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Conventional cotton farming is one of the most destructive farming activity
as it uses the second most amount of pesticides of any crop, in addition to
large amounts of herbicides and insecticides, many of which are known
carcinogens. Organic cotton on the other hand is grown using
sustainable farming practices and saves the environment - for every 100%
organic cotton t-shirt, 1/3 lb of pesticides and chemicals do not go into
the environment.
Most of clothes today are also manufactured in sweat shop conditions in
poor countries, where workers are not paid decent wages, work long hours in factories
with no labor, environmental or safety laws. These fair
trade camisoles are made by the Neuva Vida Sewing Cooperative in Nicaragua, and purchase of
these t-shirts helps provide fair wages and much needed employment and basic services in a
poor and very high unemployment area in Nicaragua.
These camisloes are 100% organic, natural cotton and are
non-dyed in natural cotton color. Most color fast dyes used in coloring clothes contain
toxic chemicals, harmful to both humans and the environment.
Please note that we no longer carry fair trade
items. We are greatly sorry for the inconvenience. A reference page
containing links to all your favorite fair trade products will be
available soon.
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100%
Organic Cotton, No Sweat Camisoles
Made from very soft Peruvian ring spun yarn,
amazing comfort
8-10% shrinkage, 4.5 oz luxurious
long stapled cotton
non-dyed natural color
$14.00
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Producer - Nueva Vida Sewing
Cooperative, Nicaragua
The coop is located in the area called
"Nueva Vida," or New Life in Ciudad Sandino, just outside Managua
and was formed with the help of Maggie's Organics in 2001 to
provide employment in the this very high 80% unemployment area.
The original group of co-op members worked for 640 hours, on the
construction of the building and the organization of the project for a
period of 2 years without receiving any pay, using their sweat-equity
as buy-in into the coop. Most of the members had to learn how to sew,
as they did not know how to and the first order they received was for
50 organic t-shirts from Maggie's Organics. After one year, in Aug
2002, they sew 26,000 organic t-shirts for Maggie's Organics, but the work
had periods of ups/downs and was dependent on them getting orders from
outside. With a grant, now the coop has become a full service shop,
sourcing their own material, sewing it and selling finished products
and now has 35 full members and hopes to raise production levels so that
more people in the community can by employed and have decent working
conditions and living wages.
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