Heh heh!

Reminds me a little of this article I read yesterday.

Hmm, I think you're being sarcastic. :-P

Often the sustainable option is not the cheapest.

This is true danostuporstar, but I find this shirt's message and price funny.

I got the Patagonia surf 2007 catalog in the mail yesterday, and while I love the photos and the cute clothes, the message inside the front cover is a bit preachy.

"Ponder this for a moment if you will: Of the 30,000 known edible plant species in the world, we humans subsist on about... 20. Further, the big three- corn, wheat and rice - make up over half of our plant-based food intake. Seems that given the vast exotic menu at life's grand banquet, we've settled for the TV dinner."

The author then goes on to say that many people are buying mass produces surfboards for around 250 dollars. He urges us not to buy these boards because these people don't know what it's like to "touch a wave face or feel the puff of pelican wings strafing inches overhead." The author urges us to forgo these "McSticks" and buy Patagonia's board for twice the price.

He then informs us: "Many people don't know that some of the sweetest, juiciest tomatoes are heirloom varieties - the Dixie Golden Giant, Lucky Lady, or the infamously bizarre yet beautiful Zapotec Pleated." Well golly!

I'm being very cynical. I would like to grow heirlooms also, but it seems like a very trendy thing to do at the moment. Just like these Live Simply t-shirts, etc.

Let's all live simply and buy expensive clothes and drive Subaru's and VW's (but never SUVs!) and take yearly surf trips to Costa Rica and South Africa on a big jumbo jet. We can pad around our beach front bungalow (never a hotel -too commercial!) in our 50 dollar flip-flops and drink 7 dollar organic green teas. Isn't the simple life swell?

Fair Indigo does fair trade clothing which is pretty nice and reasonably priced, (which i don't really think has much to do with LoriFLA's point) many a twenty-six-dollar t-shirt, but it is actually the company that got me to switch to thinking about sustainability in my (particularly my unnecessary) consumer goods.

And I see that LoriFLA has weighed in (and I totally agree with her!).

It's like Real Simple magazine- buy expensive crap to make your life SIMPLER. Right.

Yeah, I hate Real Simple for that reason. Pretend you're not a gluttonous consumer by consuming the stuff we push at you.

The simplest clothing? Easiest on the planet? Recycled, remade, reused, consigned.

(But heirloom tomatoes? I'm down with that. The biodiversity and cultural heritage issues are pretty real with that one).

The New Yorker had a great story on mass-manufactured surfboards, here.

There is a lot of BS associated with anti-consumerism and anti-globalism, because like all social movements, it's easily co-opted by people that want to sell you stuff. But I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. It's pretty easy to tell what will make a real difference and won't. And there's a spectrum of choices, too -- you can't always make a sinless stainless perfect choice, but you can make better choices. If you're going to buy a $26.00 new t-shirt, the organic cotton one is probably a slightly better choice than a non-organic cotton one. In our society, it can help a lot if people budge just enough to make slightly better choices more of the time. Many people don't want to move much beyond their comfort zone, and pushing them to do it just causes a rebellion against a very good basic idea. as one friend of mine puts it, we have to encourage people and businesses to 'do the right thing for the wrong reasons.'

But nothing to award yourself sainthood over, you're right.

Miko, as usual your comment is very well put. I agree with you completely.

There is a lot of BS associated with anti-consumerism and anti-globalism, because like all social movements, it's easily co-opted by people that want to sell you stuff.

This is what amuses me. Patagonia's flip-flops that are imported are on the same boat from China as other retailer's flip-flops.

Well said, Miko.

Let's all live simply and buy expensive clothes and drive Subaru's and VW's (but never SUVs!) and take yearly surf trips to Costa Rica and South Africa on a big jumbo jet. We can pad around our beach front bungalow (never a hotel -too commercial!) in our 50 dollar flip-flops and drink 7 dollar organic green teas. Isn't the simple life swell?

I just wanted to say that this sounds like something a favorite author/chef/tv personality of mine, Anthony Bourdain, would write. Correct, concise, and cynical. I love it. :)

The author then goes on to say that many people are buying mass produces surfboards for around 250 dollars. He urges us not to buy these boards because these people don't know what it's like to "touch a wave face or feel the puff of pelican wings strafing inches overhead."

Gosh, Mr. Patagonia. You're so spiritual.

Me, I'm a temp slob. If it cost me a nickel to shit, I'd be hard pressed to pass gas. So I buy the cheap made-in-China merchandise. 'Cause that's what I can afford, the Mc-whateveryouwannacallit.

I guess I must not be as sensitive as you. I must not have the same deep aesthetic sense as you, the same appreciation of nature. 'Cause of my cheap shitty board.

(sniffle)