It’s Consumers vs. Trade this week in congress. The Organic Trade Association is pushing for restoration of National Organic Standards. That sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?

Let’s not stop there, though. In a ruling in June, the U.S. District Court in Maine banned synthetic ingredients in products labeled organic. The regulations (2002) were found to violate the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 because they granted a blanket exemption to synthetic ingredients when organic ingredients were not “commercially available.” In July of this year, organic certifying agents were notified that current regulations will not be interpreted to grant this exemption.

The Organic Trade Association (OTA) is the industry representative of Heinz, Dole, Kraft, Unilever, and other so-called organic food producers (as well as little organic cloth diaper manufacturers like me, through our sister company Fuzbaby). They seek a restoration of an exemption for synthetic ingredients under National Organic Standards. They had hoped this restoration would take place as a rider on an farm appropriations bill this week.

As one might assume, The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) does not sit back and watch such actions. They call on their 600,000 members to fight.

OTA members like me have received many updates from the organization on this issue, but the Organic Consumers Association are better organized and have a constituency much more willing to call and write the House Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies. After tens of thousands of contacts last week, the Senate Appropriations bill included only a quick compromise , which called for “an evaluation.”

Then she said: OCA Safeguard Organic Standards
Then he said: OTA Questions and Answers, 9/25

Then he said: OTA Setting the Record Straight, 9/26
Then she said: OCA Talking Points, 9/28

Get a basic rundown of the story from Grist Magazine, a source of environmental news & commentary. In “O Brother, Where Artificial Thou? Fight over synthetic ingredients splits organics community,” by Amanda Griscom Little posted today. [OK, let me just say that despite their great content, Grist Magazine’s attempts at snappy titles have always been a huge turn-off. Seriously, no one cares how clever their editor is. Just give us the facts.]

Can the divisions be healed? One organic community leader calls for resolution among the differing opinions. I don’t know about healed, but I see a major struggle between corporate organic and the people who want the word “organic” interpreted to mean the highest level of natural ingredients. This is precisely the fight I watched my beloved CSA (RIP) go through when the regulations stated that they could put sewage-related sludge on their fields but their could not use their own farm’s compost. My farmer suggested a new label for the real natural food: Hyperganic.

While this issue is currently more relevant to food producers, the effects may well spill over into fiber production.

Who knew interpretation of organic regulations could be so exciting?

More organic resources from Firefly Diapers, including “All Organic Is Not Equal.”

As I was sorting through inventory, I looked through the diaper bags I have in stock. I love these bags. I am digging through one right now (the one to the right).

Diaper bags are an adult product not a baby product. I like a bag that expands and contracts with the amount of stuff I carry. I don’t need a bag that looks like a wilderness backpack or an expensive handbag. Neither of these would be very me, and a diaper bag is really the diaper-carrying parent’s bag not the baby’s bag. Diaper bags are, I must admit, a fashion statement.

So, what is the statement made by the great Mom About Town bags we carry? I’m colorful say the deep rich colors of hemp/cotton twill lined with colorful cotton batiks. I’m natural says the hemp (or organic cotton). I have a lot of stuff to keep straight say the five inside pockets. Actually, the pockets are probably quiet when it comes to fashion statements—as are the matching changing pad and wet bag.

I didn’t choose the bags to make a fashion statement, though. I chose them for the natural materials, rich colors, quality construction, and great manufacturer. Mom About Town is owned by a work-near-home mother who is a pleasure to work with. The chains of production for these bags are short. And you probably know we smaller where we can.

So, there you have it: my ode to a diaper bag. If I had diapers to carry around at this moment, you would find me carrying the black bag with fuchsia swirls. I might even keep the chestnut bag with ivy print just in case I made a wardrobe change. Since I’m not carrying diapers at this time, both the black bag and the chestnut bag are yours. (Or check out more hemp colors and organic cotton patterns.) They’re beautiful, practical, and natural.

Do diapers make you laugh? I admit I have occasionally found a diaper funny, but this is usually the happy-amusement sort of laughter. It really hadn’t occurred to me that some might find diapers so odd that they use laughter to relieve their discomfort.

My daughter learned the hard way that diapers make children laugh–an extension, I imagine, of the general popularity of bathroom humor. (If I say “butt” to my 5-year old, he’ll laugh no matter what the context.) My daughter told me recently about a conversation between herself (then 7 years old) and two boys (about 8 years old) in the playroom at our grocery store. This happened a while ago. She waited before telling me about it.

“What does your dad do?” asked the boy.
“He dyes fabric so my mother can make diapers.”

They laughed at her. Actually, they were probably laughing at the word “diaper,” but she felt it was at her. She hadn’t expected this response, but she’s heard it a couple of times now. Though some kids thought it was interesting, that isn’t what an 8-year old focuses on. She has learned to mention my other so-called careers instead. Her new canned responses:

“What does your dad do?”
“He’s a scientist.”

“What does your mother do?”
“She teaches at the university.”

I told her I’ve learned my own version of this. We talked about learning how and when to people want to hear particular versions of our lives. “I sell cloth diapers” requires a bit of time and context to fit into most people’s version of reality.

Lest you think this phenomenon isolated among children, a representative from an environmental news service called me last week. Adults titter at the mention of diapers, too.

“Had you heard of our service?”
“Yes. I receive daily email updates.”
“Is it possible you might use our service to publicize a press release?”
“Yes, that is possible.”
“May I ask what your business is?”
“I manufacture and retail cloth diapers.”

She laughed!

“Is that funny?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Really. I would think that someone like yourself would understand the importance of cloth diapers as an environmental issue.”

I’ve heard similar responses, but not from someone whose job is to publicize environmental issues. When people ask what I do, I just raise an eyebrow and say, “I sell cloth diapers.” I actually enjoy seeing the responses. Some people just let that be a minor point in a conversation and some people take it as a criticism of themselves. The laughter was a new one, though.

With only 3-5% of the baby population in cloth diapers, how do we make diapering choices a serious issue? Some of us already talk about cloth diapers and issues of cost, health, and environment. We aren’t on a soap box all of the time, though. Can cloth diapers just be normal, mundane, and part of a conversation without being particularly funny?

Have you encountered this? What do you do?

We dye the wool knit for Firefly East Wool covers. When it comes time to decide the next color to dye, I check to see if there are enough colors on the shelf in chartreuse (my personal favorite) or in rich jewel tones. I tend to neglect earthy colors. I don’t dislike them, but I just don’t think of them.

We like to keep old favorites in stock even while we try new colors. I also invite customers to suggest colors, and many customers have asked me for more darker greens and browns for boys. So, we tried a few new earthy colors lately.

Sage was new to us this summer. Next to the bright rainbow it looks greyish green, but I like the way it stretches our pallette. Customers have liked this color, too. We have dyed it several times now.

Colors often look different on organic cotton than on wool. Some blue-ish tones wash out of wool. So a crisp cool, baby apple green Chartreuse for a diaper becomes a warm golden green on wool.

Recently, we also tried several browns we hadn’t used before. Brown dye can be a mix of colors, so the color differences between vegetable fibers (organic cotton) and animal fibers (wool) can be more pronounced. Or, sometimes the colors are more similar, like the dye we use to make Cinnamon Brown on Firefly Quick Dry Color Diapers and Red Brick on Easy Wool covers.

This may well be another manifestation of my true identity as a diaper nerd, but I really like putting the colors together and seeing them in a big rainbow. When I put together a warm fall rainbow (leaf-bow?) of wool colors, I wanted to share. I may not think of earth tones first, but they give me that same fuzzy feeling as a range of rich jewel tones or sweet ice cream colors.

If there is a color you would like to see in Easy Wool covers or Quick Dry Color Diapers, let me know. I like to play with color.

[Colors above from top: Light Marigold, Deep Dark Marigold, Chartreuse, Avocado, Leaf Green, Dark Sage, Golden Brown, Bark Brown, Red Brick, Rust, and a tiny corner of Orange.]