Coyuchi Bedding Get an inside look at the company’s organic cotton operation.

from the costly fertilizers and pesticides that have driven many farmers in the region to desperation and suicide, Jalit started growing organic cotton along with some soy beans and millet.

Jalit’s fields are now producing “A” grade cotton, completely free of artificial chemicals, a break from conventional cotton-growing methods, which account for 25 percent of all pesticides used in the world. In the last couple of years, three quarters of Kirjawla’s 600 villagers have gone organic. In a quiet revolution, dozens

of villages in the region have joined in, making India the world’s second-largest organic cotton producer after Turkey.

The fruits of Vidarbha’s labor are destined for stores half-way around the globe. Here, eco-conscious buyers quickly empty shelves of cotton clothing, towels, and bedding from fashion labels and niche retailers, comforted that the products contain no toxic residue.

Illustrating this trend, sales of specialist labels like northern California-based organic bed-linen

maker Coyuchi, Inc., have grown 71 percent since 2005. The global organic cotton apparel, home, and personal care products market topped one billion dollars in 2006, up from $245 million in 2001, according to California-

THE gREENINg OF COTTON:
textile workers at a Coyuchi
factory in india (above, left);
a farmer on his way home from
the communal cotton storage
building in a village in Andhara
Pardesh that is part of the
Chetna Project (above).

headquartered not-for-profit Organic Exchange. The market is estimated to reach $3 billion in 2008.

Though this sales figure is minuscule compared with the global market for all cotton products, organic goods are now being introduced even by major retailers such as Barneys New York.

Before converting to eco-friendly methods, Vidarbha’s farmers borrowed heavily to buy expensive seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides, and were forced to sell their produce back to the same moneylenders. When rains failed,