Comments on: Roundup: The birds and bees

By: Seth Meyerink-Griffin

Seth Meyerink-Griffin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 03:38:02 +0000

@Frustrated in VA: I used hemp for my ’sustainable’ junior year collection, and I can understand why companies are going out of business with it (and other organic/sustainable fabrics). The first, and perhaps largest, barrier that I noted was cost. Buying 35 yards of 12oz hemp twill (…of which I still have about 20 yards…) cost me about $12/yard. Conventional denim could be had for $5/yard or less for some very high quality denims through jobbers. Secondly, it was very, very different to work with; the hemp denim had significantly more bias movement (looser weave?) than conventional cotton denim but less inherent stretch on grain, and tended to fray very quickly after cutting. It also had more loft to it; it was *much* thicker than a denim of the same weight, which made certain operations more difficult for me to perform. (I assume that this isn’t a problem at the factory level, that procedures would be developed to compensate.) The third barrier that I noted was the selection of colors and patterns, i.e., nil. Despite the high initial price of the fabric, most fabrics are available in off-white only for orders of less than 500 yards. To me, these seem like fairly large barriers to entry for a small designer creating a line primarily or entirely constructed from hemp.
That said, I am not yet in business for myself, and I am completely freaked out by the enormous amounts of cash I will need to even get a start. I am merely a newly-minted BFA/fashion design grad.

On topic: My research indicated that it was more than just pesticide/herbicide use in cotton production that was undesirable. Although I don’t have the hard numbers directly in front of me, my recollection is that organic cotton has a significantly lower per acre yield than ‘normal’ cotton; I think that the number was something like less than a half or a third of the yield. That would indicate to me that if all farmers started producing organic-only cotton, world-wide cotton supplies would drop to between half and a third of the current yield, which (even with the same level of price subsidies) should cause the price of cotton to double or triple. Not only that, but cotton requires tremendous amounts of water to grow, which causes water tables to drop, especially in area that have historically been arid like Texas.

Despite the enormous cost of the fabric, hemp would seem to be a more ecological substitute. (I suspect that prices may be high primarily due to supply; if more hemp fabrics were being produced, the price *should* be lower.) The fiber per acre yield is between twice and five times that of cotton, minimal pesticides/herbicides are needed, and water consumption during growing is quite low. Hemp staple fibers are significantly longer than cotton (average 8″ vs. up to 2.5″), which I *think* should make the finished fabric stronger by weight. Additionally, hemp grows decently in a wider range of conditions than cotton.
On the downside, hemp is quite a bit more difficult to turn from raw stalks into finished yarn. Once the stalks have been cut, they need to be retted (dunno if this is the correct term?) and broken before the individual fibers can be extracted (again, terminology?), spun and woven. I have not seen any all-hemp knits, and my experience with using a knitting machine with all-hemp yarn was quite unsatisfactory. Given that all-hemp jersey doesn’t seem to exist (the best I can find is 55/45 hemp/org. cotton), I am currently assuming that it’s not something that works very well.

I also looked at bamboo. *Most* bamboo is rayon made from bamboo (instead of any other cellulosic material, like sawdust; I’ve heard rumors that the FTC is cracking down on labeling in this regard), which is usually a bad practice. I don’t know if any bamboo is turned into rayon via the Lyocell process, which seems to be environmentally benign due to it being a closed process.

Personally, I would love to be able to work with hemp as a primary material. Unfortunately, I don’t see any way I can make this an economical choice; my price would end up being so high for raw materials that I’d end up with ‘jeans’ that started at $200 or more and would go way, way up.

If anyone here has experience with hemp and can offer any additional information, I would really love it. Or, for that matter, any more sustainable materials.

By: Victoria Ranua

Victoria Ranua — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 02:56:30 +0000

I live in corn and soybean country. Nearly all of it is “Round-up Ready” corn and soybeans. These, like cotton are highly subsidized. Our system of subsidizing some crops and not others influences land use. Farmers like the idea of a steady income, so I can not blame the farmers for their crop choice, but I will blame the government. The corn is field corn, not sweet corn. Field corn is NOT palatable to people. It’s fed to cows who never naturally would eat corn and have a hard time digesting it. If not fed to livestock this corn and soybeans is processed into “value-added” convenience foods (soda, Twinkies, Cheetohs, etc.) They might be “good for the economy” but not much else. Why is it cheaper to buy crap food than wholesome foods? Why don’t we subsidized wholesome foods? It’s all politics now.

I recently completed a floral and faunal survey. It might sound like, “Well, duh!” but people need to see numbers sometimes to understand the obvious. The 40 acres survey units with ALL corn or soybeans had 2 or less animals breeding, and less the 13 plants (mostly non-native weeds). When you added just little bit of habitat, like a tree or wet spot that was plowed around the number jumped to 8 animals or more, and 20-40 plants. A 40 acre grid that was all natural had 30-50 animals breeding and 80-230 plants.

“A thing that is RIGHT when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic world. It is WRONG when it tends otherwise.” Aldo Leopold.

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:06:25 +0000

The number 1 herbicide applied to soybeans is also Roundup. Since the new varieties of soybeans are resistant to the effects of Roundup ( a systemic poison); bred specifically to resist being killed by Roundup what is left in the harvested crop?
Believe it or not, there has not been any published research that I am aware of that even looks at what may be in the soybeans treated with Roundup. I was considering a research project at UT School of Public Health a few years ago and could not generate any interest in looking at this. When I did a literature search I could find nothing published.
I am sure Monsanto has looked at this but they have not published anything so it makes me wonder if there is a problem lurking in the harvested soybeans.

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:53:39 +0000

From NPR, more on the affects of the inert (implied to be not injurious to humans) ingredient atrazine that clogs the noses of fish, preventing them from spawning and smelling prey. Apparently, it's also killing frogs.

All over the world, frog populations are declining because of diseases and the destruction of wetlands. A new study suggests another reason for the drop: a cascade of environmental changes set off by farmers who spray crops with the weed killer atrazine.

By: Frustrated in VA

Frustrated in VA — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:39:25 +0000

Venting…I am a sucker for new trends, new fabrics. Frustrated by the choices in fashion, I set out to find eco conscience clothing. I hit the
jackpot on the internet. So many handmade clothing companies using hemp, hemp blends, bambo, soy, recycled, organic. Yes! Our fashion industry future. I had hope for all these talented stitchers. I placed orders and paid the big price tag. You know what I found? I am the greenest fashionista I know. I am still wearing last years clothes. That’s right, 4 months later and I am still waiting on my fall skirts. I have been making do with last years and it’s not half bad. I have have handed over the “green” to the ladies that have either a)not made the clothes or b) declared “I quit” because it’s just too much business (hire help). Somebody please start an eco conscience company and actually do what you
say you are going to do. I am not underminding the talent and time it takes to create. It’s just disappointing that’s all.

By: Kevin Carson

Kevin Carson — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 03:30:48 +0000

One solution to the organic price premium might be for the price of the chemically-produced stuff to reflect its real cost. American courts in the 19th century made huge alterations in the traditional common law of torts, to make it more commercial-friendly. They created high burdens of proof for malicious intent or negligence in cases of pollution and other torts; the old law held tortfeasors automatically liable for any harm they caused, regardless of intent. Then the twentieth century regulatory state created fairly dumbed-down and minimalist regulatory standards that preempted the old civil courts, so that if one’s pollution could squeak by the regulatory standards it was presumptively “legal” even if it caused harm.

We need to restore legal liability for all harm done, and turn angry juries loose on these people. Then that roundup-ready cotton might not be so damn cheap.

By: Danielle

Danielle — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:38:03 +0000

If you like freecycle, you may be a freegan…

article

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:43:17 +0000

I love FreeCycle. On Freecycle, they'll give away anything. A lady in my local group is giving away a spider: I caught a wolf spider and we have it in a make-shift habitat right now. My kids have been catching bugs from outside and feeding it. I wanted to see if anyone wanted to give him a good home. He is alot of fun to watch. My kids have caught plenty of bugs to keep him happy for a while, But whoever wants him is going to need to bring something to take him and his 'food' home in. I can only keep him through the weekend otherwise I'll release him on Monday.

By: Eric H

Eric H — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 23:19:30 +0000

"Peter Melchett of the Soil Association, Britain's leading organic lobby group, says that environmental concerns, rather than health benefits, are now cited by British consumers as their main justification for buying organic food." From this article in The Economist (may be subscription-only?). Of course, this is talking about food, and it's easy enough to say you're doing it for the children when in fact it is for your own consumption, but shouldn't we accept either motivation when we agree with the answer?

By: jinjer markley

jinjer markley — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 20:06:13 +0000

Another thing you can do: write your congressperson to say you support a massive overhaul of the Farm Bill that encourages overproduction of commodites like cotton through subsidies. The Farm Bill is up for a revision/vote this year, and it usually slides by without notice because people think it only affects a few people in midwestern states. It affects all of us! Michael Pollan has written an excellent article about it here: http://www.ecoliteracy.org/publications/rsl/michael-pollan.html