Cotton batting has been the mattress fill of choice for decades.
Commercially grown cotton is ordinarily one of the crops more heavily sprayed with pesticides.
The chemicals used on cotton are among the most toxic substances used in farming; the runoff from irrigation seeps into our drinking water and contaminates it.
Commercial cotton farming uses only about 3% of the farmland but consumes 25% of the chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
In the U.S., approx. 600,000 tons of pesticides and chemical fertilizers are applied to cotton fields each season. To complicate matters, insects are quickly becoming resistant to recommended rates of pesticide application and increasing amounts are needed to remain effective.
Certified organic cotton: cotton grown in fields where the use of pesticides was discontinued three years before and where rigorous controls help rebuild the soil's natural fertility.
The soil is enriched by compost and other organic matter; frequent crop rotation.
Weeds are controlled by innovative farm machinery, hand labor or flame devices—vs. herbicide applications.
Vigorous plants resist insects, weeds and diseases better than those under stress due to repeated chemical applications.
Insects are controlled through the use of other beneficial insects: predators vs. parasites.
Green cotton: untreated—unbleached and undyed—to maintain its softness, maximum absorbability and the beauty of its natural ecru color. Formaldehyde free but not certified organic.
