Sustainability Trade-offs
Identify a product or practice that you know to have been offered or adopted on the basis of its eco-friendly characteristics and potential contribution to environmental sustainability.
Organic cotton is environmentally sustainable and has been adopted due to its eco-friendly characteristics compared to synthetic/conventional cotton agriculture.
1. What are the environmental and/or social pros and cons of the product or practice, relative to the alternative it was designed to replace?
Organic cotton farming is a very advantageous practice. The environmental and social pros of
practicing organic cotton farming over synthetic farming include lower global warming effects due to low usage of pesticides, irrigation, and tractor operations, lower acidification, pollution and emissions, lower energy use, protection of soil and biodiversity due to use of organic fertilizers, lesser water consumption, the safety of workers since they are not exposed
to chemicals and better worker livelihoods since they can grow more than one crop to sustain themselves (Textile Exchange, n.d.). Organic cotton products are also high quality and skin-
friendly hence more sustainable. The cons of adopting organic cotton farming include its high
costs and limited market competition making it hard for farmers to control prices.
2
. Does using the product or implementing the practice to achieve one positive environmental end lead to any new adverse environmental or social consequence(s)?
Implementing organic cotton farming is very expensive and requires high costs in buying organic fertilizers, mechanical weeding, organic pesticides, and insecticides, and certification costs.
3. Is the net effect positive or negative?
Organic cotton farming's net effect is positive; it is more advantageous and positively drives environmental sustainability.
4. Would you have made the decision any differently after considering the trade-offs?
After considering the trade-offs, I still prefer organic cotton farming over conventional cotton
farming because of its many positive environmental impacts. Despite the high costs of organic cotton farming, leading to high organic cotton products, there is a rising demand for organic cotton products, and thus a need for more organic cotton agriculture.
References
Textile Exchange. (n.d.). What is organic cotton? http://aboutorganiccotton.org/
