As Liz has mentioned earlier in her posts, for lovers of clothing and the environment ecouterre.com is the site to visit. In the editor-in-chief's words, “Ecouterre is a website devoted to the future of sustainable fashion design.” While they do not produce their own clothing or materials, the team of writers showcases and supports eco-friendly designers who focus on a garment’s environmental impact as much as the style and form of clothing.
Originally designed as the website Inhabitat.com, the founder of ecouterre launched the site to shift the image of “green” clothing from itchy t-shirts to high fashion. While hard-core environmentalists tend to turn their noses up at the importance of fashion design, the apparel industry is so large that to ignore their environmental impact would be devastating.
The websites' mission page is filled with shocking statistics about the damage of growing mass amounts of cotton and the harmful pesticides used. If you are like me, as soon as you visit the site, you wont be able to stop searching the tens of designers and hundreds of styles to view….so explore a little and this site will give you a good and green excuse to online shop :).
I'm from a cotton producing area of SC and if you mention the word "green" or "environment" down there, you can get your head blown off! Traditional cotton farmers feel very threatened by organic practices.
ReplyDeleteBut if there's a demand to help support prices, then they can pay extra to have labor rather than chemicals. Try explaining THAT to a 55-year-old farmer who sees Chinese cotton prices increasing while US prices constantly decrease.
Buying US made, organic would be the solution, but educating consumers to do that is nearly impossible. The best answer would probably be taxes on imported cotton and government-supported advertising/tagging regulations.
Even if the nation is free trade and we don't want to impose heavy import taxes, imagine what would happen to sales if a huge 5"x5" sticker on the shirt said--"This shirt was made in CHINA, using unsustainable farming and manufacturing. Buy US organic instead!"
To me, that's not government intervention, that's transparency.