric F Lambin, 2018. "Smallholders at a Crossroad: Intensify or Fall behind? Exploring Alternative Livelihood Strategies in a Globalized World," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 215-229, February.
    16. Philippe Fleury & Larry Lev & Hélène Brives & Carole Chazoule & Mathieu Désolé, 2016. "Developing Mid-Tier Supply Chains (France) and Values-Based Food Supply Chains (USA): A Comparison of Motivations, Achievements, Barriers and Limitations," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-13, August.
    17. Lindsay Naylor, 2014. "“Some are more fair than others”: fair trade certification, development, and North–South subjects," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(2), pages 273-284, June.
    18. Daniel Jaffee, 2010. "Fair Trade Standards, Corporate Participation, and Social Movement Responses in the United States," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 92(2), pages 267-285, April.
    19. Sarah Bowen & Tad Mutersbaugh, 2014. "Local or localized? Exploring the contributions of Franco-Mediterranean agrifood theory to alternative food research," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(2), pages 201-213, June.
    20. Jean-Marie Codron & Lucie Siriex & Thomas Reardon, 2006. "Social and environmental attributes of food products in an emerging mass market: Challenges of signaling and consumer perception, with European illustrations," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 23(3), pages 283-297, October.
    21. Vellema, W. & Buritica Casanova, A. & Gonzalez, C. & D’Haese, M., 2015. "The effect of specialty coffee certification on household livelihood strategies and specialisation," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 13-25.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:19:y:2002:i:4:p:325-336. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.