The Federal Trade Commission recently issued a consumer alert entitled Have You Been Bamboozled by Bamboo Fabrics? which states that some merchants are greenwashing bamboo and misleading consumers.  According to the alert, bamboo is actually a form of rayon, which is a cellulosic material processed with harsh, polluting chemicals to produce a fiber.

Purveyors of bamboo claim that it is "sustainable" since it can be harvested without killing the plant, and needs only a few months after cutting to be ready for harvest again..  That's true.  However, the processing of the pulp into fiber is highly toxic if not carried out according to organic standards.

National Geographic's online Green Guide has this to say about cellulose-based fibers:
 
Rayon, Tencel and acetate are made out of cellulose, most often from softwood trees like beech, though tropical hardwoods and even cotton fiber are used as well. These materials may begin as biomass, but the end result is a synthetic too processed for the term "organic" to be relevant.

In terms of their environmental impact, according to Co-op America's WoodWise guide, "about a third of the pulp obtained from a tree will end up in finished rayon thread," and the rest is discarded. Extracting the fiber also requires a lot of water, and powerful chemicals like sodium hydroxide and carbon disulfide to break the tough cellulose cell structure.

Paloma Textiles sells Silk City's Bambu yarns, which are manufactured in China.  According to information provided by Silk City, the manufacturer of this yarn uses bamboo pulp from plants grown without the use of pesticides, and processes the pulp into fiber according to the international ISO 14000 standards for responsible environmental management.  As for the amount of water used in turning bamboo pulp into fiber, I must admit I don't know if the process uses comparable amounts of water as does the processing of wood pulp.

Water use is becoming a bigger issue as climate change continues to affect rainfall and glacier melt around the globe.  For the time being, I'm comfortable with using Bambu in my own weaving, but arriving at that decision is a personal matter for each of us.  Please feel free to send in your comments or questions about this product.

The June issue of The Atlantic Monthly has a great essay about the recession's impact on the fashion world.   Benjamin Schwartz, in "Fashion in Dark Times," describes the New York fashion scene's descent into a busted economy, and finds that the seeds of a more ethical way of doing business might sprout from the current collapse.

For designers and apparel stores, the crash happened almost overnight.  Fashion customers suddenly stopped buying in October of 2008. Clothing stores cut prices by as much as 70%, which meant many hard-working and deserving designers lost money on their fall collections.  However, in February, New York's Fashion Week went on as planned.  Fashion Week is a twice yearly extravaganza which takes up space over several districts and showcases the work of over 250 designers. Attending it can be an exhausting total-immersion experience which allows the intrepid observer to read the signs of the next dominant trends.

Much of the Fashion Week experience has to do with posing, posturing, and projecting a slick persona. Schwartz describes many of the fashionistas in attendance as an agglomeration of the wives, giirlfriends, and aimless daughters of Manhattan's entertainment, media, and financial titans and mini-titans that forms the gelatin in which are suspended the candied fruit of Ivy-educated actresses, charismatic DJs, scenesters with great bone structure, and rap stars given to obscene gestures on the most unlikely occasions.

However, serious trend observers and tastemakers also attend.  Two in particular-- Sally Singer of Vogue and Julie Gilhart, fashion director of Barneys New York--saw at February's Fashion Week  an opening for a new era of industry ethics to take root.  Author Schwartz reports that Gilhart, who recently addressed a panel on "Conscientious Consumption" at the Hammer Museum in L.A., thinks the downturn "'will lead us to a new era in fashion, and to a better place,' a place she and Singer have been trying to get to for years."  

She added that this economy has made customers think more about their purchasing decisions, and is "preparing the ground for a more conscious consumerism." 

Both Singer and Gilhart have been involved in the movement toward ethical consumption for many years.  Both have voiced their concern for workers, the environment, and animals. Gilhart has already led Barney's to develop an organic line of clothing, and has long urged designers to work with organic and recycled materials.

Singer is responsible for Vogue's new monthly page on Style Ethics, and believes that the "world does not need more things."  However, both Singer and Gilhart also understand the need for beauty and drama in adornment, and to this end recommend "a sustainable frugality," which means buying fewer things, but with more discernment.

Both women favor designers who have a sound artistic vision, and who also care about economic development in poor countries, the environment, and animals.  Schwartz obviously agrees with them, and notes that "favoring designers who use wool made from humanely raised sheep" is "hardly a frivolous concern, given the conditions sheep routinely endure." (!)

Perhaps the light at the end of this economic tunnel will cast its beam on a new way of doing business, and we can start moving beyond the old, hurtful consumption practices.  For the full article, go to http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/fashion-economy.

It's April, the time of year when I start thinking about this year's garden. . .In researching whether or not to take the plunge and start raising hens this spring, I came across a great website on urban homesteading:  www.pathtofreedom.com.  The  project was started by Jules Dervais in 2001, with the intent of sharing knowledge about living a simpler lifestyle, leaving a smaller footprint behind on the planet, and resisting the wastefulness of our dominant consumer culture. 

For over 20 years the Dervais family members have lived off their year-round organic permaculture garden which they set up in a small city lot (1/5 of an acre) in Pasadena, California.  Their website is almost overwhelming in the amount of information offered; the authors discuss almost every aspect of raising food in an urban setting, in addition to  energy technologies for living (almost) off the grid.

Some of the topics they cover are urban farm animals (not raised for meat, since the family is vegetarian)--including ducks, chickens, rabbits, bees and goats; organic gardening (Resistance is fertile is one of their gardening slogans);  self-sufficiency (includes health, beauty, food preservation, and other stuff); and energy independence -- including information on a solar dryer (I would call that a clothesline under the sun), a solar shower, and a solar oven.  Some of the articles aren't yet available on the new, improved site they're building, but there are links to the old site where you can find them.

It would take a lot of time to work through all of this vast site, but what I've seen is inspiring.  However, I'm not sure if their philosophy meets with my own definition of "simple living."  I'm the sort of person for whom a simple meal means dumping a can of lentil soup into a bowl and not even heating it up.  For someone like me, growing and harvesting all my own food does not seem simple at all. 

However, taking some steps toward self-sufficiency does seem do-able, and I do have gardening experience.  I am also weary of paying exhorbitant prices at the store for my kale, chard, and collard greens.  And I've rarely found a decent store tomato up here in Northern Minnesota.  Thus, I'm expanding my garden to food items this year, maybe some chickens (for eggs, and, of course, garden manure),  and definitely more herbs, and I'm going to use this site as one of my trusted guides.