Neil Young Stands Up For Organic Cotton

Neil Young has always been one of those artists that has gone his own way. For his critics, that shows him to be curmudgeonly, intractable. But Neil ignores them, and treads the path that he sees as most righteous. As you can tell, I'm a bit of a fan.
His latest move has endeared me to the guy even more. On his last tour of Europe, he gave out free organic-cotton t-shirts to the audience. It seems that was the opening salvo in a green offensive, as he recently outlined on his website. Neil is removing all traditional cotton promotional wear from his merchandising arm, and he's urgng his fans to do the same.
Neil takes time on his post to outline the reasons for the change, citing the heavy use of carcinogenic pesticides and water as major reasons to move away from traditional cotton. He mourns that hemp's not widely available enough to be used as yet. With the increasing relaxation in marijuana legislation, though, who knows?
He also has a few hints and tips for the care of your free t-shirt, noting that 75 to 80 percent of a garment's environmental impact comes from washing, drying and ironing. I've never seen the point of ironing t-shirts, so I'm glad that Neil Young and I think alike.
We shouldn't really be surprised by any of this: Neil Young's stance on the environment is well known. He recently supported a Kickstarter that allows retasked cell-phones to be planted in vulnerable forest areas, acting as an early warning system against illegal logging and poaching. But it's great to see such a major figure taking a radical stand to protect the earth.
Hang on. Pier32 have form with supplying organic cotton tees to bands and festivals. Maybe we should introduce ourselves...

Read Neil Young's post on his website here. You'll need to click through from the opening splash page.