Neil Young urges fans to boycott non-organic cotton

Veteran rocker and environmental activist Neil Young has called on fans to boycott clothing made with non-organic cotton in a bid to help save the Earth. The Like a Hurricane hitmaker has taken a stand against the over-use of pesticides in cotton farming by only selling tour merchandise made with organic materials, and he wants devotees to join him in the green campaign.
In a post on his website, he writes, “Friends, on my last tour of Europe, I started to give our music loving audience free organic cotton t-shirts as a way to show that we appreciate you. Your shirts’ cotton is grown in the most earth-friendly way. Feel it. Isn’t it the best cotton you have ever felt? They’re free but there is a catch. Here’s the catch – I’m hoping that when you wear your PROTECT / EARTH t-shirt, you will vow to PROTECT EARTH & to take a stand for EARTH in the ways that you can…
“Today, I have taken the steps to remove sales of non-organic t-shirts and other products that damage the Earth from my concerts and my web stores. I vow to speak up & to do what I can to PROTECT EARTH.”
He goes on to outline the reasons for his argument, pointing out, “Cotton is second for most pesticide use of all crops & it uses 25 per cent of all of the petrochemical based pesticides, fungicides and herbicides globally… These chemicals absorb into the soil which can affect nearby crops, get into water supplies and rivers and affect many lifeforms downstream.”
Young, who has a new song called Who’s Gonna Stand Up and Save the Earth, recently threw his support behind a similar campaign to save the world’s rainforests by teaming up with bosses at the San Francisco-based Rainforest Connection to help them fight illegal logging operations.