Fibreshed is spreading a model for regenerative and local textile production around the world
from the Fibershed blog
We’ve had Fibershed lurking around as something we should cover - it’s time we did.
The term ‘Fibershed’ was first coined by Rebecca Burgess in 2011 to describe the geographical area within 150 miles of her home in California from which she sourced fibres, dyes and labour to create a wardrobe of clothes. The Fibershed Affiliate Programme has now spawned a global grass roots network that includes four registered affiliates in the UK.
Each Fibershed decides its own priorities and focus but common to all is a membership directory of farmers, designers, weavers, makers, mill owners, natural dyers and fashion activists aligned to the Fibershed values of a ‘local and fair economy and ecological balance.’
From their mission/vision page (Fiber left in the American spelling):
Fibershed is a non-profit organization that develops regional fiber systems that build ecosystem and community health. Our work expands opportunities to implement climate benefitting agriculture, rebuild regional manufacturing, and connect end-users to the source of our fiber through education.
We transform the economic systems behind the production of material culture to mitigate climate change, improve health, and contribute to racial and economic equity.
We envision a textile system that embraces the values of de-colonized and equitable soil-to-skin processes. We will strengthen an international system of diverse textile communities that directly enhance regional economies, for the purpose of generating permanent and lasting systems of localized fiber production. These regional land regenerating production systems will diminish pressure on the ecologically undermined areas of the world.
We see a nourishing tradition emerging that connects the wearer to local fields where clothes are grown in a system that can last for countless generations into the future. Through a host of scientifically vetted soil carbon enhancing practices, our supply chains will create ‘climate beneficial’ clothing that will become the new standard.
We envision a world looking to rapidly mitigate the effects of climate change where consumers, manufacturers, designers, and ecologists collectively rethink and reimagine the lifecycle of garments.
For doing this work, Fibershed and their partners have just received a 30m dollar grant from the Biden administration in the USA, to “expand climate beneficial wool and cotton production”. From their press release:
The 20-year greenhouse gas impact of practices implemented on a share of the participating farms during the grant period is projected to be a reduction of at least three million metric tons of CO2. Other benefits will include reduced application of synthetic fertilizers, improved soil health, and increased soil organic matter, water holding capacity, and enhanced resilience to a changing climate.
A newly created, open-source, Carbon Farm Planning and Verification Platform will streamline climate-smart agriculture (CSA) planning and verification for producers, verifiers, and supply-chain stakeholders alike. The project aims to meet the equity goals of the Justice40 Initiative and will prioritize engagement with traditionally underserved producers.
More here. The British magazine Ethical Consumer reported in late 2021 on the growing emulators of the Fibershed model in the UK. Extract below:
As the devastating social and environmental impact of fast fashion becomes more widely understood, the Fibreshed movement is gaining traction in the UK. There is a growing interest from designers and end users in sourcing regenerative, regional textiles with a verifiable transparent supply network from farm to processor, maker and end user.
The challenges of meeting this demand are common to all four UK Fibresheds and are largely the consequence of offshoring our fashion and textile industry. They include:
the loss of spinning and weaving mills for cellulose fibres
a shortage of small-scale wool processing and organic processing facilities
the lack of commercial scale botanical plant dyes, and
the breakdown of supply networks.
The UK Fibresheds are currently run on a voluntary basis, but all have secured project funding for 2021 to start to rebuild the connection between farming and fashion.
A Wales Fibreshed was established earlier in 2021 and is working with Gower Flax CIC to create a model for growing and processing fibre flax at scale on an organic farm in Swansea, to create a certified organic regenerative textile.
A North West England Fibreshed situated in the historic heartland of British textiles is working with the British Textile Biennial for 2021 on the Homegrown Homespun project. They aim to grow a woad-dyed flax garment in time for the Textile Biennial this October.
A South East England Fibreshed, founded in autumn 2019, has a micro grant from Fibershed USA to explore the commercial potential of growing botanical dye plants with three trial sites on farms in Sussex, and to build links between farmers and growers and the London design community.
A South West England Fibreshed, the longest established Fibreshed in the UK, has recently received funding to create a source book, make a film exploring the connection between farming and fashion and map the capacity of UK textile artisans and manufacturers for small to medium scale processing of natural fibres.
The UK Fibreshed movement is at the beginning of a long journey that takes inspiration from what has been achieved in California. It seeks to work collaboratively to realise its vision for producing clothing available to all, created from soil-to-soil systems that nourish our bodies, the biosphere and our fragile ecosystems.