Despite What Has Been Reported, Certified Organic Clothing and Textiles are Not Suffering from Endemic Fraud. The System is Getting Stronger Each Day.

(Above: Marci Zaroff, founder of ECOfashion Corp, with organic cotton farmers in India. Images at the bottom courtesy of GOTS.)

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Earlier this year, The New York Times published a very damaging story about fraud in the organic textile sector, claiming that “much of the ‘organic cotton’ that makes it to store shelves may not actually be organic at all.”

Needless to say, the article caused serious harm and sowed doubt in the minds of everyday consumers, who are now questioning whether their organic shirts and sheets are legitimate.

“The story was very skewed and one-sided,” said Marci Zaroff, founder of ECOfashion Corp and one of the pioneers in the organic clothing and textile business. “The newspaper didn’t publish many of the interviews they did that supported all of the legitimate, fully compliant activities that operate on a daily basis.”

The good news, which was also conveniently omitted from the NYT piece, is that if shoppers know what to look for, their fears of purchasing fraudulent organic clothing are largely unfounded. Additionally, the organic cotton sector has never had more safeguards in place to uphold and strengthen its integrity.

WHERE THE FRAUD IS COMING FROM

When organic cotton is grown around the world, farms are certified by their respective countries, whether that be India, Turkey, the U.S. or any other nation.

Once that organic cotton is delivered to the gin, to be eventually processed into an end-product, that is where one of the two globally recognized organic textile certifications often step in — Textile Exchange’s Organic Content Standard (OCS) and the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS).

OCS, a chain of custody standard, and GOTS, a processing standard that covers chain of custody, both provide third-party validation that everyone in the supply chain is adhering to their accepted guidelines. Just like the USDA’s National Organic Program, participation in OCS and GOTS is completely voluntary. No company is forced to be involved in the certification.

While no one would deny there may be lapses in OCS and GOTS, just like every other certification in the world, insiders contend that issues of fraud within the OCS and GOTS ecosystems are not endemic. They are much more isolated.

These experts believe that the majority of fraudulent organic cotton takes place outside of OCS and GOTS, a distinction that the NYT failed to mention. In general, this is an area where safeguards are either non-existent or not nearly as stringent as OCS and GOTS.

Even though continuous improvement has been a staple of both Textile Exchange and GOTS since their inception, the NYT article did have the unintended consequence of accelerating efforts to bolster integrity in organic cotton in both certifications.

Textile Exchange just released its released Strengthen Integrity in Organic Cotton report, and a few of the notable measures include reporting annual production volume for reconciliation purposes and increasing oversight of certification bodies.

Additionally, its Trackit software, which has been in development for the last two years, launches on January 1st. Trackit will digitally provide traceability and transparency throughout the entire supply for participating brands, something incredibly important due to the number of hands that touch an organic cotton product before it reaches the end-consumer.

On November 1st, GOTS announced that it had significantly raised the requirements for GOTS-certified gins, including a compulsory farm-gin registry for all farms and farm groups whose certified raw material enters the GOTS system, an increase in unannounced audits of high-risk gins, and a prohibition of raw cotton traveling more than 500 km from the farm to the certified gin.

Also, GOTS is currently developing a central database that will track the origin of not only organic cotton but also other organic materials. It will cover the entire GOTS chain of custody, from the first processing steps to the final products.

But it isn’t just private certifications that are cracking down.

In January 2021, the USDA’s National Organic Program terminated its organic recognition arrangement with India’s Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA). According to experts, APEDA contributed to a great deal of fraud in organic cotton and food commodities, and that door has now been closed, making things much more difficult for bad actors.

CONSUMERS ARE AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE EQUATION

Whether they realize it or not, consumers play a critical role in both protecting themselves from fraud and strengthening the overall industry.

Individuals should look for organic clothing and textile products that carry the OCS or GOTS seal, similar to when food shoppers look for the USDA organic seal.

Conversely, when a company is marketing organic cotton products but fails to have the OCS or GOTS certification, consumers should encourage the brand to become OCS or GOTS certified. Without OCS, GOTS or another reputable third-party certification, the likelihood is much greater that the product is fraudulent.

“We need to be more examined consumers,” said Matt Dwyer, vice president of product impact and innovation at Patagonia. “If folks started asking ‘Who made it? Where was it made? How do I know?’ — brands will have to come back with an answer, and consumers may or may not like the discovery process. This is the revolution we need to spur.”

While the NYT article did its best to discredit the legitimacy of organic cotton, the fact remains that textiles made with organic fibers are a critical component of protecting our environment and keeping farmers safe.

Clothing produced with genetically-engineered cotton and toxic pesticides comes at a real cost to our planet and the workers who are exposed to these harmful chemicals, even if the prices at the register may be less.

“We have to get out of the price paradigm and into the value paradigm,” said La Rhea Pepper, CEO of Textile Exchange. “If we want to mitigate climate change, we need to invest in proven solutions. And that means supporting organic agriculture.”

With gratitude, Max Goldberg, Founder