Wendy and Akiemme Alexandre with Sankofa Ra
Photo credit: Paula Markowitz Wittlin
Story Expired On: August 10, 2008
Baby Fashions Promote Green
By: Pat Casey
Published: August 10, 2007
It was a fun outing for White Plains moms and their babies as they gathered at Whole Foods Market on Bloomingdale Road July 19 for an organic cotton baby fashion show. The designer, Lynda Fassa, founder of Irvington-based Green Babies, Inc., called out the names of the designs and the models. Each fashion was met with “oohs” and “aahs” as the baby models, escorted or carried by their mothers down the runway, appeared wearing outfits reminiscent of red and green peppers, eggplants, flowers, and soft cuddly animals.
Behind the cute and cuddly, however, is a serious dedication to organic farming and green living. Fassa and her husband, Hossein, are considered leaders and pioneers in the growing organic cotton movement. With a new book, “Green Babies, Sage Moms”, scheduled for publication in January 2008, Fassa agreed to share portions of the chapter on children’s clothing with the White Plains Times. Excerpts are presented below.
Chapter 8: Green Jeans – Organic Duds and What to Put on that Tiny Heiny. “I started Green Babies for my first child, and for yours. I had spent years as a model and had worn some of the coolest and finest clothes ever made. I knew something about how a great outfit can get you noticed and make you feel special. Because I started modeling at sixteen, by the time I had my first child at thirty, I didn’t know too much about much else, except, well, clothes. ... while I was sifting through The New York Times help wanted ads (seeing all the great jobs I didn’t have the skills or education for), I read a story about Texas farmers reverting to organic cotton farming, working the land as past generations had. I learned about the perils of conventional cotton; how, unbeknownst to most folks, this great American crop was causing sickness in farm workers and devastating the agricultural landscape because of the amount of chemicals it guzzled. 
Founder Lynda Fassa
Photo credit: Paula Markowitz Wittin
“I came to understand the firm conviction of the organic farmer, which is: Soil is an entire ecosystem of its own, filled with diverse living organisms that work in a harmonious cooperative that allows crops to grow. It is not dry, dead dirt that must be sprayed with toxic, petroleum-derived chemicals in order to produce commodities with no thought for the lasting destruction left behind.
“In the early 1990s this way of thought was sweeping through the cotton fields of California and the high plains of Texas. Third and fourth generation farmers, whose families depended on the crop for their livelihood, were converting back to organic, to the methods their grandfathers and great grandfathers used, because of a deep love of the land and a belief that it was their responsibility to future generations.
“This is the noble, natural start for the organic fibers that wind up on our babies’ backs!
“…With organic farming, crops are rotated to protect the soil, and farmers use compost and naturally derived mineral and plant products for fertilizer. Organic farming means the farmer lives in harmony with the soil and crops. He is cultivating life, instead of waging chemical warfare on his land. Organic cotton makes for more than nice clothes, it makes for better lives. 
Alivia Devore
Photo credit: Paula Markowitz Wittlin “…About four years ago, a study exploring the eradication of Third World debt stated that organic cotton was integral to getting Africa out of poverty. In a natural farming cycle, a farmer grows his crops, sells some for profit, and saves seeds to plant the following year. But African farmers had come to rely on genetically modified seeds (GM, GE or GMO), bought from food giants. All needed synthetic pesticides and fertilizers; some were even genetically engineered to produce only sterile seeds. The natural cycle of ‘grow, sell and save to replant’ was broken and farmers were forced to use their profits to buy more seeds, pesticides and fertilizers from the same food giants year after year. Like sharecroppers, the farmers
remained impoverished as they grew crops that someone else would profit from.
Lila Ariana Quinones
Photo credit: Paula Markowitz Wittlin “These farmers also fell victim to what is known as ‘chemically dependent monocropping.’ Chemical giants peddled concoctions that promised higher yields and protection from predators. But those chemicals left the soil barren, and like a drug addict needing more and more to get the same high, the soil needed increased amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in order to produce the same, or worse, results.
“So it is with good reason that Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Uganda—among many other countries—have instituted government policies to enable many farmers to grow organic cotton.
“… Babies are celebrities in their worlds. They are welcomed with gifts even before they are born. …They are filled with unlimited potential, and their arrival is the entryway to a better way for us all. 
Arianna and Sheila Casteneda
Photo credit: Paula Markowitz Wittlin “Because of what moms before you have chosen, the global market for organic cotton has increased 20 percent each of the past two years. Organic cotton acreage in the United States expanded last year by 18 percent. Supporting the American organic cotton farmer is integral to ‘cleaning up our act’ in so many matters-to-you ways. The EPA ranks the farming of conventional cotton as one of the top pollutants of our water and soil.”
Fassa’s book, published by Penguin, will be available in stores January 2008. For more information on Green Babies, Inc. visit greenbabies.com
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