You’re sitting in a wheelchair, gently rolling down the long white hall. Doctors and nurses are smiling at you as you go by. You gently look down at the beautiful little bundle in your arms, caress the perfectly formed mini fingers and let out a heavy sigh. You are headed home from the hospital with your precious newborn baby. And , most likely oodles of newborn baby gifts, newborn baby blankets and cute little blue or pink t-shirts that say “grandma’s boy or girl.”
Looking at that tiny newborn t-shirt, have you ever stopped to think what it is you are putting on your new little baby boy’s or baby girl’s sensitive skin? What is that t-shirt made of? From where does that cotton hail? And maybe…does it even matter?
You have already made a concerted effort to buy eco-friendly products, turn off electronics when not in use, recycle and even buy organic food when possible. But what about the clothing your baby is wearing? Should we also be concerned about “green clothes?”
The answer is a resounding yes!! There are a myriad of reasons as to why you would want to look for eco clothing or “green clothes”. Only 11% of the earth is being used for agriculture and farming. Cotton production occurs on 3% of that arable land! And yet, 95% of the cotton is grown using conventional farming practices, including the use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. So what? Why should we care – you say? The cotton textile actually uses more pounds of pesticides per acre than any other crop, giving it the ignoble title of “The World’s Dirtiest Crop!” Corn uses 2.1 pounds of pesticides per acre while cotton uses 4.5 pounds per acre. Simply by using our dollars as arguments, we send a message upstream that we will no longer put up with known endocrine disrupters, neurotoxins and carcinogens being sprayed by the BILLIONS OF POUNDS (9.4 billion pounds of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers used in 2008 on cotton alone) into our water, soil and air. Our newborn babies deserve a world better than that.
Not only does conventional cotton use an excessive amount of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, it is also now over 87% grown with GMO (genetically-modified or cross-bred) seeds. The argument against GMO seeds is extensive. First of which, the seeds do not self-produce seeds for the next year, forcing farmers to re-buy at whatever cost the seed factories impose. Also, there are many unanswered questions about the affect these gmo or “monster” plants have on our ecology as a whole, and in some cases the breeding done to cause them to be resistant to bugs and weeds has actually resulted in an increase in the amount of pesticides sprayed due to new strains of pesticide resistant “super bugs” and “super weeds”.
At Teagan and Mack (http://www.teaganandmack.com) we are giving you another option. We have made a compassionate and conscious choice to provide a product to you that not only looks great, and feels velvety soft but gives you a clear eco-conscience! Our green clothes and accessories for babies are 100% certified organic cotton, adorable in style and ultra soft – just what you’d want next to your baby’s skin!
If you would like to learn more about organic cotton check out our article on Why Organic? (http://www.teaganandmack.com/why.html) or our blog which is full of information on the organic industry as well as tips and tricks for parenting and finding balance in life (http://blog.teaganandmack.com). Another great resource for you is the Organic Exchange who are aligning themselves with organic cotton growers across the globe in India, Syria and Turkey to encourage and assist farmers who want to grow their cotton in an organic and ecologically sound fashion (http://www.organicexchange.org). OE’s mission is to help advance the sustainable development of textiles by creating a specific community of practice, a set of standards and product integrity resources, and systems that support the distribution of knowledge and positive change across the global textile value chain.
There are exciting things happening in the organic cotton industry – but it all starts with you making an informed decision to purchase products that align with your personal ideals of clean living, environmental soundness and sustainability – why not start your eco baby off right with some green clothes?
