An Interview with LaRhea Pepper Organic
Cotton Farmer
VTalk Radio's Local Business Spotlight
Beckon's Organic
LaRhea Pepper of Organic Exchange
February 2008
ANNOUNCER: Welcome to the VTalk Radio Business Spotlight. Today's
program is sponsored by Beckon's Organic. Beckons Organic,
intend, wear, become. We know join host, John Bentley, in the studio
with LaRhea Pepper of the Organic Exchange.
JOHN: Today on VTalk Radio's Business Spotlight we have executive
director of Organic Exchange out of O'Donnell, Texas, LaRhea Pepper. Welcome
to the program, LaRhea.
LaRhea: Thank you. It's great to be with you.
JOHN: Well tell us a little bit about yourself and your organic
cotton farming business.
LaRhea: Certainly. Many people ask me why I'm an organic
cotton farmer, and so many times the answer is because I don't know any
better. My family has been farming cotton in west Texas since the
early 20s, and our production methods have always been methods that have
been, you know, in harmony with the soil and the land, and in 1991 my
husband and I became certified organic producers. And so it's been
a part of our heritage and certainly a part of our legacy so farming
is one of the things I do, and of course, now I'm the executive director
of the exchange so I wear a couple of different hats.
JOHN: Why did you change over to organic farming?
LaRhea: Well it wasn't so much a change for me and my family,
but certainly there are producers in our area that have created the change. We
became certified organic producers in order to have the market integrity
that goes with that. It's one thing for me to be growing organic
strawberries for example and you know me, you're my neighbor, and I come
and sell them on the corner stand or in my local farmer's market, but
when you talk about cotton, cotton is grown in different areas all around
the world. It's then picked and harvested and sent to spinning
mills to be spun into yarn, then it's sent to knitters and weavers to
turn into cloth; then it's sent to cut and sew to turn into garments,
so there's a lot of steps between the consumer and the farm and so it's
important to have that product integrity in place. So certainly
becoming certified is the first step for producers to do that. Some
of the farmers in our area have become organic farmers because after
many years of using petroleum base, synthetic fertilizers and the synthetic
pesticides and chemicals and seeing that there is not long time benefits
and if fact there are adverse actions that are happening at the soil
and to the environment. So we certainly have new farmers coming
into organic because they realize that there's some benefits to producing
crops in an organic matter that are more sustainable and that have less
impact on the environment.
JOHN: Well, certainly, we understand in this country or at least
a lot of people understand how conventional cotton is one of the most
chemically processed crops in the world. Why is that and what can
you tell us about that?
LaRhea: Well cotton has certainly gained a reputation over the
years of being a high chemical crop and a high input crop. Years
ago in the Delta in the south, cotton was grown in rotation with other
crops; peanuts or soybeans or whatever, and cotton has certainly been
a crop that has a cash implication of positive cash flow for a farm and
so throughout the past years, many people have tried to put more land
into cotton as well as trying to increase yields for cotton and as production
costs have gone up for farmers, they need to get more yield from the
same piece of land so they started using synthetic fertilizers to boost
that yield. They use growth regulators in order to keep the bolls
that are on that are on that crop. They use pesticides and herbicides
to reduce insect pressure and weed pressure all in order to try to improve
the yield. So to some degree what has happened over the years is
farmers have been trying to be, you know, better stewards with what they
have and end up becoming, you know, to some degree chemically dependent
in order to have the yields that we have to have. It's difficult
for American farmers especially to compete with cotton that is grown
in other geographic regions where they don't have the high labor costs
or high production costs that we have here in the U.S. So, and
even in those countries, you know, whether it's farmers in Idia or Africa,
Australia, Brazil. All of them are trying to make the most money
with the resources they have and many times that means input in order
to try to improve yields. And what has happened over the years
as farmers have done that, there's really implications and impacts on
the environment.
JOHN: Well it certainly...I understand that aspect of it. What
other parts of conventional cotton would you consider to be bad for our
world?
LaRhea: I think so many times it's not about good farmers versus
bad farmers, but it's about farmers who are using different production
systems that have high impacts on, you know, the land and the soil and
the communities. When you look at some of the pros and cons about
conventional cotton production, it's not just about the chemicals that
are being used in that cotton, but it's also so many times a day about
cotton that has genetically modified organisms in it. So you have
cotton that has, you know, GMO technology to address insect pressure
or maybe herbicide resistance, and in fact, what starts happening is
again, there's not long term studies determining what's the long term
impacts? Good and bad about having GMO organisms in our food supply
so cotton is not just about the clothes we wear, but so much of the weight
that I harvest as a farmer is the cotton seed and the seed goes into
dairy products, it's cattle feed, and oil pressed that we fry all of
our Frito Lay products, chips and things like that in. A lot of
our snack foods are fried in oil. So certainly one of the concerns
we have in organic production is not just about the chemicals, but it's
about the GMO seeds that are impacting the farmers and the food supply
as well.
JOHN: Now how is organic cotton actually grown differently?
LaRhea: Organic cotton is grown differently than conventional
cotton in four basic respects. First it starts with soil fertility. Organic
producers approach this in a holistic matter using green manure crops
and residue from the crops in order to put organic matter back into the
soil. They also supplement and augment the soil with composting
or other green manure crops that they literally plow back into the soil
to feed and nurture the soil. So you have a healthy soil that creates
its own microrganisms and makes plants, you know, nutrition available
to the plants in a very different way than a conventional farmer does. A
conventional farmer in most instances will use petroleum based fertilizer
that has so many units of nitrogen and so many units of phosphate that
is put onto the soil and sometimes, you know, documentation starts to
indicate that sometimes the plant isn't able to absorb those materials
and in some instances you can actually see that the land to a great degree
becomes a drug addict. This year it needs this much fertilizer
to produce this yield and next year it needs more. And so the farmer
gets on this wicked treadmill, you know, really wanting to take care
of the land, but they're approaching it in such a way that it's not only
not sustainable from needing more every year, but these fertilizers are
petroleum based so there's a real question of, you know, how sustainable
that practice is when you're using off-farm input to such a high degree.
JOHN: Now what about insects that would compromise your crops? How
would you address that issue?
LaRhea: Certainly. Another area that organic cotton is different
than conventional cotton is how we take care of insect pressures. Of
course there's good bugs and there's bad bugs so an organic farmer is
going to develop an eco system that includes track crops and insectry
crops and does things to create an eco system where there are good bugs
flourishing so that when there are bag bugs that are going to create
damage to, you know, the cotton crops or any crop for that matter that
you have those predator insects that are going to keep the threshold
for the damaging insects in check. There's also additional ways
that an organic farmer can treat for insect pressures. You can
actually purchase these beneficial insects and augment their population
and there's also approved materials that can be used to control insects;
one of those for example is garlic barrier. You can spray that
on your crops and while it doesn't kill any insects, what it does is
make the cotton unappetizing to those sucking insects that can cause
damage, you know, to the cotton. There are others...low threshold
like the BTs, bacterial and things like that that can be sprayed on
crops as well. There are approved systems that organic producers
that are allowed to use that don't have the same kind of impacts that
the conventional farmers' chemicals do. Another way that conventional
and organic is different is how we handle weeds. So many times
weed pressure or, you know, a plant that's out of place can create quality
problems for cotton. It also can, you know, take away very valuable
water from a cotton plant. So an organic farmer is going to manage
his crop in such a way that he's going to have timely cultivation that
is working with the rains; he's also in many cases, we have manual laborer
that comes into the fields in order to eliminate the weeds. So
it's a big deal to take care of the weeds. A conventional cotton
farmer many times is going to literally spray one end of this field to
the other with an herbicide and so this is one of the key areas where
a lot of the conventional farmers, you know, they use a lot of chemicals
to control pests, the insects, but they also use a lot of different
herbicides to control the weeds. The other place where organic
and conventional is different is at harvest time. Most of the conventional
farmers are going to rely on a defoliant to kill the cotton again. This
is something that is sprayed on every acre in most instances of conventional
farmland. In order to harvest the cotton, and an organic farmer
isn't going to do that. He's going to wait on the freeze or have
another mechanism like turn off the water in order for the plant to dry
down in order to harvest that cotton. So every step along the way
whether it is soil preparation, how you manage for soil fertility, how
you juggle your land and your insect management and weed control all
have different philosophical approaches when you're an organic farmer
versus a conventional farmer.
JOHN: That's all very interesting information. Let's talk
about the actual clothing itself. I know a lot of people are amazed
at the softness of the Beckons Organic cotton clothing. Why is
organic cotton softer than traditional cotton?
LaRhea: So many times we get consumers who say, oh this organic
cotton is so soft and a lot of people do comment that organic cotton
is softer than conventional cotton Some of this certainly could
be in the lack of different chemicals that are applied, you know, at
the harvest time. The defoliants I mentioned, but a lot of this
is also how it's processed. So instead of using different harsh
finishes like formaldehyde or different resins or different enzyme washes
that are, you know, may be harsh to use, every step along the way whether
it being grown or being handled, you know, organic cotton is segregated
and handled differently through the processing. So they're going
to be using natural washes, maybe beeswax, you know, different paraffins
that are going to be friendlier, have less environmental impact, a lot
of the dies, you know, are used that are different because they use a
low impact die and don't use the sofers and the high metal mordents and
so there's a lot of different components and reasons why that organic
cotton might feel softer to the consumer and it's certainly fun to see
their reaction of oh yeah, it's organic, you can tell the difference.
JOHN: Sure. What are some other ways that organic cotton
would be different than conventional cotton?
LaRhea: There's a number of ways that we're seeing that organic
products are different than conventional products. One is just
about the transparency that the consumer has. Many consumers that
are buying organic products either have allergy sensitivities and need
to buy organic to have higher quality of life issues. The vast
majority of the consumers who buy organic are looking for products that
they can support philosophically so they're voting with their dollars
to support, you know, this type of agriculture. And of course you
have the third consumer that we just talked about that loves the products
that are softer and have the high quality. So when you look at,
you know, using organic cottons, certainly people are paying attention
to the quality products that are there. It's exciting to meet the
farmers and the producers around the world that are making organic products. They
have a lot of passion with what they're doing and want to make it better,
and certainly the consumer is benefiting from that attention to detail
and integrity, because when they get a product that says organic then
it's not just about the quality of the products, but it's how it's been
handled. How it's been grown, and in so many instances this is
also about the social equity that is involved in the supply chain because
you're making a difference at the farm gate level, and in a lot of countries
it's a huge difference.
JOHN: We are speaking to LaRhea Pepper. She is the executive
director of the Organic Exchange of O'Donnell, Texas, on today's program. Now,
LaRhea, another important question I think people would be interested
in knowing is, how do you know that the cotton is actually organic?
LaRhea: The good thing about the word organic is there's a lot
of product integrity that comes with that word. The word organic actually
has a legislative and legal meaning here in the United States. It
means that the cotton or the corn or whatever that product is used to
produce....when you use the word organic, it means that the production
of that crop was done in such a way that it meets certain standards of
being grown without harmful synthetic chemicals and pesticides and so
you have confidence that when the product has the word organic, it has
to be certified, and when it's certified that means that there's a third
party. For me that means the Texas Department of Agriculture can
come to my field any time, pull a residue test on the crop and on the
land to see if there are any prohibited substance on the crop. So
you have a lot of confidence when you see that word organic and it's
certified organic that there's people that are doing third party verification
on the crop and this is a requirement in the United States. When
you see the word organic on a product, it has to be certified by a third
party.
JOHN: Would you kindly share the Organic Exchange website address
for our listening audience today, LaRhea?
LaRhea: Sure you can find a lot more about organic cotton at www.organicexchange.org. There's
also links there to a consumer education website called aboutorganiccotton.org,
and it answers a lot of your questions that are available there and certainly
we would welcome, you know, any inquiries.
JOHN: Now before I let you go, LaRhea, are there any last comments
you'd like to share with our listening audience before we go?
LaRhea: Well thank you for having me on the show today, it's really
exciting to see the interest continue to grow in organic products. There's
definitely a growing consumer awareness about organic food and people
are starting to learn about organic fiber products. Many times
they don't realize the skin the largest organ on your body. So
it's not just about the food you're putting in your body, it's what you
put on your body, and most of all it's about changing agriculture and
it's about changing agriculture to a system that embraces the value of
the land and the value of the people who live on it and the products
you have from that.
JOHN: Well with that, we will end our program today. I certainly
want to thank you, LaRhae Pepper, of the executive director of Organic
Exchange of O'Donnell, Texas, for joining us today on VTalk Radio's Business
Spotlight.
LARHAE: Thank you again for having me.
JOHN: You've been listening to VTalk Radio's Spotlight. I'm
your host, John Bentley. Thanks for tuning in with us today. Have
a great afternoon everyone.
ANNOUNCER: Today's program has been brought to you by Beckon's
Organic. You can find them on the web at www.beckonsorganic.com. Beckons
Organic, intend, wear, become.
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