Startup attempts to revolutionize textile industry with lab-grown fibers — and major retailers are already on board
A Boston-based startup is trying to revolutionize the textile industry by fundamentally altering how we create one of its most important crops: cotton.
According to Bloomberg, Galy, a new company, is trying to address the myriad concerns involved in cotton production by growing it in a lab instead.
The process is fairly simple and similar to lab-grown meat. Galy takes cells from the cotton plant, places them in a large vat, and feeds them sugar to help them grow. Once it has enough, the cells' genes are manipulated and elongated into cotton fiber.
Growing cotton is one of the most labor- and resource-intensive agricultural practices on the planet. It takes up 2.3% of all farmable land on Earth and accounts for 16% of all insecticide sales.
Bloomberg noted that the water needed to grow the cotton for a T-shirt is 50 times more than the water needed to wash it over the course of its lifetime. Fast fashion, which relies heavily on cotton, has been called a "public health crisis" and has been lambasted for the massive quantities of waste it generates.
Beyond the environmental impact, there is an ethical one to consider, as well. Reports of child labor and forced labor have plagued the industry in recent years and in the past.
Galy's process reduces all of that; according to Bloomberg, it reduces the water used by 99%, the land used by 97%, and the negative impact of fertilizers by 91%.
The startup has some big-name investors, as well. Hennes & Mauritz AB (better known as H&M), Zara's owners Inditex SA, and the Bill Gates-led Breakthrough Energy Ventures have helped raise $65 million in funds. Galy also has a $50 million contract with a medical supply company for medical-grade cotton.
There are still plenty of hurdles to overcome for the startup, though. Galy has only produced a few kilograms of lab-grown cotton at this stage, and while its purity isn't an issue thanks to the lab conditions, they are still working on the fiber strength and length.
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The costs of scaling are also a concern, as it's not clear at this stage that it can be done in a way that will turn a profit.
But if it manages to overcome those hurdles, we could see a massive boom in environmentally sustainable, ethically sourced cotton, which would go a long way toward helping reduce the industry's massive environmental footprint.
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