Least Harm...and leather gloves vs. synthetic gloves...invitation

[Guest guest]

I agree that searching for better options to leather is an important

spiritual pursuit, as well as the moral obligation of a conscious

consumer. I profoundly disagree that synthetic leather or any other

petroleum based product is a viable option that takes the well-being of

animals into consideration - at best, it delays animal suffering for

the lifecycle of the product.

 

The climate change implications of petroleum production/consumption

notwithstanding - petroleum based products, once they are discarded,

become a deadly poison that kills hundreds of thousands of birds and

sealife by being mistaken for food. I was shocked to discover last

Suday that there is an island of petroleum based garbage the size of

TEXAS in the Pacific ocean. What this means, as these products will

take hundreds of thousands of years to decompose, they can continue to

harm animals over and over again for millenia to come.

 

WARNING: THe article contains graphic images of dead animals ravaged by

our non-biodegradable petroeum garbage.

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/oceans/la-me-ocean2aug02,0,3130914.story

 

So where does that leave us as animals who like to wear shoes and need

gloves to pull our weeds?

 

In my humble opinion, one viable option I've seen so far is a vegetable

leather made out of tree sap in Brazil and layered onto cotton - it's

dried in the sun, doesn not require any chemicals in the process and

appears to be as low impact as you can get. The Green festival offered

the opportunity to see/purchase purses, belts and other accessories

made of this product - I was intrigued by the possibility of making

shoes from this vegetable leather (gloves would be a wonderful idea as

well) and am interested in pursuing ways to bring this to market.

 

I invite anyone in the community who is interested in joining me on the

journey to finding better solutions to these complex, yet very real,

everyday dillemas, to contact me and I would also like to extend my

help and support to anyone in the community working on creating options

for living that minimize suffering - of animals, humans, and the

planet.

 

Sincerely,

 

Lina

 

 

corradoborg

amylynncaplan;

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 00:52:38 -0800 (PST)

Re: Least Harm...and leather gloves.

 

Amy,

 

There is no need to make the leap to leather gloves just to remove a

few spiky weeds from the yard. There are several completely non-animal

synthetic leather gloves on the market

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