Building Blocks of Sustainable Fibershed: Education, Green Livelihoods and Networking

From Fibershed founder Rebecca Burgess: Fibershed has three programs: a program to educate the general public on the value of locally farmed fiber and natural dyes, and realizing the need to develop the next generation of fiber farmers and dye farmers and skilled fiber technicians, we have also have a program called Sheep In Schools. The second program is really about green livelihoods, not simply green jobs but economic and skill based traditions. That speaks to some of the facilitation that we are doing around the Mendocino Wool Works project – a regional hub to take the fibershed of Northern California’s wool and turn it into fine gauge yarns that can be knit and woven into very wearable garments. We’re going to do the same for cotton and bast fibers, and you’ll see mills and green livelihoods created out of all this value added processing. And then the third program is how to network the farmers and artisans. We are transparent to one another, our activities from growing the fiber to the wearing it, all of those people should know about each other and they should know what one another are up to. When you create a thriving network you rely less on certification and verification and you rely on human to human relationships and trust. Being able to walk in the fields where the indigo is grown to dye your jeans, to know where that cotton was grown, and to be able to literally meet that person who grew your clothes. Thats how you build something that will stand the test of …