Organic-Ally

I am often not sure whether to worry about climate change given all the conflicting evidence, lobbying and mud-slinging. (See earlier post.) But I believe that doing something positive for the earth, to preserve its fertility cannot be bad. After all, the earth "belongs to the Lord". As my son once said when he was six: "There is no right in doing wrong and there is no wrong in doing right." So these two Telegraph articles are interesting: Britain facing food crisis as world's soil 'vanishes in 60 years' and Spend more on food rather than holidays, says organic lobby . When it's gone, it's gone. No soil to farm with. No water to irrigate. No food is to be grown. What good is the ability to buy cheap clothes when you cannot farm food to eat? Can you eat your cheap clothes? We are looking forward to our "holiday" (aka visit to my home country) which we try to do once in two years. My son knows no other "foreign holidays" apar...

Since the start of this 'swine flu' scare, there has been an increase in the government-sponsored advertising with the slogan 'Catch it. Bin it. Kill it'. Well, it has certainly killed much of my hankie business which is usually in full flow this time of year, it being hayfever season. And you know what is even more exasperating? They are using MY tax money to bring you this advertising, effectively ruining my business. This admonition to 'bin it' suggests that disposable tissue paper is more hygienic than cloth hankies. One school website says explicitly that cloth hankies are to be avoided. But when was the last time you disinfected a piece of tissue paper? So, being the researcher that I am I took a closer look at my internet search results for 'swine flu and hankie'. Here are some of my conclusions: (1) The habit of covering one's mouth with a hankie or tissue when one sneezes or coughs is no longer a habit amongst some of the younger people in...

It's a bit like the British troops in Singapore pointing their guns in a southerly direction and the Japanese troops attacked from their north, via Johore, on their push-bikes. I was talking about the bird flu a lot and now we hear the pandemic is of swine flu. My husband is permanently on immuno-suppressant and you can understand some of the anxiety in our household. He also goes to work on the Tube every day. He is very vulnerable. The authorities have been promoting the use of tissue paper, something about binning it after we've blown our nose. My instinctive feel (rightly or wrongly) is used tissue paper left in open bins are just as great a health risk. Of course I have vested interests. I want people to buy my lovely organic cotton hankies (now with embroidery!!). The thing is if one is not mindful of one's hygiene, paper tissues and hankies are equally bad. At least, one's cloth hankies are usually isolated in one's pockets. I remember my first impression of ...

What a surprise to read this! Not. Big Agriculture takes umbrage at Mrs Obama's organic garden Back to Organic-Ally . Become our fan on Facebook .

Malawi strikes organic gold What a marvellous story. This and other stories like this formed part of the impetus for me to start up Organic-Ally . Some scientists might pooh-pooh the idea about going organic, that we cannot feed ourselves, etc. Well, maybe if we ate less but ate better? Or how about eating less meat so that we could share the grain around? I am a meat-eater, I must put my hand up to that, but I am also conscious that our family do not eat huge slabs of meat every day. The other issue is of course scientists who focus on GM and conventional agriculture work on a very different scale whem compared with the smallholder farmers. The latter have a different set of problems and their problems need a different set of solutions. There is a Chinese proverb that roughtly translates as "a long barge pole could knock everyone off the barge" (akin to not tarring everyone with the same brush). It's easy to understand the mentality that we must not "rock the boat...

This bit of information has come at a good time for me, and so I'm sharing it. Our family have slowly over the past years switched to using greener, organic skincare, shower lotions, etc. My son and I have switched to organic toothpaste without all the foaming ingredients. Husband is a bit slower to change. I think this is because I remember my first toothpaste as being a 'cake' of powdery stuff in a little flat circular case. We rubbed the toothbrush onto this cake till we had enough on the brush. This toothpaste -- like the one I now use -- often leaves a residue on the toothbrush because it does not get 'foamed away'. That is why I still have the habit of tapping my tooth brush rather hard on the edge of the sink to get rid of this residue. You can now save £5 at Green People on orders over £35 when you apply this code AF27740957 at checkout. Code expires on 31st January 2009 . Back to Organic-Ally . Become our fan on Facebook .

Many years ago at university someone -- who's now someone very important in Singapore -- said to me, "You have old men and women who like to tell stories, and young boys and girls who like listening to stories. Why not just put the two together?" There are scientists who argue organic agriculture will not solve the world's food problems because there is not enough people to do the labour. Or it gets too expensive. In the UK we have an exploding prison population and concerns that prisoners do not get to spend more than an hour outside their cell. Why not put these prisoners to work in organic farms? Lots of sunshine (are you seriously talking about the UK?) and fresh air to give them lots of exercise. Tire them out and keep them out of trouble and off the drugs. Why not? Prison has become so comfortable that for some it's a better place than to be on the streets. I hear stories that illegal migrants controlled by 'gangmasters' prefer a prison bed to themse...

Hats off to these young people for their cooking skills. I am suitably impressed. While five of the team were slaving at the cotton mill, Amrita who found herself allergic to this work took to the market and cooked up a meal for the team. No one complained, so the food -- which looked good -- must be good. Several of the team members complained about headaches. It might be the sun, or it could be the pesticides, we will never know. Apart from finding it difficult to complete the task set for them, leading to the owner of the mill having to resort to asking his regular workers to work overtime, there was also the ongoing dispute over who should clean up the toilet. The girls insisted that the boys had blocked it up and the boys insisted it was the toilet tissue used. No one -- and nothing -- budged. So the stand-off and stench continued. By the end of the programme we still didn't know how it was resolved. But a plumber would cost 120 rupees. It just reminded me of how boys and plum...

I was ironing a shirt and I thought, hmm, the colour is a bit faded. I've had some of these shirts for so long. They are cotton, but not organic, with pretty lace on the collars and sleeves. I bought these years ago before I knew that conventional cotton was harming the environment. B are still sending me catalogues and I have studiously avoided their cotton and polyester clothes in recent years. I must confess that some (not all) of their styles appeal to me. More importantly they do clothes in my size. Recently, having not bought any clothes for more than a year, I succumbed and picked out a couple of wool numbers. The company -- like most companies these days -- claims to have an "eco and ethical" policy. (You could read on their site.) They claim fair trade policies, re-plant trees, etc. I wonder what other pro-organic folk think. Back to Organic-Ally .

This was my gripe of the day. I came across this comment: A world of hemp lingerie? No thanks ( Timesonline , 21st April 2008) and felt outraged that the writer implied that it is not worth sewing a button back on an item of clothing, or that doing so (sew) is akin to slave labour. If Melanie Reid wants to know what slave labour really is, I would suggest that she reads Made in China: Women Factory Workers in a Global Workplace by Pun Ngai. Pun (pronounced 'Poon') and I crossed paths while doing our PhDs in London. I read some of her original writing for our thesis-writing workshops. Let us just say that after reading her harrowing ethnographic accounts of what these dagongmei (girls who leave their villages to work in the cities for a few years to earn as much money as they can) go through in their factories and dormitories, I could not sleep that night. I think I became sensitized to the possible abuse involved in anything 'Made in China' after that. I don't kn...

I have a problem most other women would like. When my husband comes shopping with me – in real life, via catalogue or online when I really need to have something replaced – and I chance upon something nice and have difficulty deciding between one colour or another, his response is always, “Have both. Or all three.” As a result there are a few things in my wardrobe and coat cupboard which I have not yet been able to wear because of this. But things are getting better. I have learned to arm myself with some useful phrases when I shop with husband, or to remind myself when shopping alone. For clothes shopping, useful anti-buying mantras are: 1) “Do I really need another of those?” When one coat could see me between or over two seasons, just the one will do. If there is a very similar item in the wardrobe, just the one will do. Do I need another hat, another pair of gloves, another this or that? Do I really, really need another one of those? 2) “There’s no room in my wardrobe.” For a long ...

It has been a busier than expected year-end for me. I am not complaining. In fact it was very exciting and rewarding. I did notice that in the real shops, prices were being slashed before Christmas and I wondered what the effect that would have on the profit margin. According to M&S: not so good. Anyway the crazy sales continue and I must confess that I have taken the opportunity to buy a few things that I need, thinking ahead. So for customers who do read this blog my apologies for not being able to offer a massive post-Christmas sale at Organic-Ally. What I've done was to keep prices low BEFORE Christmas, knowing that I would need to put up prices after that. My Canadian supplier has put up both retail and wholesale prices by 15%, but my wholesale discount has gone down instead of up. In other words I have to pay more for less. The currency exchange rate also means I am being further disadvantaged. Other overheads are also going up all the time. I hope to remain economically ...

The slow boat from Canada docked a short time ago and the hankies and face cloth and tea towels arrived this afternoon! Yay! Some of the items now come with even less packaging. Yay, Yay! We now also have the once discontinued Radical Primitives Box of Eight back in stock. Forgot to mention we now also have Fairtrade organic cotton table napkins in four beautiful, beautiful colours. These are now being sold at an introductory price here . Back to Organic-Ally .

I know the story of cotton in and out -- or so I thought -- until I came across this site which gives some really dire information on cotton being grown in Uzbekistan. Or check out the film here . If buying cheap cotton clothes does not yet make you cringe, take a look at some of the information here and see what your reaction is. Back to Organic-Ally .

The organic movement is often hijacked by large corporations seeking to make profits from what is clearly a fast-growing sector. I was appalled to read about factory-farmed milk being labelled as 'organic' in the US of A. See article here . Back to Organic-Ally .

Nice lady phoned to check up on the state of our conservatory roof blinds. We had these installed several years ago when the conservatory was added to give us extra room. This room, south-facing, has been great in being my 'drying room'. I didn't have to wait for sunny days to hang out the washing in the garden or use the tumble dryer any more. Whatever the weather, my clothes dry nicely -- if into a hard thing -- on the clothes-horse in the conservatory. "What about the window blinds? We have new blinds on offer. We are having a special sale." No, thanks. My curtains -- very expensive to make to order -- are doing its job very well. "But there is a special sale on, up to 25% discount." I understand, but what do I do with my perfectly good made-to-measure curtains? I explained to her that it is not eco-friendly just to exchange these curtains for new blinds simply because there is a special offer on. Why buy/use something new when the old ones are servin...

Someone responded to my last letter in the press and my response was published on 5th May 2007. Spread the 3R message - reduce, reuse, recycle MR CHIA Hern Keng raised a very good question to my letter, 'Live without plastic bags? Here's how it can be done' (ST, April 28) about whether biodegradable bags are any better. I, too, have my doubts. Older versions of degradable bags require light to degrade. So putting these in landfill is no good. Newer bags made from corn starch are touted as a greener alternative. Between the devil and the deep blue sea, however, the biodegradable bag is 'better' than the conventional. But I think it woeful that food that can be grown to feed the starving millions is used instead to feed our insatiable habits for convenience. By the same token, I think it is undesirable that bio-fuels are promoted as the alternative to fossil fuels. It is not ethical that even more (subsistence farmers on little family plots) will starve as their lands...

I was measuring out washing powder to put into the washing machine and I thought: why on earth do manufacturers have to package some washing powder or liquids into tablets or gel sachets, every one of which is encased in some form of pl-st-c? The answer seems to be: because we are either too lazy to measure out the right amounts of washing powder/liquid, or too stupid to do so. I remember washing powder as my mum used it came in big cardboard boxes. In fact everything came packaged in cardboard boxes of different weights. She would measure out the amount of powder she needed for each wash. If those boxes were put into landfills, they biodegraded in due course. Or if they were incinerated (which is more likely the case in Singapore), it just broke down into ashes. It is interesting to read: Me pay? I didn’t ask to be buried in bubble wrap by Martin Samuel in The Times . Basically he is saying: why should I be paying to dispose the rubbish I did not ask for? "We did not ask for gre...

1st April 2016 Update: We do not stock Hankettes Cosmetic Squares any more, but have made-in-UK ones here . ===== The customer is always right. So give them what they want, not what the shopowner wants. Because I do not use make-up now, I didn't even think of selling the washable reusable cosmetic pads on the Organic-Ally business site. When I took the risk and imported my first batch, I was pleasantly surprised to find these quickly becoming very popular. So it was a bit of a shock when I received an email from a prospective customer who told me that she liked the idea but does not like the pl-st-c packaging. Immediately I had a quick pow-wow with my supplier and we now have the same soft reusable cosmetic pads packaged in an organic cotton gauze bag. The bag with a twine tie doubles as a 'wash bag', to stop these pads being lost in the washing machine. We are proud to present reusable washable organic cotton cosmetic pads in new packaging . Whatever hel...

Do you, like me, take your children's uniforms out of the washing machine only to see them sort of 'stand' on its own and wonder what sort of material it is made of? No matter how much they have been wrung in the washing machine, they are still wearable without ironing. Convenience to you and me perhaps. But something about these uniforms scare me. To make anything 'iron-free' is to make it 'non-stick' so that creases do not set in. Non-stick means using that stuff they have been using to coat your pots and pans. My son is moving from short shorts to long trousers next year and I cannot bear to think of all that non-stick uniform next to his bare skin. But where can one get old-fashioned school uniforms these days? Well some 'research' came up with Clean Slate , for organic cotton (yay!) fair trade (better still) schoolwear. Parents should be aware (and wary?) of the PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) in the family of PFCs (perfluorinated chemicals) used ...