Every day I wake up and ask myself–what will I give back to the Earth today?
It’s a tough question. Because every day I take. And take. I eat, consume, cook, and use a lot of energy.
But I don’t do a lot in the way of giving back…and that is our problem. We take fossils from the ground, a place where they have been for thousands of years, and we burn them for energy and don’t replace them with anything that keeps the Earth healthy.
And we know that nothing will change until we find a way to limit our use of fossil fuels. That is waaaaayyy bigger than I am. I try. We can all try, and my Resources and Books pages have lots of ideas for that.
But I am going farther back to ancient practices. The practices of indigenous people who understood long before Europeans, how to give back to the Earth and to treat it as the Great Nurturer that it is. If there are two plants, eat only one. Keep the seeds, share the harvest, feed the soil.
I can do these things. I find myself looking at everything in my house as something that no longer belongs in a garbage can but belongs in the dirt where it can work with good bacteria and worms and things that live in the soil to become rich and nutritious for my food.
I‘m starting a compost pile.
Let me just say that I live in the suburbs and don’t know much about compost piles. But the Earth does, and I hope that it will teach me.
What have I done for the Earth today? I went out back and put my pots of dying poinsettias, along with their dirt, onto a pile in the woods behind my garden. Little by little I hope to add other things. Eventually, it will all decompose (I’m not in any great hurry).
It’s a small step. But a journey of a thousand miles starts with a small step. Right? Join me on the journey. Tell me about your efforts.
Together we will make a difference. And even if we cannot save everything, maybe we can do better. It’s worth a try.
I want to introduce you to a book by John Doerr, in collaboration with Ryan Panchadsaram. “Speed and Scale: An Action Plan for Solving our Climate Crisis Now” by John Doerr. I was skeptical at first. Yes, yes, we’ve heard these things.
However, Doerr is a Kleiner Perkins guy…familiar with funding, presentations, evaluations and strategies. He also knows about tactics–the work it takes to make things happen.
Years ago, when I was in the business world, I worked with plenty of people like Doerr. He speaks a language I understand. Charts, bullet points, clarity and simplicity. The task of climate resilience distilled down to 6 major tasks.
I could understand.
I read the entire book. While I was not terribly eager to read through the points of view of all the entrepreneurs, some of them have valuable insights. I can take a pass on John Kerry and Bill Gates…folks I’ve heard from before. But some of the others are worth a listen.
We don’t have the time to shuffle around in the muck.
This book finally, refreshingly, takes all the data and info and organizes it into a plan. A plan that is easy to follow, if not easy to implement.
Many will argue over aspects of it, especially those whose interest lie in maintaining the status quo. We don’t have time for those people. Get out of the way. We will accommodate those who will be affected, but if you cling to your old way of life, you will be left behind.
His main point is that there is so much investment and money to be made in cleantech. While we clearly don’t know who the winners and losers will be, we certainly know that there will be winners and losers.
The longer the U.S. clings to old ways and doesn’t adapt, the better the chance that China and others will run off with the resources we need to lead.
We have no choice but to get out in front.
The book is easy to process. Find your area of expertise or the place where you can contribute, if only in a tiny way.
When is the last time you thought about where your quilting stash or underwear comes from? Have you ever thought about the process, the transport, the distribution? How many of us have ever even recognized on a conscious level that quilt cotton is a plant?
If these questions seem abstruse or even mildly annoying, you’re not alone. So few people care about this issue. At least that’s the information I was given when I contacted some of the largest distributors of quilting fabric around.
Moda told me there’s no market (that’s us) for organic fabric. Oh yes, they had one line of it a while ago and it didn’t sell terribly well, so…they don’t even carry any organic fabric right now. Fatquartershop.com who sells fabric online said they have nothing to do with the content of their products. In their copy on their website, they describe whatever a manufacturer tells them to say, and distribute on demand. Period.
Fabric designers tell me they do not get involved with the fabric manufacturing process. They license their designs and have no say in whether their designs are used sustainably/responsibly or not. This may not be true for all of them, but it’s common practice.
So who makes the determination about whether fabric should be organic or not?
Surprise! It’s you. And me. We are the ones who define this market, and we will have to be the ones to require change.
The question is: Do you think we need to change?
Let’s talk about it a bit. Because I’m going to make the case that we have no choice but to put pressure on manufacturers to change their cotton growing processes. And we might have to start with our local quilt shops.
Here’s why:
–70% of the world’s topsoil is degraded.
–It takes 1,000 years to replace 3 cm of degraded topsoil.
–With current farming practices, all the world’s topsoil will be gone in 60 years.
This is not my opinion.
This information is provided by lengthy studies done by the Textile Exchange and reported in life cycle analyses done over spans of years.
Without topsoil, the world doesn’t eat, let alone quilt with natural fabrics.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be responsible for my kids and grandkids being unable to have food and clothing because of my simplistic, uneducated (and, frankly, selfish) choices.
I’ve seen some people make the case that organic fabric requires more resources.
That is simply not true. Not when using any scientific methodology of measurement. Not when attempting to understand the life cycle of the product. And certainly not when we entertain the implications of the alternative. On the contrary, we now have clear indications that water use on organic farms is far less than traditional practices.
Organic farming of cotton greatly reduces water and other energy consumption, and continuing on our current trajectory is simply not sustainable.
Here is where we encounter the power of market forces.
You and I can demand that things change. Manufacturers, distributors and farmers, all have little reason to improve their processes. Inertia and monetary fears will keep them all from advancing to more sustainable processes.
But the science tells us that we will pay a price one way or another. As consumers, we either start demanding organic cotton now, or we will not likely have access to any at all in the future. The choice is that simple and that stark.
But I’m just one person.
What can I do?
-Ask your local quilt shop to carry organic cotton. Be assertive. Those designers that you love? Their designs can be made on organic cotton. But folks like Moda (who is a HUGE distributor of fabric) think you don’t care. I’m telling you it’s time to care and care deeply.
—Contact folks like Moda directly: marketing@modafabrics.com and let them know about your concerns.
–Do your own research. Here are a few links to explore:
Folks like Wrangler, H & M and Nike are starting to recognize that their own businesses will not be around if they don’t educate consumers on organic products, and make the industry more sustainable.
The organic cotton industry has increased by 11% in the US from 2016 to 2018. But that’s not enough. Where does our quilt cotton come from? India? China? the US?
I don’t have all the answers. But I will continue to follow up. In the meantime, I will continue to work down my stash of fabric, and I plan on only purchasing organic fabric in the future. This is a statement I can only make because I’ve done a bit of homework on this and believe it is the best path for me.
I’ll be exploring more of the current manufacturers soon. The good news is that there ARE organic quilt fabrics out there. We just aren’t aware of them.
I leave you today with a current picture of my own garden out back. Our Midwestern loam is the finest on the planet. Everything grows here. But we need to be responsible stewards of the land, of our money and of our resources.
It’s a documentary featuring Woody Harrelson, called Kiss the Ground. But please, he is not the star.
The supporting actors of the movie are the regenerative farmers around the world doing the good work of healing the Earth. The star? Well, that’s the soil of course.
I urge you to spend an evening and learn about all the things we are doing wrong and can do better. If more of us know about it, we can make change.
I have often heard climate scientists refer to our biosphere as a bathtub. We are filling it with water to the point that it is overflowing and dangerous to all of us. Shutting off the spigot requires the end of fossil fuels. But that’s only part of the solution, isn’t it? We still have a full bathtub. The other part of the solution is pulling the drain. (Or, as scientists refer to it, carbon requestration…removing CO2.)
