Mountain Upcycle

"Millennials are increasingly pursuing special, exclusive ‘just-for-me’ products—because they can,”

A great article about the rise of handmade and niche markets. 

In America, we harvest over 73.8 MILLION acres of Soy each year. According to the USDA, over 91% of those 73.8 million acres are cultivated using round up ready GMOs. Is soy a regular part of your diet? Read this article from 'just label it', you may just buy organic next time.

If you have a custom project in mind, we will collaborate with you. Plenty of our customers have nostalgic clothing and textiles lying around that they don't want to get rid of but no longer utilize. We can turn your old stuff into new works of art! We can make bedspreads, quilts, custom clothing, and even stuffed animals out of your old materials.

XOXO

Hello Earth Lovers!

Today I want to tell you all about the hidden world of factory manufactured clothing pertaining specifically to cotton growing practices around the world. After all, with the increase of dirty money in politics, and environmental policy being pushed to the wayside, the best way you can vote is by how you spend your money! Knowledge really is power. 

I wont berate you with a lot of information, I just want to share a few facts about industrial cotton farming that you may not know (and that certainly shocked me!).

1. Strain on resources: Did you know It can take more than 5,300 gallons of water to produce the equivalent amount of cotton to create a single T-shirt and pair of jeans?  Thats 75 bathtubs full of water to put it in to perspective, and that number doesn't even take the dying process into account.

2. Human Rights: Cotton is caustic to grow not only because of water utilization, but also the amount of pesticides necessary to grow the crop. “Studies in developed countries have demonstrated the annual incidence rates of APP in agricultural workers to be as much as 18.2 per 100 000 full time workers3 and 7.4 per million among schoolchildren”. - WHO

3. Dirty Practices: Conventionally grown cotton uses more insecticides than any other single crop. Nearly $2.6 billion worth of pesticides are sprayed on cotton fields each year — accounting for more than 10% of total pesticide use and nearly 25% of insecticides use worldwide. -Pesticide Action Network

4. GMOs: Dont think your cotton T-shirt has anything to do with GMOs? Think again. The use of BT Cotton or genetically modified (GMO) cotton plants is growing at a tremendous rate. The implications of which are unintended cross pollination and undercutting traditional farmers or organic farming methods. Most cotton farms are in third world countries where the market is competitive and it is much more affordable to buy GMO Cotton seed than using organic practices. 

We all want the earth to be a safe place to live, this is just some food for thought to help empower you all to make responsible financial choices. You can support organic clothing companies like PACT instead of mainstream, and certainly check out my Mountain Upcycle Etsy shop where you can find one of a kind 100% Recycled clothing items!