(Anna Cohen Soy Halter Dress – $84.00 – The Green Loop)
Soy cloth is the new hemp, according to the Ideal Bite this month. Hip designers like Anna Cohen and Linda Loudermilk are re-thinking this age-old fabric and turning it into soft and supple clothing with mystical, magical properties. But this so-called miracle fabric has its sustainability pros and cons. Here is the skinny on soy:
Soy Cloth Pro
- The fabric is generally manufactured using the waste from tofu and soy oil plants, making it a closed-loop, cradle-to-cradle product
- It’s extremely soft with durable, silk-like properties
- It’s warmer than wool, perfect for cooler months ahead
- Easy to care for
Soy Cloth Con
- A bit more pricey than your other sustainable fabrics, soy clothing can generally be found in the premium range among eco-labels
- Most of the soy cloth garments I’ve found (like Under the Canopy which you can get at Whole Foods) have a crunchy, granola-y style about them
- 80% of soy that we eat or wear is GMO
- Soy is a boycott-able product in general, due to the fact that it’s in just about everything we eat, especially processed foods, and the demand has grown so high that farmers are razing the rainforest on a catastrophic scale in order to grow enough to meet our consumption needs. Just as the demand for corn to produce ethanol has radically changed the face of international farming and caused food shortages globally, we’re hesitant to back yet another food product to make products we use, wear, and discard.
Image: Island of forest left in the center of an enormous soy plantation in Brazil.
