Article by Zoe Gilbertson – a fashion ecologist, textile systems designer and educator, working at the intersections of fashion, farming and fibre
I’ve been involved in sustainable fashion for 20-plus years and in that time the use of fossil-fuel based fibres and the production of fast fashion has increased exponentially.
This year I was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to explore building resilience through bioregional material production centred on nature and community. I journeyed around Europe by train and North America online to look for knowledge, small-scale machinery and cooperative methods to support the growing, processing and production of bast fibres such as flax, hemp.
Linen requires huge amounts of knowledge to work into a wearable textile – the growing knowledge mainly resides in France and Belgium with some spinning and textile processing knowledge. Scutching facilities are abundant in Normandy and Belgium but they are rare in many European locations and lie at the root of why new linen production is difficult. Although most flax straw is grown in France and Belgium, after scutching 90 per cent of it is shipped to China for spinning and processing into textile.
In the UK we are starting to develop relatively decent wool supply chains but flax and hemp infrastructure is non existent.
There are a growing number of people who are working hard to recover the knowledge we need to bring this back this important industry. I visited many people working on smaller scale systems across Europe and online in North America to support the knowledge sharing process.
My report – Bioregional resilience through bast fibres – contains a huge amount of detail but here are the key learnings from my research:
One – Flax and hemp can support organic crop rotations whilst creating valuable and useful outputs. Hemp appears to be a fantastic break crop and its rotation is shorter than flax. It has the potential to clear stubborn weeds at the end of a rotation and can be easily managed in an organic system.
Two – Food and building materials derived from hemp and flax are simpler to produce than textiles. A new system could begin with these to generate revenue for farmers, alongside developing collective skill in processing textile yarn.
Three – Farming hemp can provide multiple different products within a carefully designed supply network. The case for hemp and building materials is clear as they’re simpler to process; textiles have great potential but will require patience and investment in time to develop the knowledge and systems.
Four – Cross sector planning for staged outputs, starting with food/building while progressing to textiles makes economic sense. Textiles can ultimately bring more value and can connect people to land and farming through culture.
Five – Weed management is the key consideration when growing flax at any scale. It is a more technical crop. However, weed suppression using carefully planned mixed livestock/arable rotations can work well. There are many highly profitable organic mixed dairy/arable farms in Normandy. Growing flax ‘regeneratively’ i.e. no-till, will usually require the extensive use of glyphosate which must be avoided.
Six – Farmers should consider growing flax and hemp, not just one or the other. The French are quickly transitioning to a system that includes an even distribution of both winter and spring hemp and flax; acknowledging that diversity in an uncertain climate is a resilient strategy. They have increased hemp production from 100 – 1000ha in 3 years.
Seven – Development of small scale pulling, cutting and turning equipment for bast fibres is needed. Small second-hand machines are around 10-20K but they are very rare. New machines are enormous and expensive.
Eight – Scales of processing machinery are viewed differently depending on context. Something considered small in France would be medium/large scale in the UK.
Nine – Just as there is a need for small abattoirs and micro tanneries, we are missing farm scale production of bast fibres. A large-scale scutching mill made up of multiple lines costs approximately £15m to set up and will service 3000ha. A medium scale scutching mill will cost £3m and service 1000ha. A collective of Brittany organic farmers are trying to develop smaller machinery that will service 32ha and has the potential to produce 30 tonnes of scutched flax, this could create 30,000m of cloth and 23,000 pairs of jeans. This scale will be good for UK local production.
In conclusion, machinery is not place specific like cultivation. There are many small groups in Europe exploring smaller scale production with an aim to be led by values rather than large profits. International collaboration is not easy but if like-minded collectives could progress the development of open-source machines together then the benefits and costs can be shared.
This open source attitude is a form of commoning. Commons are created by collectively caring for social networks, knowledge, cultural practices, heritage and resources which are shared for the benefit of everyone in the community. Living processes of commoning can enable people to co-create a sense of purpose, meaning and belonging while meeting important needs. It creates a framework from which to experiment and build new ways of working together and generates value in ways not easily captured by markets and prices.
Flax and hemp can help farmers with regenerative crop rotations, they can support supply chains to phase out plastic and chemicals. With more than six times the clothing needed in the world, we can only justify UK textile production if we capture carbon, increase biodiversity but more importantly create fulfilling, purposeful, sustainable livelihoods.
Clothing and fashion have the opportunity to help people experience the joy of working with local materials and understanding the value of putting natural, social and cultural capitals above financial. It is an important fundamental human need that must be provisioned for but we must change our approach.
Small scale processing set-ups in the UK would create a resilient, bioregional, agroecological support system to support local enterprise emergence & community collaboration. With determination, cooperation, and careful planning, new fibre systems will be possible.
With the right attitude, a sustainable world could be developed outside of market and state. The work is now to create experimental enterprises, encourage more growing and bring this ancient knowledge back.
Read Zoe Gilbertson’s report, Bioregional resilience through bast fibres
If you are interested in small scale production of bast fibres please join the Bast Fibre Network