Solutions in Farming and Fiber
This past summer I had the chance to expose students 1st-8th about the effects of synthetic dyes, overseas garnment production and the rest of the whole picture. The image I placed on the slide show seemed to have struck a couple people, and I was surprised to later find the same image on Fibershed's report on Indigo. The underlying issues of synthetic dues are the hidden cost of their toxic nature. While effects have not been thoroughly documented, images like this leave a lot to the imagination as far as what it is doing to waterways in various parts of Asia like India and China.
I was surprised to learn from a collegue that when asked about the summer program a student talked about natural dyes and the pollution of rivers. This awareness helped me to see that we are in the time that their problem is our problem, and a problem for this generation to tackle.
While the problems seem vast, it is always enlightening to know there have been and are people already up to the task in helping bring a viable solution. I point back to Fibershed again who have been researching and putting things into action regarding local production in farming and fiber production. By sourcing their latest reportIndigo: Sources, Processes and Possibilities for Bioregional Blue I found a number of answers to the questions I had been asking.
Their conclusions derive that natural indigo alone would not serve as the sole replacement of all synthetic indigo produced today. Currently natural indigo serves 1% of what is being used worldwide. The amount of land and water required to process this is not realistic. What has been proposed is undiscovered methods needing to be researched on how to merge the production of both natural and synthetic.
The underlying problem in production is not so much the means but largely in the system itself. The amount of fabric being produced and consumed is largely what is causing harm. One of the suggested solutions is demonstrating a symbiotic relationship between land and people, farm and fiber, that work to produce something together. Responsible production takes more time, but produces higher value and benefits local economies and people in the long run.
As a dyer, I may be able to create a few pieces for myself, as a weaver I may be able to create a piece of fabric that I could give to a dyer, as a farmer I may be able to grow and harvest a plant to produce color to give to a dyer. With this type of collaboration we can envision a circular production system that gives back as much as it gives out.
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