THE PENDULUM

by Angie Lovelace, November 3, 2009

In today's globalized economy, some argue people have lost sight of where their products come from. In an attempt to reconnect, a local T-shirt company has transformed the typical business model by introducing complete product transparency in the textile industry for the first time.

On Oct. 31, 30 Elon students and community members filled an Elon BioBus to capacity and traveled to New London, N.C., to attended the Harvest '09 Tour. As part of the Elon Environmental Forum, this trip focused on Cotton of the Carolinas, a collaboration between farmers and manufacturers, producing conventional cotton T-shirts that, "from dirt to shirt," are produced solely in the state of North Carolina.

TS Designs, an eco-friendly T-shirt company in Burlington, launched the Cotton of the Carolinas line last year as a supplement to its organic cotton line to reconnect with the local economy, drastically reducing the transportation footprint of a cotton T-shirt.

Making their products transparent, TS Designs aims to improve the relationship between consumers and producers by making product ingredient lists public and searchable.

The purpose of the Harvest '09 Tour was to create 100 percent product transparency by introducing the consumer to the entire production chain of a cotton T-shirt, said Eric Henry, president of TS Designs.

Students from five North Carolina universities, along with community members, totaling more than 60 people, were met by the cotton farmer and the cotton ginner at the Thurman Burleson & Sons Farm.

"We've become a society where we think our food comes from the grocery store, our gas comes from the gas pump and clothes come from the mall," Henry said. "We've lost connection to where our stuff comes from."

Participants met with Ronnie Burleson, a cotton farmer, who spoke about his experiences in cotton farming in North Carolina. Burleson, a third generation farmer, has been farming in Stanley County, N.C., his entire life.

"A lot of people just have no clue what cotton is, what a cotton plant looks like, what a cotton farmer has to go through, so its kind of like you've enjoyed this product all of your life and now you find out really, this is how it's made," Henry said.

Another benefit of a T-shirt that is "grown, made, sold here" is that its transportation footprint is drastically decreased.  A typical T-shirt can travel 17,000 miles, while a Cotton of the Carolinas T-shirt only travels 750 miles, according to Henry.

After the cotton is harvested, it is sent to Rolling Hills Cotton Gin, less than a mile down the road.  Participants also went to the gin where they learned about the complex components of a cotton gin from Wes Morgan, who is the cotton ginner for Cotton of the Carolinas. 

"We grow cotton here, there isn't any reason we shouldn't be making more of our products here.  It doesn't make sense to ship things like cotton halfway around the world to do something that we can do all here in North Carolina," Henry said.

When the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was passed in 1994, much of the textile industry left the United States, going overseas in search of cheaper labor. 

"Keeping it closer in, you don't waste all of that transportation fuel, energy, natural resources, you're also keeping people employed here," Morgan said.

During the next steps of the chain of cotton production, the cotton is spun, knitted, finished, cut and sewn all in the state of North Carolina before it gets to TS Designs in Burlington where it is printed and dyed.

"We'd love to be able to take people throughout more phases of the supply chain, we just don't have time," TS Designs' Eric Michel said.

"However, people can get any information they want about any part of the supply chain on the Cotton of the Carolinas website, and we think that's how it should be," Michel said.

On the website, www.cottonofthecarolinas.com, consumers can learn about all of the steps that their T-shirts go through. They can even reach out to all of the people in that supply chain and can go visit their facilities if they would like to learn more. 

What happens today when you buy an apparel product, at the best, you'll get the country of origin, and then from that point you're on your own and probably will never find out anything else on how that shirt's made, where its made, who made it. We want to be just the opposite," Henry said.

Michel is an advocate for this transparency model because he feels that people don't look much past their point of sale because they don't know that they should be. 

"It's really exciting that we've got 65 people that are interested enough to join us on the Harvest '09 Tour," Michel said.

"What was so interesting to me was just to see the challenges that the North Carolina industry is being faced with compared to the benefits that globalization is bringing about," Sophomore David Munoz said, "it's just an unusual idea to know that everything's coming from your home state or your locality."