What does the farming of wool have in relation to the fashion industry? And how can a regenerative network and collaboration between farmers and designers create a new system that benefits all?

Groundswell is an annual regenerative agriculture festival in Hertfordshire that provides a forum for farmers, growers, or anyone interested in food production and the environment to learn about the theory and practical applications of regenerative farming systems.

I was fortunate to receive a bursary place so I could visit the festival for free. The jump this time around in conversations around fibre and fashion was exciting and my main focus for attending, but I was also intrigued by such activities as bat safaris and biodiversity bimbles.

This is the first in a series exploring fashion and its connection to agriculture, using the discussions from Groundswell as starting points for some thoughts.

Groundswell is hosted at Lannock Manor Farm by the Cherry family and has just celebrated its eighth year. The fact that this festival is still occurring and that numbers are increasing each year shows too the increasing interest in regenerative agriculture. This blog isn’t going to highlight what regenerative agriculture is, though I will elude to practices carried out under a regenerative system, simply because I probably need to highlight the terms. In reality, this term is fluid in its description, and every person asked to define “regen ag” would have a different response. But you can find information on it elsewhere on the web, and happily, some books too; perhaps I’ll even get my own guide up [for the courses on regenerative fibre I’m developing… subscribe to my newsletter for updates]. This blog instead is about the conversations surrounding regenerative fibre and fashion specifically.

Groundswell discussion 1 — Fashion is agriculture: Field, farm and fashion/wool.

Maria Benjamin (Dodgson Wood / Farmer’s Yarn / The Wool Library), Zoe Fletcher (The Woolist / The Wool Library), Deborah Barker (South East England Fibreshed), India Hamilton (regenerative consultant) and researcher Taylor Smythe.

The premise of this panel discussion was to gain insight from different researchers all working to integrate mostly native and rare breed British sheep into a diverse farming landscape, with the overall collaborative aim of showcasing the possibilities for traceable regenerative wool. The term “regenerative” was covered, along with suggestions to improve supply chains and encourage re-education/reconnection.

In each panellist’s individual introduction solutions were reiterated, despite projects coming from different UK regions. Key points stated:

• A single farm and a distinct breed leads to a provenance story that brings a new raw product to market. The landscape has been engrained within that sheep, and so the wool also tells that story.

• It’s possible to create value on a small-scale, and is especially necessary because small-scale is often what a farmer has.

• Monitoring carbon drawdown/sequestration is fine for the big players, but there needs to be different measures for smaller players. Rather than considering carbon as the only measure of a successful “sustainable” farm, look to the water and nutrient cycles too. How to farm in a way that supports the ecosystem and the economic system?

• We should be looking at and consdering supply networks not chains because otherwise we continue with transactional relationships. If you physically know the actors in your supply network then you’ll make decisions differently.

The conversation moved on to considering the role of businesses, designers, education and communications.

The role of businesses ⇾ The main stalling point for implementing more traceable products and supply networks is issues in the processing capacity. There’s a problem with coining the term “regenerative” if limited capacity continues to stall new products to market, so not allowing the cyclical practices required for a regenerative economy.

The role of designers ⇾ Small designers don’t fit in the current fashion system, and so there needs to be a radical shift towards understanding the value of British wool, and for that value to extend to designers using traceable British breeds and wool processed in the UK. Zoe’s research on rare breeds helped forge The Wool Library database (with beautiful information cards invaluable for educating designers and brands). But, when it costs 50p per kg of wool [raw fleece] and the end jumper needs to be sold for £300 there simply has to be a narrative shift across the industry. Wool has inbuilt marketing, and so perhaps the marketing money should be expended elsewhere.

Images: Variety of textile practitioners walking through, respectively (left) a barley field and (right) a sheep pasture on a tour with farmer Lynnie at Brickpits organic farm, East Sussex organised by South East England Fibreshed.

The role of education ⇾ There needs to be a paradigm shift so that both farmers and designers (and everyone in between) knows what questions to ask of each other. Currently there is a gap in knowledge and in communications, so more fashion people need to get onto farms to learn from farmers. Additionally, farmers need to learn from designers about what products are useful so that they can tailor their offering (e.g. through selection of certain breeds, building relationships for orders). However, changes are noticeable, such as with an increase in “sustainable” or “regenerative” fashion (and other design) courses at degree level, along with independent courses, and students generally being inquisitive and investigative.

The role of communications ⇾ Misconceptions or misunderstandings of terms is leading to greenwashing; farmers don’t truly know what “regenerative” is yet, though products are being labelled as such. There of course needs to be a verifiable certification to help customers (and other actors in the supply network) have assurance, though if you are selling direct (as with small farms to small designers) then the relationship should come before the certiifcation or label. Difficulties in verification arise when there is a diversity; frameworks require standards, which don’t exist in a patchwork geography or myriad of scales i.e. Responsible Wool Standard is tricky to apply to UK wool sources because each farm is different. While science and context data could provide reference, the quality average will likely be brought down, so retaining British wool’s perception as a lesser product.

Images: The Wool Library: a collective of researchers and farmers working to nurture a regenerative wool economy by educating other farmers and designers via well-designed communicative resources into the vast applications for wool from British sheep breeds.

Final points coming from audience intervention and questions included the topics of waste, infrastructure and scalability.

On infrastructure and “waste” ⇾ There was no real time to query the state of wool processing infrastructure, but a comment on wool “waste” — particularly in regards to fleeces being burned during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic as demand dropped — slotted into this; that the cost of processing, and limited availibility of facilities/skills onshore, could affect a farmer’s decision to find market value in the raw fleeces, choosing instead to dispose of them. The likelihood is that fleeces were composted to find some value (even if not monetary) in the material. However, work needs to be done to: improve existing and future infrastructure; education for designers/consumers on the benefits of wool; education for farmers on value added products; plus a shift away from synthetic fibres, so that there is capacity to process all the possible wool material coming out of UK farms.

On scaling ⇾ One approach is to see scales as relational and relative; that both “small” and “large” operations are required rather than it being Local and Global, or Local and/or Global. The question came from a flower grower, but the need for resilient procurement is necessary no matter the industry or product; if you work from the smallest first, then you can fill in the gaps. Fibershed California was used as an example; they have 150-200 members across the region, which helps to recognise what exists and what is missing.

Key takeaways.

The key takeaways from this discussion really were on the necessity for farmers and designers to converse more, so that each can ascertain what they think the other needs and what they think is possible, and what they actually need and what is actually possible. It seems to be a mindset shift; to go from being a) a farmer or b) a designer (or another actor in the supply chain/network) to putting yourself in the other’s shoes. It’s not necessarily about understanding it all, but about recognising that acting so simplistically/one-sided instead of holistically/collaboratively is what is holding up the fashion system from changing to one that is more regenerative (not extractive) for all involved businesses.

You can watch the hour long session on Groundswell's YouTube channel here.

Groundswell discussion 2 — Climate friendly sheep farming.

Christoper Price, Andrea Parry-Jones and Tom Blunt (all RBST).

Though this session wasn’t outwardly geared towards touting the benefits of wool, it introduced important considerations for any sheep farmer wanting/needing to diversify and improve income. The Rare Breeds Survival Trust had an exhibition stand with a pen of rare breed sheep — the Whitefaced Woodland — and a poster showing the rare breeds watchlist for all farm kept animals. Their mission is to show the economic, social and environmental relevance of native breeds.

This panel discussion early on in the festival roster highlighted the juxtaposition, I felt, in conversations later on and elsewhere regarding carbon capture. Many folk were trying to steer audience questions and concerns away from how much carbon an animal can store, particularly during the leather panel where Nikki Yoxall (Pasture For Life) mentioned “carbon as a cycle”, with carbon being just a data set that moves between products (soil > animal > jumper > atmosphere > soil). However, here, the RBST presented on how much carbon a sheep is carrying themselves (giving a higher reading when they’re in a natural setting) and how to improve that carbon capture through their diet/health and breeding. On their stand they had a poster showcasing the carbon cycle of wool.

They did state that you can’t compare carbon sequestration of the shearing cycle (how much carbon is lost during shearing) with that of a tree (or what is released when a tree is cut down), because this carbon moves — e.g. wool into a jumper, a tree into paper, and so a Life Cycle Assessment would need to be done for each product. But the speaking on carbon capture of a sheep feels very much geared towards government data needs and subsequent subsidies (there might be one for Conservation Grazing?), and seeing how many exhibitors there were for carbon credits, it feels that perhaps the RBST were using carbon capture as an in to introducing wider benefits of lower impact sheep farming.

Climate-friendly sheep farming is really about decreasing the number of animals a farm holds so that the land is in better shape to hold that flock. “Bred small, stacked high” is the usual business in order to reach the scale and speed required for supermarkets, but decreasing flock sizes will decrease competition for food and for space, so leading to healthier sheep. Their point about how much carbon a sheep is carrying fits here, because healthier sheep and healthier land then work in tandem to get the farmer closer to that net zero target.

Images: 1. Poster from RBST on ‘Wool and the Carbon Cycle’; 2. Poster from RBST on the breed watclist 2023-24; 3. A few Whitefaced Woodland sheep at the Groundswell exhibit.

Some ways that sheep could contribute to carbon emissions, and possible solutions:

• Woodier grasses lead to a fermentation process in the gut that expels GHG, so if a sheep is reared on or fed less cellulosic grasses, then they would release less gas. Native breeds however, are noted to be good foragers of woody grasses, so perhaps implementing them in the flock too — which also helps farm management.

• Soy is currently imported as feed (though mostly for pig and poultry) — read the Sustain report here — so switching to local on-farm feeds such as seaweed, legumes and rapeseed should reduce carbon emissions here (along with avoiding deforestation and further land grabbing).

• Sheep bred for meat go to slaughter quickly, so while they are then eating less, they’re also not spending as much time fertilsiing the soil, and their fleece/skin isn’t in a particularly good condition for product use (which is then disposed of).

Watch the full 45 minute session on Groundswell's YouTube channel here.

This article should have given you some key considerations in the topic of fashion (and specifically wool fibre) as part of the agricultural system.

⇾ Farmers and designers (and others in the value chain) need to work more closely. They each need to be open to honest questions being asked, to the ability to make choices for themselves (not greenwashed), and to the full picture of practices and production.

⇾ Carbon sequestration/removal is difficult to monitor and quantify when you're creating a diversity of products, but could be used on farm to address practices. If "climate-friendly" is the consideration, then what does this look like both to a farm and to a brand?

⇾ Communications need to be clearer and more candid, between all actors in the value chain, but with consumers too. It could be useful to have a toolkit of terminology or a handbook that can list everything you would need if you were new to this arena, and especially one that is objective.

⇾ It isn't a one-size-fits-all approach i.e. what works for UK breeds and UK farms doesn't work for another country with other breeds. Scale, climate, weather, feed, space... they all affect the outcome of the meat and wool, and therefore the fashion application.

⇾ Scaling is difficult when there are missing parties, or less of one in certain regions i.e. spinners. Being able to map who does what is essential to gain holistic understanding of where improvements could be made, or indeed, should be made, and what relationships would benefit. Scaling isn't always suitable - as above, it isn't the one and only approach.

⇾ Regenerative agriculture is a fairly new concept, but pastoral / mob grazing isn't. Regen ag is about recognising other ways to farm, what to farm, where to farm and when not to farm. So regenerative fashion could be similarly seen - when should an item be designed and made, and when should it not? As with the saying "the most sustainable fashion is the item of clothing in your wardrobe", regenerative fashion can be both the lack of production or the production of something beneficial. Is it more regenerative to produce something that has a multitude of benefits, then not follow through with the production of it at all? If we look at wool, then for the most part, it's more regenerative to use it than not - but there are stipulations, as introduced in the article points above.

I think it's quite difficult to truly ascertain what is a "good" farm, considering each has practices determined by the landscape, the product and the heritage, not least the breed themselves and the policies and marketplaces. And it's especially difficult where there is so much language unknown to us as non-farmers, however, this is why conversations are so important. We can't know what we're not told or ask questions about, so these channels need to be opened.

Some resources to dive a little deeper:

• Read both The Shepherd's Life and English Pastoral by James Rebanks.

• Read the Fibershed book, and you can explore their online resources, particuarly on carbon sequestration through grazing, carbon farming 101, and climate beneficial wool - and tell me what you gathered from there.

• Check out the farms: Plaw Hatch, Fernhill Farm, Great Cotmarsh Farm (Loopy Ewes), Tamarisk, Brickpits (but no website), and Hampen. There's plenty others to explore too through South West England Fibreshed's producer directory.

• Listen to the Farming Fashion three-part podcast series as part of Farmerama.

Read four other articles on this topic:

The Festival of Natural Fibres 2022.

A visit to Brickpits organic farm.

The current state of the UK fibre industry.

Regenerative Fashion book review.

Additional articles considering leather and dyes will follow, along with other leads from the myriad of Groundswell discussions, particularly on soil and biodiversity - and its relation to the fashion system.

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