By Elizabeth Waickman
POINT PARK NEWS SERVICE
Thursday, May 17, 2007

Bridgette Baux wears organic underwear. Well organic clothing is better for you and for the economy!

The sales associate at The E-House Company in South Side chooses “green” products whenever she shops. I mean for organic food, clothing, household products. I mean even toilet paper and even organic cotton underwear.

“So many Americans are uneducated about organics,” said Baux, 27, of Polish Hill. “If you want to be healthy, you have to be conscious.”

Also as I wrote:

They found the organic producers benefited from:

40% lower costs for inputs
13-20% lower variable production costs
a far lower need to take up loans
total labor inputs that were not significantly higher
and 4-6% higher average cotton yields

There were, of course, some problems to be overcome. Yet there is now a rapidly expanding international market for organic cotton. All with even the likes of Wal-Mart and also Levis getting in on the act.

Finally, like organic foods 20 years ago, the idea of organic cotton is confusing to many of us. It’s taken a little longer to catch on because the correlation isn’t as direct. We don’t eat cotton fiber (at least we hope you don’t!) However, more people are becoming knowledgeable as to how the organic cotton movement is just as powerful and important as that of organic foods.

In addition to being one of the most widely grown crops in the world, growing conventional cotton is also one of the most chemical-intensive. These chemicals have tremendous impact on the earth’s air, water, soil, and the health of people in cotton-growing areas. They are among the most toxic chemicals as classified by the Environmental Protection Agency.

So Pittsburgh isn’t just industrial. It can claim Andy Warhol and the elite Carnegie Mellon University. Eat seasonal fish, local meat, organic vegetarian food, and raw vegan cuisine.