The Southeast Ohio Fibershed represents a focus on our growing textile ecosystem in the southeast Ohio region. At our core, we know textiles must support our climate ecosystem, not work against it, and that resilient textile development must also show a deep respect for the people who live and work here and the beautiful countryside that surrounds us.
We recognize that much of our work as educators and supporters of the use of natural fibers will focus on the farmers in our region who shepherd flocks of fiber-producing animals and steward the land they graze.
We also need to consider products made from other renewable sources, such as flax, hemp, and cotton to help us move away from petroleum-based textiles and toward fabrics that just feel right to wear.
The Southeast Ohio Fibershed is an affiliate of the main Fibershed organization based in San Geronimo, California. While affiliates generally follow the examples of Fibershed HQ, each affiliate usually starts by looking at and researching our region’s textile history and meld that with current or desired practice, and for us, we recognize what is possible right here in southeast Ohio.
Sheep are a large part of the historical food and fiber-sheds in this area, with at least one sheep farm near Athens County that has seen potentially seven generations of sheep farmers continuously on the same land! Today, for a lot of reasons, though, the wool from these animals generally goes to waste.
Part of the Southeast Ohio Fibershed’s work involves education for farmers to dispel their all-too-common perspective that wool has no value. As we move toward the development of sustainable textiles in the southeast region of Ohio, we hope to show farmers that their wool has value by identifying and developing supply chains for it, and, ultimately, pay for the will in a way that is meaningful to farmers. Cents on the pound does not sustain wool farming.
We also hope to introduce alternative crop opportunities to farmers interested in diversifying their operations. Flax and cotton are viable options to grow, however, we need to build the operational capacity to process it into cloth – or find enough handspinners and weavers to take on the daunting tasks of prepping this fiber and making cloth with it.
Three generations of people have grown up wearing clothes that are petroleum based or made with fibers that are chemically altered, causing widespread pollution from micro-plastics and chemical processes with effects we are only just beginning to understand.
The breakdown of our regional textile supply and production chains complicate the issues we face as we move forward to redevelop textiles with new business models that center our community with smaller scale manufacturing.
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