Local textile cultures called "fibersheds" offer an alternative to mass production by seeking to utilize regional agriculture, enhance ecological balance, and strengthen communities.
This photo essay, which includes audio recordings, depicts life on Mimi Luebbermann's Windrush Farm in Chileno Valley, California, where she raises sheep and educates the public about wool and fiber arts. Luebbermann supports the creation of local textile cultures called "fibersheds." A fibershed is a geological region where one can source all the fibers and dye plants to create their own garments. According to fibershed.com, in 1965, 95 percent of clothing in the American closet was made in America. Today, less than 5 percent of our clothes are made in the U.S. Most American clothing is mass-produced and sourced outside of the U.S. in order to bypass policies, unions, and costs. After agriculture, the textile industry is the number one polluter of fresh water resources on the planet, mainly due to hazardous fabric dye runoff.
Wool, unlike other fibers, does not require pesticides for growing or chemicals for processing. As a natural fiber, wool insulates and pulls moisture away from a surface as well as offers a tactile sensation incomparable to synthetic fibers. Luebbermann co-founded a wool Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA), called Local Pastures, which supplies knitters with yarn from shepherds within a 150-mile radius.
Connections to National Standards
Common Core English Language Arts. SL.9-10.5 and SL.11-12.5. Make use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understandings of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies. D2.Geo.2.9-12. Use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between locations of places and regions and their political, cultural, and economic dynamics.
Next Generation Science Standards. HS-LS2-7. Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.