We've all seen organic food at our local grocery store, but organic clothing? Buying organic clothing can be a great way to help the environment, but it comes at a cost.

What the heck is organic clothing anyway?

The same principle that applies to growing organic foods, applies to the materials that are used to create organic clothing. It emphasizes using methods that are eco-friendly. Crops aren't radiated with chemicals, genetically engineered or sprayed with pesticides. The farming techniques minimize pollution and strive for a renewable and balanced eco-system.

Materials used for organic clothing include wool, silk, hemp, bamboo, soy, Tencel (wood pulp), and the most popular of all, cotton. While there's no hard evidence that wearing organic clothing has any direct impact on your health, it does have an impact on the planet and the workers who harvest the materials.

Cotton-pickin' clothes

Cotton, white gold, the fabric of our lives. You're probably wearing some right now. Cotton seems like a harmless choice, a good one even. But, conventionally grown cotton requires about 1/3 of a pound of chemicals to make enough cotton for one t-shirt.

In a clean, green world, pesticides are the big baddie. According to the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), although they occupy only 2.4 percent of the world's arable land, cotton crops account for 16 percent of the world's insecticide released. That's a lot of poison.

Some of the commonly used pesticides include cancer-causing agents such as yanazine, dicofol, propargite and trifluralin. While there's no scientific evidence that these toxins affect you if you wear the clothes, they do have an impact on the environment and the farm workers who are exposed to them on a daily basis.

According to OrganicConsumers.org, in the 1990s more than 50 percent of the cotton workers in Egypt suffered from symptoms of pesticide poisoning and in India 91 percent of male workers exposed to pesticides for more than 8 hours a day suffered from some sort of health issue.

Don't cotton to it

Organic cotton isn't all rainbows and unicorns either. Although the US grows one of the largest crops of cotton in the world, most organic cotton is grown overseas in places like China, India, Turkey and Africa. That means getting the product to the US takes a lot of energy and leaves behind a big old carbon footprint. The extra effort it takes to grow, harvest and ship organic cotton means it's more expensive, anywhere from 10-45 percent more expensive.

Coming into fashion

Even though it's more expensive, organic clothing is making its way into the mainstream. Organic clothing isn't relegated to upscale boutiques in Soho anymore. You can find organic clothing lines at Target, Gap, Nike, Neiman Marcus and many other major retailers.

With more affordable choices offered every day, it's easier than ever to buy organic. Talk to your local retailers and let them know you'd like more organic options. If you let them know the demand is there, the supply will come.