Dilemmas on using Colour

It had been on my mind that I needed to order more cochineal. It's a very economical dye to use, although expensive to buy in the first instance; after obtaining deep red or magenta colours, the same dye-bath will give deep pink on a second batch of wool, then paler pink and, with luck, a fourth shade. The shades obtained, including all varieties of purple and lilacs when a touch of iron is added, are among the most popular we do.

Imagine, then, my dismay to find that our dye supplier has not only sold out, but there appears to be a world-wide shortage that won't be rectified until next year's harvest. And then I discovered that cochineal may be put on a 'red list' by GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standards organisation) and may be disallowed as a dye because of it's environmental impact, although need to find out more about this.
It raises all sorts of questions again about the whole sustainable / organic / ethical etc etc movements. Not just textiles, but anything that needs to use colour to sell a product.

As humans, we are addicted to colour - there's not much that we use that doesn't have colour added. And it has to come from somewhere. But whether it's from 'natural' sources or the laboratory, as consumers we think little of it's application. All dyeing is a chemical process and involves additional chemical input if the end product is to meet with modern requirements and expectations.

Maybe it's time to put much more value on colour? When planning our collection, we try to use an equal amount of dyed colours to natural shades, at least with the knits. I think it makes the colours stand out more and reduces our use of  dyes and mordants. It's not so easy with fabrics. Knits are created from scratch by us, from undyed yarns. Fabrics are dyed 'in the piece' or woven in a larger quantity from already dyed yarns - one day we may be big enough to commission our own fabrics! In the meantime, we have to choose from the best options available.

Just because something is 'environmentally friendly' or 'sustainable', it doesn't mean we can carry on using it at will. What we really need is better quality, longer lasting items that make good use of limited resources, and to vastly reduce our have it all, throw away culture. But where would that leave our economies? Is there an answer or have we gone just too far?