Looking for cheap fabric to cover our sofa or bargain hunting for a shirt we know we can get cheaper over at LMOP seems to be a favorite pastime for many. We are so proud when we come home and show and tell how cheap we got this fabric.

While saving on the cost, we often get more than what we bargained for. As you will see, that’s not always a good thing.

The demand for cotton falls into one of the biggest demand and supply categories. It’s easy to see why. Cotton has many desirable characteristics. It’s versatile, stable, naturally comfortable and cheap. There’s just one little catch.

Boll weevils devour cotton crops just like we devour bargains and that translates to lots of pesticides to out maneuver the little buggers. Pesticides are only one among, would believe, up to 150 chemicals that cotton is treated with before you either put on that shirt or sit on that sofa.

Cotton is treated with chemicals which pose a serious health hazard to workers and people who wear the garments. Serious nerve damage, damage to the brain and to the peripheral nerves can result from being exposed to these toxic substances.

Lack of directions of use, lack of information, high demand and the need to get rid of pests, equal unwise use of pesticides. People are more scared of losing crop than their lives although lives are often lost.

Boll weevils will eat an entire harvest even with current use of pesticides, so more pesticides are applied often using power sprayers which get even more onto the crops more quickly than before. Sprayers literally bathe in pesticides and with water shortages, often these pesticides don’t get washed off properly.