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SPRING IS SPRUNG - APRIL's HERE
WELCOME TO THE HEMP SHOP'S APRIL NEWSLETTER
The Sun has got his hat on, summer seems like it's just round the corner and Mike in the office saw his first Swallow yesterday - indeed. It's time to bring on the warmth. We are in the process of updating a whole range of products, with new colours, styles and sizes & below is just a small selection of what's to come. We will also be launching a new website in the next few months and would love to hear from you, our customers & friends who use the site; if you have any top ideas for the new deployment.
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THE HEMP SHOP BRINGS YOU UP TO THE MINUTE (& A GREAT ARCHIVE OF) NEWS,FROM AROUND THE
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Showing posts with label The Hemp Shop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Hemp Shop. Show all posts
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Spring Sale at The Hemp Shop
Friday, December 10, 2010
Just in from the Hemp Shop:
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Sunday, December 28, 2008
Image above is Aimee Nathan, a student at North London Collegiate School who is an environmental activist. She, in contrast to the Tamsin Omond crowd, has got it right, and managed to get publicity without so much as breaking a single law. Her concern is the ubiquitous and iniquitous use of throw away coffee cups, so she simply brings her own to coffee shops. A simple act of genius that can change the way we live without anarchists and police getting involved. Speaking to People, she voices her lament as follows: "We take our environment for granted and waste too much, especially coffee cups. I hope we can show that doing a little thing can make a big difference." She has also organised flash mobs outside coffee shops, much better than grounding aeroports. A few flabbergasted shop assistants are the only casualties! She has also been on Channel 4's Battlefront, and has gained the support of Jodie Marsh. We will work on sending her a hemp bag in the future, and some hemp clothing.
Of course, if she wants to check out her own hemp supplies, here are some suggestions:
Braintree Clothing, overlooking the canal in Camden Market
Minawear Hemp Clothing
GeoMio
Sativa
The Hemp Shop
Of course, if she wants to check out her own hemp supplies, here are some suggestions:
Braintree Clothing, overlooking the canal in Camden Market
Minawear Hemp Clothing
GeoMio
Sativa
The Hemp Shop
Friday, December 19, 2008
ANARCHY IN THE UK
This weekend a friend is staying with me in London before he heads out to Stansted aeroport to catch a flight to Estonia. However, he is taking a chance of having his holidays ruined by spoilt brat rich kids and hooligans who like to get attention by protesting, even when their protest is just ruining people's travels plans. Earlier this month the aptly named Plane Stupid brought 57 people to break the law at Stansted, and brought in turn 52 flights to a standstill. The BBC joked that this was unproductive, as it only takes one person with a bottle of water or other mundane item to bring on a security alert; if Plane Stupid wanted to really wreak havoc, they ought to get jobs as baggage handlers, the presenters joked.
Some questions that arise are: where are the undercover moles to tip off the authorities when Tamsin Omond decides to pull these attention getting stunts and mess up people's travel? Does MI5 or Special Branch not have an eye on these idiots? How were they so easily able to breach aeroport security in this age of uber security?
Tamsin Omond, the scion of one of the richest land owning families in England, seems able to disrupt other people's lives at her whim. And to make it worse, she has the support of the perverts at St. Mary's Church in Primrose Hill, where she has been made church administrator - despite concerns that she is into young girls. But this is the Church of England, where the likes of George Glover, a vicar friend of Tony Blair, rape 11-year-olds, so concerns about this rich brat grooming young girls for her bondage games go unheard. The local curate himself told me that the Bible is not what they go by in that church, so what is their law? Anarchy? Plutocracy?
So no surprise that basic science and the law of the land are not listened to by the Tamsin Omond crowd - do not expect them to wear hemp or use hemp based diesel or ethanol - these are not just attention getting stunts, they are real moves that are based on scientific facts. Hemp activists do not get the attention Plane Stupid does - we do not disrupt aeroports or disrespect the house of worship of any faith.
Real environmental activism does not need to be drama; it is best to have millions of people calmly and methodically working on real objectives. Stay clear of these clowns. Support your local hemp shops, or use a hemp bag next time you shop. By the way, I love doing this, I still have the one I got from Bobby Pugh of The Hemp Shop almost two years ago, the one that says: "Real Eco Bags are made from Hemp." This turns heads everywhere, from Bond Street to Primrose Hill, and people get the message without being stranded at an aeroport by selfish brats.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
TAMIL WEAVER NEEDS OUR SUPPORT
Bobby Pugh of The Hemp Shop emailed me a story about an award winning Indian weaver who is in trouble. Despite his being in the Guinness Book of Records for using the most number of natural fibres in a single woven yarn, the crippling economic times have gotten to him too, and he is under threat of eviction. His creations have included hemp, jute, viscose, banana, bamboo, pineapple, mesta, waterweeds, hessian, sisal and linen. Glad to see cotton is not on that list!
C Sekhar is his name. He is President of the Anakaputhur Jute Weavers' Association. Times are hard in his profession, recently six suicides have created a mood of despair. We can help him out! But as usual, lots of talk and no action - as he notes: "I have met big names, but could never benefit from their promises, which remain unfulfilled."
Next year is the Year of Natural Fibres. In anticipation of it, let's extend our hand to this man and get him back in the chips. It is people like him with experience we need to support, not idle dopers and trendy eco-wanna-bes who make lots of money exploiting cotton.
Monday, September 08, 2008
VEGAN GOODIES
Yesterday the Vegan Fest in London was packed as usual. The talk got under way at 1pm, introduced by Sagar. After some historical remarks about hemp, we then got to the core of the issue, nutrition. Samples of many products were at this point handed out, including the very packs seen to the left - these also came in chocolate and plain. Nutiva had kindly sent these all the way from California, and a Canadian company, Vega, also sent in supplies. No one went hungry, but there were a few unhappy souls who did not quite take kindly to us spilling the beans on soya, which was a feature in the Ecologist. As is often the case, there are people who ask inane questions about the facts, but refuse to read or listen. The Ecologist had also given us a supply of their magazines, which the diehard soya lovers refused to read! Most, however, were happy to have such a good magazine in their hands. A small point made by one of the audience members was that the Good Oil packs had salmon recipes on them, yes, that was just the way Good Oil is, and the owner, Henry Braham, who lives a short walk away from the fest, did not bother to show up - he was off in his 4x4! Not quite the way to go for anyone in the hemp business. We have been trying for years to convince him not to use defoliants on the leaves when he harvests, but he is not one for answering emails or returning calls. Oh well. I can recommend here Hemp Foods for You instead, run by Paul Dean in Glastonbury. He presses his seeds 24 hours before delivery and uses a cold stone. And needless to say, 4x4s are not his means of transport.
But getting back to the controversy, it looks like it upset not just the soya fans at a vegan fest, but the bigwigs in the soya industry are upset too, and are pulling strings behind the scenes to keep other journalists off the story. This is where the Ecologist really shines, it does not have ads for 4x4s and it does not give in to such pressure. Sadly, the press is mostly just a whore for the rich 4x4 driving types, and the little that filters through is but a fraction of the crucial information we need to be getting. The soya issue is one of the most important stories that can be printed, yet it may get lost due to journalistic cowardice. We may see a press blackout on this issue, so it is good to be able to shine some light on this while we can.
Thanks to all the hemp companies that made this happen, those mentioned already and also Sativa Bags, Minawear, Rocky Mountain Grain Products, The Hemp Shop, C-Iced Tea, and Innocent Oils.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
PARTIAL OBSERVERNick Davies of the Guardian wrote movingly of the sister paper in a chapter in his book Flat Earth News; he titled it "The Blinded Observer." It is a litany of sins of the worst kind, and one wonders how anyone can still go out and buy this paper, taking part in the destruction of millions of trees each year to produce this pulp of fiction and fantasy.
By chance, I came across a leftover copy of the Observer Magazine in the launderette. On the cover is the new trendy model who wants everyone to think she is green indeed, so her first name is Eco, just in case one does not get the message. Everything seems to be named green or eco these days, and Katherine "E" Hamnett seems to be leading this trend. She is of course featured in this, I will get to Hamnett in just a bit.
Going page by page one finds incredible irony, it makes one want to scream. After flipping over the cover, we see a picture of the rejected mayor Ken Livingstone with a bicycle held over his head. It is not green, but red, as in Red Ken. But we get the graphic, Ken is supposed to be an eco-warrior. One might just note there are reasons he lost the election, one of which may be that he never listened as the pigeons he starved got sick and became a threat to public health. Flipping overleaf, we then find a double spread for a large car, the kind that takes up precious parking space, the kind that Ken in one of his brighter moments wanted to tax to death. One wonders then if he notices the juxtaposition of him and his red bike with the sleek silver coloured monster he sought to restrict. Previously I noted on this very blog the hypocrisy of these 'lefty-greeny' papers printing so many of these ads, and briefly, Media Watch and George Monbiot made some noise; obviously, no one noticed.
One does not have to flip many pages before another double page spread for yet another leviathan comes to light, this time for a Hyundai 4x4. And it is justified by having some award, maybe for the least polluting 4x4. Who gives these awards?Maybe it is Lucy Siegle, who is giving them out on the next page. Yes, the same Lucy Siegle who called me one night after somebody gave out my number without permission. After protesting, too much methinks, that she really was not so much in support of cotton, and that she read my blog every day and was delighted with my book, I took off some comments made about her, even though my eyewitness stands by his tesimony and pointed me to others who were there and could back up his story. After asking Siegle to back herself up about her claim that she too takes some issue with cotton and Kathine "E" Hamnett, I got the feeling I had fallen for a high pitched con job. Soft hearted bloke I can be, but not a total fool, so the time has come to call her bluff. If she reads this every day, then let her respond - weeks have gone by and she has failed to susbstantiate her claims as I asked. She can post a comment here; but how many times have we written in to the Observer and been ignored when we presented evidence about hemp and Omega 3 oil, hemp and its value as biofuel, hemp and its place in fashion? Not once. So allowing an Observer reporter to reply on my furom is in effect turning the other cheek.
Back to turning pages, I find no evidence at all that Lucy Siegle was honest with me. The awards seem to feature more and more cotton. And the way they work is that companies with lots of money can advertise in such papers and get to the attention of the reader, who in turn votes - based thereby on the amount of money a firm has to attract attention. Observer readers vote for Observer advertisers, like, doh. Turning yet another page in this sham popularity contest for rich kids, we see another toy for them - a Mercedes Benz. So far not one ad for a G Wiz or even a red bike. Just lots of expensice gas guzzlers which use up our resources and drive up the price of a barrel, causing massive economic hardship. Thank you very much indeed Lucy Siegle and the Observer.
And who is Lucy Siegle's pick of eco-politician? Red Ken, pictured on p. 23 with a bottle of champagne. Some of the winners though totally deserve their prize, and I am glad to see common sense prevailed with Tanya Ewing and her wireless Ewgeco, an instrument that measures energy consumption. But where is The Hemp Shop - which Woody Harrelson praised as the best stocked hemp shop he had ever seen - has Lucy Siegle seen it once or even mentioned it? Or Pure Sativa, which manufactures really strong and well designed luggage here in London? Or the exquisite multi-coloured creations of House of Hemp? Most or all of the fashion and textile coverage is on cotton, but then we get to some really good reporting on this once we get past Lucy Siegle. Dan McDougall gives us a fact only article on this weed's growth in Egypt, where child labour is the norm. A large part of this labour involves picking bollworms, and this takes place in the heat of the day. These plants are often drenched in pesticides, and no surprise that "accurate health studies are thin on the ground here."
The children often get no school, only the lash on the back from a foreman. But for all the hard work, there is less and less money. Part of this is due to US subsidies to US cotton farmers, which has occasioned a sharp drop in prices causing Egyptian farmers to lose money in a season. There is also the problem of cotton being overcultivated so there is a glut at times on the market, and whilst I make many arguments against cotton farming, economic reasons alone ought to bring common sense to the equation. McDougall rightly informs us "cotton has a long and chequered history." This history is not getting any better - it went from one form of slavery to another. Now that we have GM crops, the farmers are at the mercy of the seed companies, and I will not enter at large upon so well known a subject here as my readers, Lucy Siegle and Katherine "E" Hamnett included, must already know well the horrors of this.
The article is excellent, but again the strange juxtaposition of a 4x4 add lends an eerie sense of hypocrisy to this. McDougall goes on to talk about food riots, such as the ones in Haiti, but then tells us that there were similar or worse such disturbances in Egypt - at least 60 dead. One source of friction is water use from the Nile, and cotton is thirsty. In a hot country it is a greedy plant like the monster plant in Little Shop of Horrors. This of course causes "economic hardship and growing resentment in the west." Quoting Hamdi Wabid, he writes: "It is becoming apparent that cotton is not an economical crop. Now it's just hurting people - and perhaps most tellingly the environment - badly, and many families are going under."
What the article does not tell us is what to do to change this. A crop that does not attract bollworms and many other pests that cotton does, one which uses less water and can be grown for many uses - that is a solution. I would like to present not only the dark clouds but also the bright sunshine, but it is going to take people like Siegle and Hamnett to take on board facts and not just go and support more cotton farming. OK, Hamnett claims hers is organic, but in reality this uses even more water, and how do we get the bollworms and other insects off ths organic plants? Do we whip these kids to work harder and explain that it is better because it is getting written up in the Observer with lots of trendy people?
Turning the page again, I am face to face with a Lexus, its sleek black body coming out of a background of grey clouds. This is what drives the Observer, and I am sure Lucy Siegle, and the board of directors, are not unaware. Overleaf is brighter, an image of the blonde haired blue eyed Eco Herzigova - whose name I did in green just in case anyone does not notice that she is ECO - which one might just dare to question as she is advertising lots of cotton dresses and has ties to Al Gore. Oh she is happy indeed, probably not thinking at all about how much the cotton attire is depleting the water. Just stick an organic label on it and it's kosher, kind of like a Michael Sophocles chicken. And they are not cheap, a white cotton shirt worn by Eco goes for £314 at Harvey Nichols. And the Stella McCartney floral dress (I can only imagine a whore who smokes organic crack wearing it) goes for £645 at Matches. Page after page of this woman with the happy clappy organic smile has made me indeed depressed. But a good story about a family that went off grid for a month does have substance, and I am glad to see their more sensible faces, not the silly grins from Eco. Then it gets better, Dan Pearson talks sensibly about gardening in London. Here is someone with more than just a smile to get by - he studied at Kew, spent a year at Jerusalem Botanic Garden, worked with Miriam Rothschild, and toiled away in NY on the Lower East Side, where, incidentally, I spent my years, correcting my teacher's spelling at PS 64. Old habits die hard.
Sadly, however, a flip of the page takes me away from such a good bit of botanical ruminations back to the world of Gossypium promotion. A spread with the "top 5 Ethical outfits" looks suspiciously like an infomercial for the top 5 spenders in "eco"-fashion advertising - and these top 5 ethical outfits are not cheap. A sleeveless dress by Peopletree goes for £165 - it is black, quite suitable or a funeral, though cut above the knees. And of course, there is a Katherine "E" Hamnett T shirt, grey with a large slogan in block letters - this goes for £40. Cotton, of course. There is no hemp on this page. In fact there is no hemp at all in this 'ethical' issue. American Apparel, another spender on the ad scene is here, and Stella McCartney is ubiquitous - three out of five of the shoes are her creations - no price given, dare we ask?
Next page spread features Jocelyn Whipple, who does not mention hemp - even though she worked at hemp company for years in LA and is betrothed to Dru Lawson of The Hemp Trading Co. Or was it edited out?
Then on to Katherine "E" Hamnett and her £40 T shirts. Am I being too cynical, or is she ripping us off? Either she is making a killing on profits or else organic cotton is just not feasible. By the way, she reminds me of that very authoritarian teacher at PS 64 whose spelling I used to correct. Few people like it when I do that, but if we are going to have food to eat and not just trends to enthuse over, we need such hardcore reality. Nice to make expensive organic cotton outfits and then give them lots of awards in these lefty papers, but we need water - we need food - we need facts. And there are not being heard when I am nice, so I have to shout and hope someone hears. Mr. Nice Guy gets taken advantage of by the likes of Lucy Siegle, so no more of this game. It has to be reality, and I am not hampered by 4x4 companies, American Apparel, happy clappy organic crack smokers or any other nonsense. This blog is for the fact, the whole facts, and nothing but the facts. If you do not like what I say, and you have facts, then by all means, speak up - comment is free, as the Guardian and Observer like to tell us.
At present the press is working hard to keep the likes of me out of discussion, they prefer the rich and famous who keep wearing cotton. There are those in the press who are on the ball - Andrew Gilligan, Genevieve Roberts, Nat Hentoff, plenty of people who have done a good job, but this pseudo eco brigade is not among them.
By chance, I came across a leftover copy of the Observer Magazine in the launderette. On the cover is the new trendy model who wants everyone to think she is green indeed, so her first name is Eco, just in case one does not get the message. Everything seems to be named green or eco these days, and Katherine "E" Hamnett seems to be leading this trend. She is of course featured in this, I will get to Hamnett in just a bit.
Going page by page one finds incredible irony, it makes one want to scream. After flipping over the cover, we see a picture of the rejected mayor Ken Livingstone with a bicycle held over his head. It is not green, but red, as in Red Ken. But we get the graphic, Ken is supposed to be an eco-warrior. One might just note there are reasons he lost the election, one of which may be that he never listened as the pigeons he starved got sick and became a threat to public health. Flipping overleaf, we then find a double spread for a large car, the kind that takes up precious parking space, the kind that Ken in one of his brighter moments wanted to tax to death. One wonders then if he notices the juxtaposition of him and his red bike with the sleek silver coloured monster he sought to restrict. Previously I noted on this very blog the hypocrisy of these 'lefty-greeny' papers printing so many of these ads, and briefly, Media Watch and George Monbiot made some noise; obviously, no one noticed.
One does not have to flip many pages before another double page spread for yet another leviathan comes to light, this time for a Hyundai 4x4. And it is justified by having some award, maybe for the least polluting 4x4. Who gives these awards?Maybe it is Lucy Siegle, who is giving them out on the next page. Yes, the same Lucy Siegle who called me one night after somebody gave out my number without permission. After protesting, too much methinks, that she really was not so much in support of cotton, and that she read my blog every day and was delighted with my book, I took off some comments made about her, even though my eyewitness stands by his tesimony and pointed me to others who were there and could back up his story. After asking Siegle to back herself up about her claim that she too takes some issue with cotton and Kathine "E" Hamnett, I got the feeling I had fallen for a high pitched con job. Soft hearted bloke I can be, but not a total fool, so the time has come to call her bluff. If she reads this every day, then let her respond - weeks have gone by and she has failed to susbstantiate her claims as I asked. She can post a comment here; but how many times have we written in to the Observer and been ignored when we presented evidence about hemp and Omega 3 oil, hemp and its value as biofuel, hemp and its place in fashion? Not once. So allowing an Observer reporter to reply on my furom is in effect turning the other cheek.
Back to turning pages, I find no evidence at all that Lucy Siegle was honest with me. The awards seem to feature more and more cotton. And the way they work is that companies with lots of money can advertise in such papers and get to the attention of the reader, who in turn votes - based thereby on the amount of money a firm has to attract attention. Observer readers vote for Observer advertisers, like, doh. Turning yet another page in this sham popularity contest for rich kids, we see another toy for them - a Mercedes Benz. So far not one ad for a G Wiz or even a red bike. Just lots of expensice gas guzzlers which use up our resources and drive up the price of a barrel, causing massive economic hardship. Thank you very much indeed Lucy Siegle and the Observer.
And who is Lucy Siegle's pick of eco-politician? Red Ken, pictured on p. 23 with a bottle of champagne. Some of the winners though totally deserve their prize, and I am glad to see common sense prevailed with Tanya Ewing and her wireless Ewgeco, an instrument that measures energy consumption. But where is The Hemp Shop - which Woody Harrelson praised as the best stocked hemp shop he had ever seen - has Lucy Siegle seen it once or even mentioned it? Or Pure Sativa, which manufactures really strong and well designed luggage here in London? Or the exquisite multi-coloured creations of House of Hemp? Most or all of the fashion and textile coverage is on cotton, but then we get to some really good reporting on this once we get past Lucy Siegle. Dan McDougall gives us a fact only article on this weed's growth in Egypt, where child labour is the norm. A large part of this labour involves picking bollworms, and this takes place in the heat of the day. These plants are often drenched in pesticides, and no surprise that "accurate health studies are thin on the ground here."
The children often get no school, only the lash on the back from a foreman. But for all the hard work, there is less and less money. Part of this is due to US subsidies to US cotton farmers, which has occasioned a sharp drop in prices causing Egyptian farmers to lose money in a season. There is also the problem of cotton being overcultivated so there is a glut at times on the market, and whilst I make many arguments against cotton farming, economic reasons alone ought to bring common sense to the equation. McDougall rightly informs us "cotton has a long and chequered history." This history is not getting any better - it went from one form of slavery to another. Now that we have GM crops, the farmers are at the mercy of the seed companies, and I will not enter at large upon so well known a subject here as my readers, Lucy Siegle and Katherine "E" Hamnett included, must already know well the horrors of this.
The article is excellent, but again the strange juxtaposition of a 4x4 add lends an eerie sense of hypocrisy to this. McDougall goes on to talk about food riots, such as the ones in Haiti, but then tells us that there were similar or worse such disturbances in Egypt - at least 60 dead. One source of friction is water use from the Nile, and cotton is thirsty. In a hot country it is a greedy plant like the monster plant in Little Shop of Horrors. This of course causes "economic hardship and growing resentment in the west." Quoting Hamdi Wabid, he writes: "It is becoming apparent that cotton is not an economical crop. Now it's just hurting people - and perhaps most tellingly the environment - badly, and many families are going under."
What the article does not tell us is what to do to change this. A crop that does not attract bollworms and many other pests that cotton does, one which uses less water and can be grown for many uses - that is a solution. I would like to present not only the dark clouds but also the bright sunshine, but it is going to take people like Siegle and Hamnett to take on board facts and not just go and support more cotton farming. OK, Hamnett claims hers is organic, but in reality this uses even more water, and how do we get the bollworms and other insects off ths organic plants? Do we whip these kids to work harder and explain that it is better because it is getting written up in the Observer with lots of trendy people?
Turning the page again, I am face to face with a Lexus, its sleek black body coming out of a background of grey clouds. This is what drives the Observer, and I am sure Lucy Siegle, and the board of directors, are not unaware. Overleaf is brighter, an image of the blonde haired blue eyed Eco Herzigova - whose name I did in green just in case anyone does not notice that she is ECO - which one might just dare to question as she is advertising lots of cotton dresses and has ties to Al Gore. Oh she is happy indeed, probably not thinking at all about how much the cotton attire is depleting the water. Just stick an organic label on it and it's kosher, kind of like a Michael Sophocles chicken. And they are not cheap, a white cotton shirt worn by Eco goes for £314 at Harvey Nichols. And the Stella McCartney floral dress (I can only imagine a whore who smokes organic crack wearing it) goes for £645 at Matches. Page after page of this woman with the happy clappy organic smile has made me indeed depressed. But a good story about a family that went off grid for a month does have substance, and I am glad to see their more sensible faces, not the silly grins from Eco. Then it gets better, Dan Pearson talks sensibly about gardening in London. Here is someone with more than just a smile to get by - he studied at Kew, spent a year at Jerusalem Botanic Garden, worked with Miriam Rothschild, and toiled away in NY on the Lower East Side, where, incidentally, I spent my years, correcting my teacher's spelling at PS 64. Old habits die hard.
Sadly, however, a flip of the page takes me away from such a good bit of botanical ruminations back to the world of Gossypium promotion. A spread with the "top 5 Ethical outfits" looks suspiciously like an infomercial for the top 5 spenders in "eco"-fashion advertising - and these top 5 ethical outfits are not cheap. A sleeveless dress by Peopletree goes for £165 - it is black, quite suitable or a funeral, though cut above the knees. And of course, there is a Katherine "E" Hamnett T shirt, grey with a large slogan in block letters - this goes for £40. Cotton, of course. There is no hemp on this page. In fact there is no hemp at all in this 'ethical' issue. American Apparel, another spender on the ad scene is here, and Stella McCartney is ubiquitous - three out of five of the shoes are her creations - no price given, dare we ask?
Next page spread features Jocelyn Whipple, who does not mention hemp - even though she worked at hemp company for years in LA and is betrothed to Dru Lawson of The Hemp Trading Co. Or was it edited out?
Then on to Katherine "E" Hamnett and her £40 T shirts. Am I being too cynical, or is she ripping us off? Either she is making a killing on profits or else organic cotton is just not feasible. By the way, she reminds me of that very authoritarian teacher at PS 64 whose spelling I used to correct. Few people like it when I do that, but if we are going to have food to eat and not just trends to enthuse over, we need such hardcore reality. Nice to make expensive organic cotton outfits and then give them lots of awards in these lefty papers, but we need water - we need food - we need facts. And there are not being heard when I am nice, so I have to shout and hope someone hears. Mr. Nice Guy gets taken advantage of by the likes of Lucy Siegle, so no more of this game. It has to be reality, and I am not hampered by 4x4 companies, American Apparel, happy clappy organic crack smokers or any other nonsense. This blog is for the fact, the whole facts, and nothing but the facts. If you do not like what I say, and you have facts, then by all means, speak up - comment is free, as the Guardian and Observer like to tell us.
At present the press is working hard to keep the likes of me out of discussion, they prefer the rich and famous who keep wearing cotton. There are those in the press who are on the ball - Andrew Gilligan, Genevieve Roberts, Nat Hentoff, plenty of people who have done a good job, but this pseudo eco brigade is not among them.
Monday, April 21, 2008
REVIEW OF ECO-CHIC: THE FASHION PARADOX
This book, with almost the same name as a book published earlier this year by Matilda Lee of the Ecologist, finally gives a bit of space to hemp. Sandy Black is the author, and she appears to have done a good bit of research, albeit UK-centric, and one might note rather Brighton-centric at that. The bulk of the book is on cotton/organic cotton, and yes there is mention of the fact that cotton drinks up too much water, there is even an image of the Aral Sea, showing its depletion.
Chapters tend to feature specific designers, and as such tend to read as infomercials, complete with full colour pictures from their ads, with some emaciated looking models. This is a paperback coffee table book, but not just all images and breezy text, it serves as a history of the UK eco-fashion industry from the late '90s to the present. The very good resource guide and somewhat good bibliography (it does include Hemp for Victory, which was pointed out to her by Bobby Pugh of The Hemp Shop in Brighton). There is no index, sadly.
Hemp is mentioned on pp. 21, 42, 62, and 126-131. There was a fair amount of effort put into this, going so far as to feature THTC quote Mina Hegaard and Chris Conrad, but marred by the obvious inconsistency of stating on one page that hemp cultivation was illegal in the UK, then talking about hemp cultivation in the UK, along with a picture of such; which those in the know assert is from Bobby Pugh's hemp farm in the mid-'90s.
Sandy Black is well known in the UK for her work in fashion, and this book will be passed around and read by fashionistas from Brighton to Glasgow. What she has had to say about hemp has been basically positive and accurate, but one does wish she had said more, or used images of hemp clothing rather than images of buds, leaves and a farm.
Eco-Chic is published by Black Dog Press, London. 4to, pbck, pp. 256. ISBN- 978 1 906155 09 4
£24.95/$39.95
Friday, February 15, 2008
KOSHER PAPER
Just got the invite from Eco, and though it was not on hemp paper, it was certainly unique: elephant dung. The pachyderm scat is my pass to a great night of meeting fellow environmentalists and the press.
Speaking of paper, Zac Goldsmith replied to the petition several of us signed asking for the involvement of the Ecologist. Zac recognised the Treefree paper we used, made by John Hanson, who knows his uncle well.
My own collection of hemp paper was added to recently by a few sheets of handmade paper from South Dakota, made by the Lakota Indians, the folks who want their land back from the settlers who grabbed it a century or so ago. Bobby Pugh of The Hemp Shop emailed me to tell me Wookey Hole, a specialy paper company in the UK, is set to close, so I am running out to order any of their remaining stock of hemp paper.
When I get time I will then collate them as swatches in a book on hemp paper. And if I get a large enough living room, I will put in an elephant and feed it hemp. Their stomachs are natural paper pulpers. The dried dung is then pulped and made into sheets, the cellulose having been treated already in the digestion process. Of course, I'll have to get permission from my landlord to have pets.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
REVIEW OF ECO CHICThe last review was not that positive, scathing might have been the word, and I am afraid this one is not going to be laudatory. However, Matilda Lee does go a lot further than the hapless Tamsin Blanchard - she has an index and cites her sources, which gives this some credibility.
Ms. Lee works at the Ecologist, which is a much more serious publication than the Independent, where Blanchard toiled away watching catwalks and size zero models. The former publication is very well researched, and went to the trouble to seek me out last year to give me a half page colour advert for the hemp eco bag - free! They were not just a bunch of mercenaries, but genuinely committed eco-journalists. At one time, they even printed part of an issue on John Hanson's Treefree hemp paper.
Their ethos does not seem to have rubbed off on Ms. Lee however. Nor, I take it, has she taken on board any of what I had to say when I had a conversation with her about hemp - she basically snubbed her nose at it and seemed offended - many Americans working in the eco movement do not really want any competition for US based businesses, so they serve as gatekeepers; Lee is from the Homeland, which does not even allow its citizens to grow hemp at all.
Mention of hemp in her book is limited, not surprising when Katherine Hamnett writes the foreword. Hamnett was exposed to hemp but decided to promote environmentally destructive cotton instead, now raising organic cotton which depletes the water in third world countries, even more so than non-organic cotton. Discussion of hemp is limited to pp. 122, 125-7, 186 & 210. All of this does start with a positive note, as Lee states that a UK hemp industry would decrease the transport of fabric to the UK. This statement, however, demands more information supplied, as the move to initiate a UK hemp textile industry is not an easy one. Further discussion of the UK hemp industry on pp. 125-127 fails to mention the use of hemp seed in the statistics, and then we are led to believe that BioRegional is in a project with Hemcore to cultivate hemp for fabric on 1,214 hectares - which would be, by Lee's previous data, 60+% of the total UK harvest. There is also the statement that there is no mill in the UK with experience with spinning, knitting or weaving hemp - again - Lee needs to do more checking. Huddersfield is mentioned as a place for a future BioRegional project, but could well have been given space for the very beautiful hemp fabrics being created there by Katie Knill, who for some reason was not at all consulted in this book. Get your facts right! Going back to BioRegional, they did indeed run field trials, twice in the last 10 years, but each trial involved 10 acres or so, and neither has produced much fibre. Let me here shed some light on this - I came along to view the second field trial, and saw that they really were not getting this together - so I asked if they had read any books about retting and production of fibre. They then just shrugged their shoulders, and I suspect that the reading list I gave them has been thrown away. They are far from cultivating 1,214 acres of anything, and far from producing fibre, though their efforts did not go completely in vain, they produced research reports, one of which was written up in the Journal of Industrial Hemp. Lee does not appear to have read any of this. Sadly, what happens is that misinformation gets repeated and repeated, and I will no doubt be hearing more and more of this airy fairy tale, repeated with great authority as people take Lee and some clap happy fashion editors as gospel.
I do like Lee's choice of words on occasion, she does succeed in making me laugh, as when she asserts: "...there is an issue of contaminating the spinning mills with hemp fibres."
The last mention of hemp is on p. 210, where she starts off by mentioning the Anya Hindmarch bag, along with the Onya bag - which she perhaps fails to realise is plastic. No mention of the eco hemp bag that her magazine so graciously promoted for me - she did not have far to go to find out about this one!
Another aspect of her book that is poorly researched is the resouce guide, she omits such vendors as The Hemp Shop, Sativa, Minawear, GeoMio. Omission of The Hemp Shop in particular shows a callous lack of regard for the history of the eco movement - it has been around the longest of any existing hemp shops in the UK and the proprietor, Bobby Pugh, not only was a founder of the hemp movement here but was also a hemp farmer; it was he who manufactured the hemp eco bags that the Ecologist promoted gratis as a real gesture of their stance on the environment. But I guess Lee was out of the office that month.
On the way are two more books in this genre, including one with the same main title as Lee's, and the way things are going, I do not expect to be writing ecstatic praise. The trouble with the eco movement is that there is no end of celebrities and self promoting fools, but those who do the research are often ignored, and this may have something to do with the budget of the cotton industry. The eco movement is much like an army where none of the recruits want to do basic training, but are eager to shoot off weapons in all directions. I recommend that Lee go back to boot camp and take agriculture 101 and science 101 before she writes a book on textiles.
REVIEW OF GREEN IS THE NEW BLACK
This is one of many books published recently which purport to tell us the truth about eco-fashion. The author, Tamsin Blanchard, was fashion editor of the Independent, and with that much information I might have guessed how shallow this thing would be. There are lots of cutesy touches to the layout, but that does not make for substance; the style does not intone much depth either.
The book dwells on cotton, without so much as a single mention of the water needs of cotton, or the fact that organic cotton needs yet more water, thus destroying the livelihoods of more farmers worldwide - or at least in areas that Ms. Blanchard does not reside or visit. She lives in the UK, where cotton has never been farmed, and travels to Paris, NY and other fashion hotspots. No cotton plantations there either, just lots of mad fashionistas destroying the planet with their excess.
So is this book some form of atonement? From the remarks in the introduction, and the foreword by Lily Cole, it does seem that way. If so, it only adds the sins of omission to the sins of comission. The multitude of happy-clappy words here do not go far towards helping the environmental movement at all. And, as some might say is an unforgivable sin, there is no index, and do not expect any source notes. The resource guides serve to promote the businesses of certain parties, such as those who advertise in the Independent or the Telegraph (where the author now works). Katherine Hamnett is praised to high heaven, whilst others are ignored. Again, this might have to do with how much money they spent on papers and their high-flying reviewers.
Hemp is not totally ignored, however, there is mention of it on pp. 16,42,115,155,213,220 & 221. Generally, there is a negative tone towards hemp, which makes it strange that on p. 155 she claims it is her favourite fabric. Is there an editor in the house? She does at least mention The Hemp Shop, but then completely omits this venue in the resource guide - neither does she mention The Hemp Trading Company, Minawear, Sativa, or many other hemp businesses. Enamore, Equa, Patagonia and Howies are given some space, but all of these deal in cotton/silk and other fibres as well.
While Blanchard rather dismisses hemp as a designer fabric, she makes some concession to it as a tough option for luggage, but not much mention of it as bag material, despite the fact that there is a bag war on in London, and that hemp bags have made news upstaging the Anya Hindmach bag - there was even a piece in the Independent in April 2007 about what a disgrace the Anya bag was, but I guess Blanchard does not bother to read what is going on around her.
Ethical silk is mentioned, but again, ignorance is shown here, as she completely omits mention of ethical silk makers other than herself - and does not explain how her farming methods are in any way ethical when she uses artificial mulberry leaves to start with, and then allows the moths to hatch here in the UK where she claims there is not the proper food for them. But the subsequent starvation of the larvae is of no more concern to her than the starvation of the people whose land has been used for cotton, organic or otherwise.
Sad, but not unlike so many other Jane-come-latelies to the eco movement. These new recruits need to go to boot camp and learn some basic facts before they write a book.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
HEMP ON THE BEEB
BBC TWO will feature hemp tomorrow and Friday, 20/21 December on the Working Lunch Programme, 12:30 or 1 pm. Recently on BBC Radio a woman was on talking about hemp and was able to tell the truth about all this 'organic cotton' - she noted that it used more land than cotton grown with pesticides and therefore used more water! But the hippy-trippy happy-clappers do not want to know, as long as they can go on with the greenwash they are not bovvered. Click here to be taken to Working Lunch.
HFV wants to give a welcome to the new kid on the block in terms of blogs, and that is http://www.jessthekid.blogspot.com/. this is run by a 9-year-old girl who is making fun of the press! In an interview with Jessica, she told me she was going to be wathching their moves and posting on her blog when they get it wrong. Jess, you're gonna be one busy girl...
Her tone is that of a St Trinian's girl with a brain, and speaking of that venerable institution of higher learning, check out the new St Trinian's movie, out this Friday (21/12). Colin Firth, who owns the soon to be opened Eco Shop in London, is playing the Education Minister in it. His last film, "When was the last time you saw your Father", includes Bobby Pugh of The Hemp Shop playing a cameo role.
Monday, December 10, 2007
HOW GREEN IS THE TIMES?
This Saturday an article in the Times by Anna Shepard starts off with a very good question - How Green is my bag? It then fails completely to give an answer. It talks about cottton bags made by rich people like a certain member of the Bush family, on sale for £35 at Harrods, and the Anya Hindmarch bag - which Anna might know, if she read her own paper, was a disaster made in Chinese sweatshops. Click here for a link.
If she read up on her subject she just might have mentioned hemp - or even jute and ramie, but the world is full of these journalists and only an idiot believes that they know about everything they sound off about in the papers. Especially if that paper is the Times, and happens to be printed on wood pulp paper. It is not that hard to produce hemp paper, individuals do it all the time and the Ecologist used such paper in one of their issues.
Slowly, people are waking up to the fact that cotton is an environmentally destructive plant and that the press, including some of the 'eco-mags' are not telling us the truth. Many in the 'green' circles are just not aware of this at all - including Al Gore and George Monbiot. The former made a fool of himself in London as he barged in and kicked invited guests off the guests list and barred the press from asking questions - especially inconvenient ones; he got paid $100,000 for this charade, and anyone stupid enough to hire him deserves to lose a little money. For one thing, the sight of another green hypocrite dressed up in cotton, after having flown thousands of miles to get his cheque, is enough to start a riot; which almost occured after Monbiot's speech at the US Embassy on 8 December, as a group called We Are Change tried to get him to talk facts about things. I left before they started on him, but not without waving a sign about hemp and showing my hemp bag, the one that says: "Real Eco Bags are made from Hemp". It got knowing looks from a lot of people. Much as I wanted to wear it to the Gore event, they were not letting many people in and probably would have had me tasered, just like the student in Florida who asked an inconvenient question of John Kerry. Brave New World indeed. More like 1984.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
DRESS CODE
The Big Green Gathering this year was better than ever, and lots of us were wearing outfits made from hemp, bamboo, and other natural fibres. After my talk a botanist told me about his interest in nettles, ouch!, but yes, they too can produce fine threads. Someone else there makes living silk, having gone to India to train silkworms to make threads without being killed.
I was able to wear all green, with a tie-dye from Minawear, trousers from Braintree UK, a shirt from THTC and a backpack from Sativa. The Hemp Shop's 100% organic eco bag, as featured in the Ecologist and Positive News, was also in hand.
Hemp and other fibres such as jute and ramie are gaining ground, though sadly, most people still wear mass produced cotton which is killing people in India, China, Uzbekistan, Egypt, the US, etc. A new website dedicated to information on all of these has just started in London and is well worth taking a look at - http://www.hempandnaturalfibres.ning.com/
We love to publish images of anyone's sartorial choiced in natural fibres, send in any to me at cotingas@hotmail.com and we will gladly publish them on the site, with a link to the manufacturer if you wish.
Monday, July 23, 2007
HEMP IN NEW YORK
This month hemp has been making news in New York City. After Anya Hindmarch sold her bags to lots of people lined up outside of Whole Foods, a hemp bag was seen on the shoulders of some women in New York, and it casually stated: "REAL ECO BAGS ARE MADE FROM HEMP". Having the real thing, none of these ladies wasted any time on the line for the Anya bag. Ironically, people buying the Anya bag, supposedly to to something green, were asking the shop for plastic bags to put them in. Then they went and sold them on Ebay. A limited edition of how many million? The REAL ECO BAG was made in an edition of less than 200, and sold exclusively to Ecologist and Positive News readers. John Vidal, environment editor of the Guardian, suggested (jokingly) we send one to Posh, but sorry ma'am, we ran out. Next time we do a run we'll keep you in mind...
On Saturday, 21 July, the New York Times put a story on the front page about the struggle for hemp in North Dakota. NORML posted it on their site in its entirety, save for the photo, click here to view. It is a well written piece, the author, Monica Davey, obviously took the time to get the facts. Technical details and irony give her piece the character of a good front page piece, and I would hope that more pieces like this appear in the press.
The bag on the shoulder of this young woman was made from Romanian hemp, 100% organic, and manufactured in the UK by Bobby Pugh of The Hemp Shop. It and similar bags will be carried by Minawear in the US. Hopefully, however, the hemp can be made in the USA and grown in the USA. American farmers are getting sick of the DEA and its red tape, and some of them, like Dave Monson, are taking the government to court.
Later next month, on 21-23 August, there will be a public event in support of hemp called Lakota Hemp Days, click here to be taken to site. While that event promises to much of a young, music driven, 'leftie' event, Dave Monson and other hemp activists are very much 'right-wingers'. What we are seeing is that hemp rises above politics, and has broad support. Americans really want a profitable crop that does not require pesticides, and as hemp can be used for food, paper, textiles, medicine and energy, there is great demand for it.
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