Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
Thursday, February 09, 2017
Your Gear is Saving American Wool Ranchers
But there’s an upside to the harsh American West: the sunny, arid
climate spurs the animals to produce small-diameter wool fibers that
can make a merino-grade garment. “American wool is loftier,” says Rita
Samuelson, marketing director of the American Wool Council. “It tends to
be spongy, due to a combination of genetics, nutrition, and
environmental conditions.” Recently, outdoor brands have started paying top dollar to include
American wool in their goods, revitalizing what was once a dying
industry. Farm to Feet
uses U.S. wool in its socks, which you can find in nearly 800 stores,
including Cabela’s and REI. So does Bozeman, Montana, apparel maker Duckworth, which owns a flock of more than 10,000 sheep and controls every stage of its U.S.-based manufacturing process. Voormi,
a Colorado company, combines wool produced in the Rocky Mountains with
synthetics to engineer fabrics that the company says perform better than
wool alone. And Patagonia, which took a PR hit last year when PETA posted a video of its South American suppliers skinning live lambs, has revamped its supply chain and is now sourcing American wool for many of its socks. This is a major change from a decade ago. In 2007, the American Sheep Industry Association reported that 71 percent of U.S. wool was exported. Today only half is...more
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment