US outdoor clothing business Patagonia has called upon business leaders to get behind regenerative organic agriculture and refuse to accept green washing or cheaper alternatives. This move would reduce emission of greenhouse gases and help in avoiding environmental catastrophe. The Better Cotton Initiative is among textile standards singled out for not going far enough.
Rose Marcario, President and CEO of Patagonia, claimed that a growing number of corporations, researchers, journalists and practitioners are increasingly using terms such as regenerative, restorativAe and sustainable almost interchangeably without any clear sense of what we're talking about. She also bemoaned the fact that sustainable' claims are combined with conventional (non-organic) farming which defeats the purpose entirely. How can you rebuild soil ecosystems while simultaneously pumping the soil with pesticides and herbicides? she querried.
She cautioned people by saying that one shouldn't tolerate the watering down of agricultural practices that hold potential for enormous benefit to our suffering planet. The risks are too great. Meaningless terms with little or no concrete definition inundate consumers at every turn (even the label 'organic' can be slippery), causing confusion.
