OCTOBER: COLORED COTTON
ANCIENT CROPS
Two millennia ago, the Moche people from the Northern Coast of Peru spent the month of October harvesting. They had extensive irrigation networks that diverted the flow of rivers and allowed them to cultivate thousands of hectares in the many coastal valleys they lived in. After a long growing season during the Southern Hemisphere’s warm months, the valleys were lush with maize, chiles, squash, beans, and one non-edible fruit: cotton.
The cotton bush thrived among their other crops, growing above shoulder height and producing seeds covered in long fiber in a range of colors. Gossypium Barbadense, the cotton varietal native to this part of Peru came in shades of brown, grey, yellow, mauve, lilac, and white. Once the vegetable harvest ended, men and women collected baskets full of fluffy cotton bolls and began sorting them by color.
Figure 1: Example of different Moche woven textiles.
They painstakingly removed the seeds by hand, beat the seedless fiber with sticks, combed it out, and twisted it into yarn using a wooden spindle and ceramic disc. They weaved the finest yarn into textiles using a simple backstrap loom. The cotton’s natural color variation, plant dyes, and various weave structures allowed Moche weavers to create intricate textiles for ceremonial clothing and offerings to their many gods (figure 1). For fishing, they used the coarser, dark brown yarns to create nets that camouflaged in the water. The lowest quality yarn was used for ropes and sails, while the seeds were pressed for oil.
A GLOBAL COMMODITY
Cotton is extremely adaptable- it adjusts its time of bloom to grow in different environments and climates. Within the horse latitudes (30 degrees north and south of the equator), it can thrive just about anywhere. Starting thousands of years ago, people living within these latitudes discovered that the fluffy fiber was perfect for making textiles.
Iterations of the Moche people’s process happened across every continent (figure 2). Each region had its own landrace of cotton and adjusted its process according to its respective plant’s characteristics. In parts of Mexico, cotton grew on small, perennial trees that produced small seeds covered in long fiber in a range of brown tones. In China, a small shrub grew large boles of pale yellow fiber. The native cotton plant in the Horn of Africa grows over two meters tall and has deep roots and small white cotton boles. Branching bushes that grew light brown and white boles of short fiber are native to Pakistan.
Figure 2: Cotton-producing regions as of 1916 in black.
As each of these ancient cultures transformed cotton fiber into cloth, the farmers bred the plant to support the growing need for textiles. Annual crops were easier to predict than perennials, smaller bushes were easier to harvest, larger seeds made removing the fiber easier, finer and longer fiber was easier to spin, and white cotton was easier to dye. Initially, breeding happened on the farm- farmers selected the seeds with these traits to plant the next season. As time passed, advantageous cotton seeds traveled farther and farther distances. With the advent of global trading, farmers mixed cotton from the far corners of the world, creating new varieties radically different from those native to the soil they grew in.
Once discovered by foreigners, the Moche cotton went on a global journey and now holds the second-largest share of the global cotton market. In the 1820s a slave ship going from South America to Northern Africa had cotton seeds from the Peruvian coast. They thrived in Egyptian soils and produced a longer, finer, and more consistent fiber than Africa had seen before. This South American variety soon made Egypt famous for its cotton. Gossypium Barbadense continues to be the finest cotton available and goes by many names: Egyptian, Pima, Sea Island, or extra-long staple cotton.
SEED SAVERS
Despite being by far the largest non-food crop, most cotton varieties are already extinct or close to it. Global cotton supply chains demand uniformity and predictability at every level. Ideal commercial cotton plants mature to the same height, have seeds that are the same size, and grow fiber that is a similar length, fineness, and white color (figure 3). This is true for not only the cotton on one farm but for all cotton production globally.
Figure 3: A large cultivator picks a field full of mono-cropped upland cotton in California’s Central Valley. Each plant is a similar height, all cotton fiber is the same color, and bole density is uniform.
There are four species of cotton, two of which are grown on a commercial scale. The most common cotton species is Gossypium Hirsutum. Otherwise known as upland cotton, this cotton native to Mexico’s Pacific Coast makes up more than 90% of cotton grown globally. Peru’s Gossypium Barbadense makes up the rest. 50% of global cotton production comes from just one upland seed type: GMO bt cotton.
The domestication and homogenization of cotton caused the rise of the few commercially advantageous cultivars and the fall of all the other, native varieties. Each native species lost means losing its beneficial traits, such as disease resistance and stress tolerance, which were often overlooked when breeding for yield and quality potential. The reduced diversity in cotton fields and farms means less resilience to the current decrease in arable soil, changing weather patterns, and reduced freshwater availability. For example, an increase in soil salinity will decrease the yield of conventional upland cotton by up to 55%. Varieties endemic to coastal valleys are able to thrive in saline soil but do not necessarily have the same color and fiber length consistency as their commercial relative.
Figure 4: A Moche woman hand harvesting a native variety of brown cotton that matures over head height.
Few groups continue to grow and harvest cotton native to their soils. Descendants of the Moche people are one of them. In their small farms, intermixed with other crops and livestock, the indigenous people of Northern Peru grow the cotton of their ancestors (figure 4). Today, the Moche indigenous people are the largest producers of naturally colored cotton. With over 15,000 farmers producing over 75 varieties of native cotton, the Moche farms are a hotspot of cotton biodiversity. Beyond preserving Moche cultural heritage, these cotton seeds are crucial to maintaining the genetic diversity and resilience of cotton as a species.
NOTES
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.01572/full
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250804269_The_Revival_of_Colored_Cotton
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1402&context=tsaconf
https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/3828/382841103015.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/gossypium-arboreum
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2138777/millennia-old-brown-cotton-rarity-verge-extinction
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?q=Moche&sortBy=Relevance&offset=200