by, Melissa Reiss, Purchasing Assistant
What do you do when you have 200 acres of organic cotton you need to sell? Start a clothing company!
In the early 1990s, Maggie’s Organics founder Bená Burda was working in the natural foods industry selling organic blue and yellow tortilla chips. One of the farmers growing the corn for the chips recommended improving the quality of the blue corn crop by rotating in cotton to the fields. His experiment worked very well, yielding 200 acres of organic cotton that Burda needed to sell somehow.
Conventional vs. Organic Cotton Clothing
Through her research, she learned that cotton was grown on three to five percent of the world’s cultivated land, yet uses almost ten percent of the world’s pesticides and 25 percent of the world’s insecticides. She committed herself to tell these truths behind conventional cotton clothing. Burda found a business partner to turn the organic cotton into socks and T-shirts, and in 1992, Maggie’s Organics was born in Central Michigan.
Through her work in the industry, she saw a demand for a supplier of organic cotton t-shirts ready to carry logos of natural foods companies. Soon, industry leader Ben & Jerry’s was a client.
Maggie’s expanded their product line and began to see first-hand the poor working conditions in the conventional textile mills outside of the US. Motivated to find a better way, they met with Jubilee House Community (JHC), a community development organization established to help victims of natural disasters in Nicaragua. JHC suggested a new facility with a worker-ownership model for those they employed, where the workers had more of a voice and vested interest in the success of both the business and themselves. This turned into a 100% worker-owned sewing cooperative called the Fair Trade Zone.
Three supply chains
Maggie’s has since developed three separate supply chains which produce all of their products—each one dedicated to fair working conditions and practices, while using 100% Certified Organic cotton and wool. Socks are made by five family-owned mills in North Carolina. Leggings are produced in GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certified facilities in Peru. Other apparel including dresses, ponchos, hoodies, and shirts is from their Central American supply chain.
Maggie’s Organics, with their line of quality organic cotton goods, has been a mainstay in co-ops across the country, including Willy Street Co-op. Come see their classic styles which suit a wide range of tastes. Socks are a great gift, especially those made by people earning a living wage.
Read more about their commitments to fair trade and transparency on their website at maggiesorganics.com.