Organic Tweed Kilts!

[WClarkB]

only tweed mill to date to be certified organic by the Soil Association.
M

I take it that the remaining mills must be producing INORGANIC tweed?

[JamieKerr]

I...was not aware that wool isn't organic!

[Bugbear]

I...was not aware that wool isn't organic!

Sounds like this is about the dying and the processing of the wool, and possibly even the feeding of the sheep.

I don't know anything for sure though.

[tyger]

Read all about "organic" and the soil association here:

http://www.soilassociation.org/

Not to go off-topic, but here you have the presently fashionable "climate change" awareness orientation applied to agriculture. It really got its start in the 1960s. There will be a lot more of this in years to come. Don't get hung up on the fact that predictable and cyclic climate change that has been going on for at least 300 billion years (see footnote). Most folks just don't want to hear about that!

But the "organic" orientation does have merit in that farmers should be encouraged to prevention errosion, minimalize pollution, and maximize sustainable small-plot production. They also should be encouraged to earn a profit, and charge a premium for a quality product whose supply is limited. Those facets of operation are are worthy of reward. We did that quite naturally not all that many years ago.


Footnote.
+ If you ever get to visit the Céide Fields in North Mayo, upstairs in the visitors center you will find one of the most fascinating displays that illustrates cyclical climate change that has occurred over billions of years. The bogs of northwest Ireland didn't exist not so long ago. The land was covered by huge forests. Small plots of land were cleared and planted. However, something happened (climate change) and in the present era, bogs predominate. Don't forget: the Gulf Stream once poured into the coast of Spain and Portugal. The islands known as Ireland and UK were uninhabitable. As the Gulf Stream shifted toward the islands, people migrated to the land as it thawed, and settled there. The earth warms, cools, and warms. It has done it long before there were many people, or people at all.

[WClarkB]

Read all about "organic" and the soil association here:

http://www.soilassociation.org/

Not to go off-topic, but here you have the presently fashionable "climate change" awareness orientation applied to agriculture. It really got its start in the 1960s. There will be a lot more of this in years to come. Don't get hung up on the fact that predictable and cyclic climate change that has been going on for at least 300 billion years (see footnote). Most folks just don't want to hear about that!

But the "organic" orientation does have merit in that farmers should be encouraged to prevention errosion, minimalize pollution, and maximize sustainable small-plot production. They also should be encouraged to earn a profit, and charge a premium for a quality product whose supply is limited. Those facets of operation are are worthy of reward. We did that quite naturally not all that many years ago.

Soil conservation, as least as a named government program in the USA started in the 30's with the "Soil Bank" after the Dust Bowl years.

People did it then, NOT, because they had some imagined benefit to humans to be "organic" but to the sustainability of their major asset: THE LAND. The question is to my mind is NOT whether some practices could be called "organic" or any other invented or misused term but whether there is an advantage to us humans in the long run.
Should people pay more for food that is no better for them? Perhaps not. Should people be rewarded for preserving a resource for future generations to exploit. Perhaps.
Is there a benefit to "organic food;" Is it BETTER in some way. Not that has ever been shown.
Finding trace contaminants does not constitute a defect in the food. Were that so, they would have been banned. I lament the fuzzy thinking that has people convinced without evidence that "organic" (whatever that may actually mean) has a benefit for those who are asked to pay more to keep from starving.

[tyger]

I take it that the remaining mills must be producing INORGANIC tweed?

When it comes to the missconceptions, and outright hoax regarding "organics", or "climate change", you and I won't find much to disagree upon. I have never seen an inorganic apple either.

From what I can see, the UK soil association is much different from ours. I think any of us would be on the right track by farming a species in this case sheep- that promotes wise husbandry and land conservation. That has pretty much become more than just a fashion now because....it works so well! I have no trouble recognizing and supporting the fact that certain species are better farmed on certain land types. For grazing animals, this usually means sheep, goats, or bison rather than cattle. As I understand the UK organization, they have extended 'organic' to include this practice.

Like others, I don't agree with the broad and loose "organic" label. Nor do I agree with the other medical and agricultural missnomers, but nobody asked me to come up with a better word or term. (If I ever get diagnosed with prostatic hyperplasia, I am going to ask: "Well, how many prostates do I have?")

I like the fabric, I don't care what anybody else calls it. Now, about all that 100% synthetic wool................