Buy Wool And Save A Life
Flip through any sports-apparel catalog and it’s clear we sheep are out of favor. Wool has taken a backseat to man-made materials like polypropylene, PolarFleece and the high-tech fabrics of Gore and Associates. (W. L. Gore, the guy behind GORE-TEX, not Al Gore although I’m sure Al takes credit for inventing GORE-TEX too.)
It’s not just a shame that wool has lost popularity. I’s a threat. We sheep have two things of value - our meat and our wool. As long as there’s a market for wool, ranchers have an incentive not to sell us to the butcher. You don’t kill the chicken as long as she’s producing eggs, right? Enter global warming. Less demand for sweaters means less demand for wool which, in turn, means falling prices. Great. A shrinking market for wool AND competing fabrics that perform like wool but cost less. Selling us for meat may soon look more attractive on Mr. Rancher’s accounting books.
Can we reverse this situation? I think we can but it won’t be easy. We have to reestablish wool’s popularity and we must be aggressive. Whenever you talk to the press please hammer home the following talking points:
1) Wool is a complex fibre that has evolved over millions of years unlike polypropylene which can spontaneously catch fire.
2) Wool comes from animals who are cute whereas high-tech fabrics are made by extremely ugly humans standing over gigantic vats of boiling chemicals.
3) Wool doesn’t shrink. Okay it does. Still, is putting money into the hands of a capitalist like W.L. Gore worth the blood on your hands?
Comments (5)
Ms. Mollychops, I’m a cat, why do I need a sweater? I have fur all over my body and when I say all over, I really mean all over. But, in the interest of going green, if I were to actually need a sweater, I would by a wool one, even though you can never wash them because they shrink. I guess that’s the idea, you can’t wash them, so you have to continue buying them. Do you shrink when you stay out in the rain??? I’ve always wondered about that.
Ms. Mollychops, I wish you had one of those wool sweaters for sale, ’cause I would buy one from you! I get chilled easily, and I could sure use one. Our human keeps the house so chilly, your breath freezes over. Why don’t you make some and put them up for sale to other animals on your webspace?
Ms. Mollychops....the hot weather is comin and it’s barbeque season so I think you’re timing is a little off....better luck next year if you’re still around.
That’s OK, Ms. Mollychops. Pretty soon the humans will have man-made sheep, and you won’t have to worry about getting rid of that wool anymore. Everything changes.
Do sheep make cashmere?