Galy is a biotechnology research company who grow high-quality cotton in labs instead of farms, using less water and no land. The company won the annual Global Change Award in 2020 from the H&M Foundation.

Conventional cotton grown on a farm requires land, water and emits large amounts of greenhouse gases. Farm grown cotton is also limited to surrounding temperature and climate conditions which can reduce growth rate and final cotton quality.

Galy grow many different cotton plants in their greenhouse and then gather stem cells from the plants in their lab. The stem cells are isolated in large vessels and nutrients are added to encourage growth. Then, the growing stem cells are moved to another vessel to differentiate into fibres. In-vitro cotton by Galy can grow cotton ten times faster than conventional cotton and with less greenhouse gases, water and no land.

Compared to conventional cotton, in-vitro cotton by Galy:

- uses 78% less water

- uses 81% less land

- produces 80% less CO2 emissions while growing

- grows 10 times faster than field grown cotton (18 days compared to 180 days)

- uses no pesticides.

Photograph: 'Girl with red hat' on Unsplash