ana k

Monday, September 7, 2009

Our beautiful collection from Kice Kice is on sale along with many of our other organic clothing items for the month of September.

visit www.ana-k.com to view our entire selection on sale items.

So september is Organic Harvest month. In 1992, the Organic Trade Association implemented "Organic Harvest Month", a widespread promotion of organic food and agriculture through regional and local events.

Here is a little 411 on conventional cotton vs. organic cotton that I would like to share with everyone...

Conventional (also known as traditional or commercial) grown cotton is ordinarily one of the crops most heavily sprayed with pesticides. To bring this plant to harvest, it is heavily sprayed 30 to 40 times a season in extreme cases with pesticides so poisonous they gradually render fields barren. To create finished goods, fabrics are usually colored with toxic dyes and finished with formaldehyde. Worldwide,conventional cotton farming uses only about 3% of the farmland but consumes 25 percent of the chemical pesticides and fertilizers. In the United States alone, approximately 600 thousand tons of pesticides and chemical fertilizers are applied to cotton fields each season. To complicate matters, insects are quickly becoming resistant to recommended rates of pesticide application and ever increasing amounts are needed be effective.

The Alternative

Certified organic cotton is cotton grown in fields where the use of pesticides have been discontinued for at least 3 years and where rigorous controls help rebuild the soil's natural fertility. Organic farming is a farming system which relies on natural inputs only. No synthetically produced pesticides or fertilizers are used. Mother Nature is allowed to have much more of an influence. Beneficial insects are allowed to flourish to keep pest insects in check. Crop rotations with legumes help maintain fertility and soil microbiology. Weeds are controlled with precision tillage and the old fashioned hoe. The successful organic farm requires much more intensive and innovative management.

One of the many reasons why I concentrate on organic clothing for babies and toddlers. I always say that I believe in making the right choices from the start... but there's no better time than the present to make any change in life. I know that eating organic and living the organic lifestyle can be expensive but anything done in moderation is a step in the right direction. So, know what foods are on the top list for the highest amount of pesticide contamination and chose to purchase those organic instead. In the end, you'll end up saving money for those doctor visits.