MISTYOGA

What I really want to say

  • Home
  • Retreats
    • Mystical Gathering @ Stone Forest
  • Workshops
    • Yoga 101
    • Align with your Authentic Self
  • Mistyoga 200 hr. YTT
    • Cultivating the Heart of a Warrior
    • Teacher Training Application
  • Dive Deeper
  • 3rd Street Studio Classes
    • May - June Schedule
    • Wise Women Mindfulness Group
    • Community Yoga
    • Mistyoga Punch Passes
    • Teachers
  • Mistyoga Personal Retreat
  • Learn
    • The way of a Shaman
    • Reiki - what is it?
    • Sutra I:33
    • What is Yoga Nidra
    • Nervous System
    • Abhyanga
  • Shop
  • Some fun Recipes
    • Cacao
  • Blog
  • Contact
Unclothed

12/14/2012

A Socially ResponsibleT-Shirt?

0 Comments

Read Now
 
About Nothing beats the feel of cotton.  That’s what the commercials say, but what they don’t
tell you is that the feel or conventional cotton uses 25% of the world’s
insecticides.  Not just the US, but the world.  Regular cotton also uses 10% of
the world’s pesticides.  In fact, regular cotton starts using pesticides on the
seeds.  The little babies haven’t even had time to say their first words, or
sprout a twig, before they are brought down by the man.  The man carrying the
chemicals.  From seeds onwards, chemicals are a continuous part of the growing
process.

Organic cotton not only doesn’t use pesticides, but it uses a
lot less water.  How?  Because organic cotton is a rotation crop.  When crops
are rotated the soil maintains its nutrients and is better able to hold water
in.  Regular cotton is usually the sole crop planted.  Cotton depletes the soil,
and leaves the soil incapable of holding water.  Mass irrigation happens on
regular cotton and uses 3,000 cubic meters more of water per acre to grow than
organic cotton.  Most organic cotton is rain-fed and not irrigated, so helps to
save water in these times where over one third of the world’s population does
not have clean drinking water.  Aren’t we lucky to be such an abundant nation
that we can use our water resources for golf courses?  Don’t answer that.  Not
that we have anything against golf courses, but it might be smart to only have
golf courses where they can sustain themselves without sucking up water we may
one day need for simple things like drinking and bathing.  Call us crazy.  Water
will always be around, right?  I hope you all caught the sarcasm inherent in
that sentence.  Water is a precious commodity and organic cotton farmers
recognize the importance of this and we are proud to be able to bring you
products that feel good and do a little good for the world.  Organic cotton does
not compromise the look or feel of regular cotton.  You can still wear your
organic-cotton-t-shirts around the house, out on the town and
you may walk a little taller knowing the secrets of how it was made.


Another plus is that organic cotton farms keep lots of people employed. 
The weeds are hand picked to keep the ground happy, instead of dumping mass
amounts of chemicals (some originally used in warfare as nerve agents) on the
land, which can have the unfortunate effect of getting caught in the wind and
poisoning workers, ground water and the animals that depend on the ground water.
   Think of 67 million birds per year falling to their deaths, dropping from the
sky and landing at your feet, or keeling over because they have ingested toxic
pesticides.  In fact, most of the pesticides used on regular cotton have been
labeled possible, likely or probably known human carcinogens.  What that means
is that they can cause all sorts of cancer, they are endocrine disrupters, can
cause developmental disabilities in children.  Need any other reasons to switch
to organic?  How about knowing that as many as 20,000 deaths per year are
attributed to accidental pesticide poisoning.

We’ve got a few more. 
Organic farmers maintain a balance between pests and natural predators through
healthy soil and crop rotation, or using a variety of crops.  They even plant
“trap”crops to entice the bad insects away from the cotton.  In this scenario,
pesticides aren’t needed because nature, smart as she is, takes care of herself.
  Organic farmers also wait for seasonal freezes to defoliate the plants, or they
use water management to stimulate defoliation.  Conventional farmers use even
more of those fun pesticides I was just telling you about.  They use more than
200 different types of chemicals just to manufacture the cotton.

One of the controversial issues in the US today is the use of GMO’s or Genetically
Modified Organisms.  Europe and Japan refuse US products with GMO’s or they have
to be labeled clearly stating they contain GMO’s.  Here in the United States, we
have no such fun labeling systems, so you could be eating GMO’s and not even
knowing it.  Why should that be a concern?  We don’t know.  That’s the problem. 
We don’t know the long-term effects on humans.  GMO’s could turn out to be
another case like DDT.  Other countries are more cautious about what they put in
their bodies.  In the US we don’t even have the choice because we don’t know
what’s in what.  Conventional cotton uses up to 70% GMO seeds.  GMO’s were
developed to be resistant to certain insects so less pesticides would be needed.
  The problem that developed is that secondary insect infestations have far
surpassed the primary infestations that would have happened if they hadn’t
tinkered with the seeds.  Some growers say they use even more pesticides with
GMO’s than they did without.

In 2000, 84 million pounds of pesticides
were sprayed on only 14.4 million acres of conventional cotton, making cotton
one of the highest using pesticides productions in the US.  By contrast, organic
cotton is grown on soil that has been chemical free for at least three years.


It’s time to be one of the cool kids like Patagonia who no longer use
conventional cotton.  Wal-Mart and Target of all places now carry
organic cotton t-shirts.  So does LL Bean. Besides, now you can
buy everything from handkerchiefs to kimono’s in organic cotton.

Right now, only 0.5% of the cotton market is organic.  You have choices.  The more
organic cotton that’s bought, the more will be made.  Maybe one day, we will
eradicate regular cotton for good and the world will be a better place for you
and me!

This article is from ONNO, a t-shirt company in Boulder, Colorado. www.onnotextiles.com

Share

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

Details

    Archives

    June 2024
    May 2024
    December 2023
    April 2020
    July 2019
    December 2018
    November 2017
    March 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    October 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    February 2013
    December 2012
    June 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011

    Categories

    All
    Love
    Nutrition
    Recipe
    Self Discovery
    Self Help

    RSS Feed

    Email Newsletter icon, E-mail Newsletter icon, Email List icon, E-mail List icon Sign up for our Email Newsletter
    View my profile on LinkedIn
Picture


​Mistyoga
​103 East 3rd St.
Rifle, Co 81650
970-948-5362
​[email protected]

Picture
Photo from Shezamm
  • Home
  • Retreats
    • Mystical Gathering @ Stone Forest
  • Workshops
    • Yoga 101
    • Align with your Authentic Self
  • Mistyoga 200 hr. YTT
    • Cultivating the Heart of a Warrior
    • Teacher Training Application
  • Dive Deeper
  • 3rd Street Studio Classes
    • May - June Schedule
    • Wise Women Mindfulness Group
    • Community Yoga
    • Mistyoga Punch Passes
    • Teachers
  • Mistyoga Personal Retreat
  • Learn
    • The way of a Shaman
    • Reiki - what is it?
    • Sutra I:33
    • What is Yoga Nidra
    • Nervous System
    • Abhyanga
  • Shop
  • Some fun Recipes
    • Cacao
  • Blog
  • Contact