Silk

[oothoona]

Does anyone know anything about the ethics/environmental impact of silk? I think most of the time I do OK as regards my use of animal products; I avoid flesh food fairly strictly, for a start. Most of the eggs I eat are from hens I know, and most of the milk I drink is organic. I am fairly unrestrained with cheese, admittedly, and I take fish oil

Comments

[the_shadow298]

As Terry Prachett said in The Thief of Time we have at least one acception to our personal rules and morality (such as nougah doesn't count).

This does make people hyocrites, per se, just human.

But at least you show concern for the manufacture and production of the silk, which is more then almost everybody, including myself, who loves to wear silk (it's so nice).

If you do have major morality concerns about silk clothing manufacture, I recommend looking for more tradional Japanese Eastern Chinese hand spins.
May cost a lot more but they are so beautiful and involve no Sweat Shop labour. :)

Anyway, these are just my thoughts on the matter.
I know that you will always do the right thing. :)

Catch ya
Shadow

[stealthflower]

You need one of these!

Mmm, I think I do too.

[subtle_eye]

It's a case of pick your poison.

Silk is made with a highly labour intensive process, which unless you're paying an extortionate amount for silk means the workers are paid very, very little and may be working under unethical conditions.

Cotton however, is manufactured in an extremely industrialised fashion, with heavy use of pesticides and chemical fertilisers. It's atrocious for the environment, and probably outputs a lot of carbon in it's production.

Of course, this is just the raw fabric manufacture. Finding garments not Made in China under near sweatshop conditions. Well made silk clothes are again, less likely to be made with unethical labour.

My money is on the silk.

[anidan]

To get the silk out of the cocoons they boil the little buggers alive. Otherwise the moth eats its way out and ruins the strand. A cocoon is made from a single strand of silk up to 300m in length. So, technically, silk is a nasty thing for a vegan to wear. I do know that if you see a garment labelled 'wild silk' it's a piece of crap, because there are no longer any wild silk moths in China due to intensive farming. All that aside, silk is beautiful, not nearly as fragile as people think (the fibre is a triangular shape and very strong, the Chinese army uses silk as ballistic armour instead of Kevlar because it is cheaper and has similar impact resistance) and nothing else on the planet has the same lustre or drape. I love sewing with silk. Silk duchesse satin is divine and I adore it, very heavy and workable.

[anidan]

Oh yeah, cotton is most definitely less nice to the environment than silk due to the water and chemicals used in the growing process. The ginning process (taking it from raw fibre to yarn) is labour intensive and either uses huge machines (people have died inside cotton gins by the way) or lots of people

[bagg_lady]

ahhh the moral delima - well silk is good to wear, because it is natural and biodegradible. Yes, the mothies do die, but it turn it inot fabric may be part of traditional cultural practices. and yes you are keeping people employed and whilst you may worry about the silk merchants, I think the entire textile trade is, well, rather dodgey. So on this basis you may only have one alternative and NOT wear clothes ;-p he heh i'd like to see that!