Citizens of Humanity celebrated their 20th anniversary this year and are living up to their name by looking towards the future; with people and planet in mind. They have partnered up with the programme Kiss The Ground, to have better control over their cotton production by focusing on regenerative agriculture.
We are all well aware of the harmful effects of conventional farming on our soils that obliterate all its natural wonders . These include only planting one crop at a time, the use of chemicals, and forms of tilling which all strip the soil of living roots and remove nutrients, leaving it devoid of life and leading to a future that is catastrophic for farming and the environment.
This is where regenerative farming can help restore depleted soils, and take farming back to working in tandem with nature. Soil is a living organism that needs to be cared for, and will give back so much if it is respected and tended to in the right way. There are endless benefits to regenerative farming from not only improving the soil health which in turn leads to healthier food crops and improvements in air quality for those living locally to the farms, but also increased resilience to storms, droughts and flooding. Water holding capacity is also strengthened. Furthermore, the ability to capture carbon dioxide and keep it in the ground reduces the release of greenhouse gases that contribute so heavily to global warming.
Citizens of Humanity and Kiss The Ground have partnered with 10 farms across the USA with the exciting prospect of making a change in one of the most intensive and soil degrading systems of farming: cotton. It can be a daunting path to take for any farmer, so the support the programme gives to help with the journey of transitioning from conventional to regenerative farming is vital, whether that be technical, financial or educational.
The journey started in 2022 by partnering with US farmers from across the country, and the first batch of regenerative cotton was harvested by the October of that year. Citizens of Humanity have used this cotton in all its collections for Agolde, Goldsign and COH this September 2023, and the collections will be made entirely so by January 2024.
This has been an investment in the future of farming, community and the planet, and it will be extremely exciting to watch the programme grow from the seed that was planted and tended to and to flourish with all the powers that regenerative farming can provide.
