From Food to Fashion: A Spotlight On Regenerative Agriculture
While there are several areas for action for sustainability in fashion, the most powerful and positive outcomes come from the materials that our industry uses. The key themes at the 9th Future Fabrics Expo — RESTORE, REGENERATE, DIVERSIFY and INNOVATE — stressed the urgent message that we all need to contribute to reducing climate impacts by making positive choices around how our fibres and materials are grown, and by seeking responsible practices from our suppliers. An important anchor point at the Expo was an installation on regenerative agriculture, supported by Kering, to spotlight on how positive agricultural practices can address the climate change crisis.
WHAT IS REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE?
Regenerative Agriculture is a system of alternative farming practices that leverage the power of plants to keep carbon in the soil (carbon sequestration), increases the capacity of soils to hold water, enhances the resilience of crops while reducing excessive inputs of synthetic agricultural-chemicals, support the livelihoods of farmers, and regain the nutrient density of food.
According to non-profit organisation Regeneration International, the term refers to “farming and grazing practices that reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity.”
By choosing raw materials from suppliers that use regenerative agricultural practices, we can help restore our soils, regenerate the natural systems that support life on our planet, and contribute to decarbonising the planet. It is estimated that 30% of the need for climate action to remain within 1.5°C can be met through ‘nature-based solutions’, such as regenerative agriculture.
While regenerative agricultural practices check off most or all of our environmental criteria here at The Sustainable Angle (see more here), preserving and restoring biodiversity is a critical imperative as it underpins life and society. Read more below about biodiversity, one of the key criteria we use to assess our suppliers operations and materials:
SOIL HEALTH: THE SOLUTION
The atmosphere has always traded carbon with the soil. The biogeochemical cycle shown below (adapted from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) is part of earth’s natural cycle.
Image Credit: The Sustainable Angle. Adapted from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
However, since the Industrial Revolution, human activity has been releasing disproportionate amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. The cycle is no longer in harmony, and the carbon trapped in the atmosphere is now warming the planet. Intensive farming practices have led to huge areas of barren land that are now unable to effectively absorb carbon.
Through its use of agricultural raw materials, the fashion industry and its supply chains are directly linked to the degradation of soil, conversion of natural ecosystems and biodiversity loss. Recent farming practices have seen crops continually growing in intensive monocultural systems, heavily dependent upon chemical fertilizers, leading to chemical pollution, nutrient imbalances in soil, loss of water cycling, poor carbon retention and, ultimately, land deterioration and degradation. Soils host a quarter of our earth’s biodiversity — if we continue to degrade the soil at the current rate, the world will run out of topsoil in 60 years. (FAO)
“If we converted all global croplands and pastures to regenerative organic agriculture we could sequester more than 100% of current annual CO2 emissions.” – Rodale Institute
Healthy rich, nutrient-dense soil sequesters carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. When plants photosynthesize, they capture carbon in the air and draw it back into the earth, where it becomes food for microorganisms and mycelia, keeping the carbon cycle in balance. In regenerative agriculture, animals are integrated into the ecosystem and mimic wild grazing patterns in way that mitigates damage to land caused by overgrazing, switching between grazing and resting periods.
The Regenerative Agriculture installation at the 9th Future Fabrics Expo
The Regenerative Agriculture installation at the Expo created an informative, and immersive experience, showcasing best-practice textiles and leathers that were produced using regenerative farming principles from all around the world: regenerative silks ; reinvented classic fibres such as wools certified by the Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) and mohair certified by Mohair South Africa (MSA), and regenerative cottons; forgotten plant fibres such as linen, hemp, ramie and nettle; wild animal fibres such as yak, alpaca and wild silks.
Sourcing natural fibres produced using regenerative agriculture principles can build soil, enhance biodiversity both above and below ground, leveraging the power of plants to keep carbon in the soil and increasing the capacity of soils to hold water.
“Fashion is so intrinsically linked to agriculture, land and forests – it is now time to ask how we can give back. There is a real shift happening, fashion is a bit late to the party, but it has an incredible role to play in this next decade of change.” – Dr. Helen Crowley, Liu-walton Fellow & Senior Advisor Resilient Supply Chains, Conservation International
“Regenerate and Restore: how fashion can have a positive impact with nature based solutions” was the topic of focus in one of the Expo’s panel discussions, as part of our seminar series in partnership with Parley for the Oceans. Moderated by renowned journalist Clare Press and featuring Dr. Helen Crowley, Representative of Conservation International, Sheila Cooke, leader of the 3LM Savory Network, and Tommaso Rulli, owner of MTI USA. The panel discussed and highlighted the integral importance of regenerative agricultural principles in the fashion supply chain. Watch the panel discussion here:
CHANGE NOW CONFERENCE, PARIS
In tandem with our Regenerative Agriculture installation at our 9th Future Fabrics Expo, we also presented a curated selection of our of best practice regenerative materials at the CHANGE NOW International Summit for Change at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Image Credit: Forbes Magazine
BRANDS: POSITIVE ACTION CASE STUDIES
As a first in fashion and Luxury, Kering became a Frontier Founder under Savory’s Land to Market™ programme to advocate verified regenerative sourcing solutions and expand the framework of sustainable sourcing in fashion’s global supply chains. This will provide the Group with a solution that includes key raw materials with verified positive environmental and social benefits and traceability back to the farm.
US designer Eileen Fisher has also spoken about her new passion for regenerative farming in a recent Vogue interview;
“I love this [topic] because this is one of the places where we can make a positive impact, rather than just pollute less or do less harm, we can actually revive the earth through the process of making clothes.”
Outdoor clothing company North Face have teamed up with Fibershed to produce wool using regenerative farming methods. The land is managed correctly with appropriate cover crops and managed grazing, this grazing and the animals manure actually assists the land in regenerating and becoming a much more effective carbon sink.
Visionary brand Patagonia has put together a roadmap of certifications and initiatives which have incorporated their Regenerative Organic Certification requirements. The company is well known for spearheading organic cotton in the early ’90s and has just released its first collection of T-shirts made from regenerative organic cotton from farms in India.
“Agriculture really represents the best chance that we have of mitigating and ending the climate crisis. The science is saying that if we converted all industrialized agriculture to regenerative, organic practices, we could sequester all the world’s carbon.” – Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario
LEARN MORE
Explore the definitions surrounding regenerative agriculture, learn about indicators of soil health and the positive impact on climate – visit www.futurefabricsvirtualexpo.com and click on ‘Learn More’ for further information.
