I am glad you started this topic, tropit.
I am sorry you started this topic, tropit!
I am thoroughly conflicted about "organic" and would like to bury my head in my stash for the next fifty years while it is all sorted out. So far I have never sought out or bought organic fabric, thread or batting. For a while I bought organic food...until I became aware that organic food often had a carbon footprint of astronomic proportions and that some unscrupulous stores sold food as "organic" that was conventional...But I also hate to support Monsanto and their ilk...but I hate to pay a lot for groceries. Did I mention that I am conflicted?
I considered bamboo batting for a couple of projects, but balked at the price, and then felt guilty for balking at the price! Occasionally I assuage my (general) guilt by telling myself that at least some of the time I am using scraps; that even if the original fabric was produced using unfair labor practices, or environment-destroying chemical processes, that by using scraps or recycled fabric I have somewhat mitigated the original menace. But then I remember that I am producing yet more "stuff" in a world drowning in "stuff", and I am plunged into ambivalence again...
Sorry tropit. Not a very constructive post. But I am very glad that someone is raising these issues, and in a constructive, positive, helpful way! I do think about this. I just don't know how to act on it yet.
Alison-The-Ambivalent