When building Ecotopia, the principles of sustainable living touch every aspect of our lives. Dressing ‘green’ is an important part of living an Ecotopian lifestyle. The first thing you’re going to want to look for when dressing sustainably is products made from fibers that are organically grown.

Just because a garment is made from natural fibers doesn’t mean that the fibers were grown in a method that is safe for the environment. About one-fourth of the insecticides used worldwide go into commercially grown cotton alone! So it is critical to make sure that you are purchasing garments made from organically grown fibers if you want to protect the environment.

Due to the comfort and durability of cotton, it is one of the most popular natural fiber choices. Cotton has been used for garments for centuries. The United States and Turkey are the world’s largest producers of organic cotton, so there is a ready supply available in the U.S. for manufacturing greener garments, but countries around the world, including Canada and Australia, are rapidly catching up.

When choosing cotton clothing, it is important to make sure that it is grown organically. It takes nearly half a pound of chemicals to grow enough cotton for one t-shirt when the cotton isn’t grown with organic techniques. Think about that the next time you visit your favorite t-shirt shop!

Hemp is another readily sustainable crop. Hemp plants are highly productive, easy to cultivate and more tolerant of insects and other pests than cotton. It has been used to make ropes and garments for centuries. Unfortunately, although hemp cannot be used as a narcotic and has no hallucinogenic properties, it went out of favor in the 1930s in the United States for political reasons due to its resemblance to its cousin, marijuana.

Apparently the U.S. government is afraid that Drug Enforcement Agents wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between commercial hemp and marijuana! There has been a renewed interest in this natural plant fiber due to the fact that it is so easy to grow and its fibers are so durable, so restrictions are easing up somewhat, but because of the short-sightedness of the United States in this area, China remains the world’s largest exporter of hemp. So if you buy hemp clothing, it will probably come from China or India, another large exporter of this fiber.

Believe it or not, bamboo is rapidly becoming a fiber of choice in the green clothing industry as well. It is hypoallergenic, absorbent, fast-drying, durable and naturally anti-bacterial. It is also very breatheable and quite surprisingly comfortable to wear. Bamboo is a very fast-growing plant, as any gardener can tell you, making it easy to replenish. It is therefore another highly sustainable crop plant.

For a list of green clothing resources, please visit: http://www.cultureartist.org/links/GreenClothing.htm.

 Chuck Hall’s latest book, Invasion of the Vegans! will be available at the Culture Artist website at www.cultureartist.org later this year. You may contact Chuck by email at: chuck@cultureartist.org.