Organic items were once looked upon as a fad, a trend for the “health nuts” among us and, let’s face it, most of us thought those people were a little bit nuts. But organic products have been around for thousands of years; they are nothing new, we are just rediscovering them and finding out how beneficial they are to our health and the health of our environment. Organic wool is an item that most of us would be glad to buy if we knew all the benefits it could bring.
Wool has always been a staple of the average household. It repels water, keeps us warm when the weather is cold and since the fibers stick together naturally it is easy to spin. It’s durable, wrinkle and stain resistant and easy to dye. The sheep that it comes from are a renewable resource, yielding an average of 20 pounds of wool each year. Wool maintains its shape and is hypo allergenic, resistant to bacteria, mold and mildew and is naturally flame retardant. In fact, firefighters wear wool under their turnouts to protect them.
So aren’t sheep organic already?
Sheep themselves are natural and therefore they qualify as organic. But once they are in the hands of ranchers, their organic qualities are usually a thing of the past. Synthetic pesticides are used to keep them free of ticks and fleas and are used on the pastures they graze upon. Hormones and steroids are added to their food to make them grow faster or yield more meat and some ewes are even given hormones to encourage fertility. Sheep are genetically modified to increase the amount of wool that they grow; some sheep modified in this manner die of heat exhaustion from their heavy coats
In order to qualify as organic wool growers, farmers have to adhere to a strict set of rules. The pastures their sheep graze in must be pesticide free for at least three years before the sheep are turned out into it. The grass must be sufficient for the size of the flock, for over-grazing would cause a farmer to lose his organic certification. Any grain or supplements the sheep are given must also be natural and pesticide and hormone free. The sheep cannot be chemically treated for fleas and ticks so farmers find natural ways to keep the pests at bay, such as organic brewer’s yeast or organically grown garlic. During and after shearing, wool from organic sheep must be kept separate from non-organic wool during the cleaning, carding and spinning and any dyes used must be metal-free.
Organic sheep farmers are also prohibited from the practice of “mulesing”, a cruel and inhumane practice that involves removing strips of skin from the sheep’s hindquarters to prevent flystrike. Flystrike is the common name for myiasis, a disease caused by fly larvae feeding on the sheep’s flesh. Mulesing is done by tearing the skin off without anesthetic and without regard to the misery it causes a sheep.
Buying organic wool also means that you are encouraging responsible shearing practices. Shearers are paid per sheep so they try to shear as many sheep possible in the least amount of time. This often means that sheep are injured through rough handling and careless movements that leave them with painful wounds from the sharp blades of the shears. Organic sheep farmers are regularly inspected during and after shearing to insure that the sheep have been treated humanely.
In 2001 a total of 2300 sheep yielded nearly 30,000 pounds of wool in the United States and Canada. Most of those sheep were grazed and sheared in the Western United States where the human population is relatively small and the grasslands are extensive. New Mexico is the main producer of organic wool, providing 81% of the organic wool in the United States.
Wool is very popular as bedding since it keeps you warm in cold weather and comfortable in the summer. That is why the desert dwellers in the Sahara Desert have worn wool for centuries to keep them dry and comfortable in even the worst heat! Wool can absorb the pint of water vapor the average body gives off during a night’s sleep without becoming wet and clammy.
Many people avoid buying organic wool because of the price but farmers are trying to find ways to cut their overhead and thus the price of the wool. Those that do spend a few extra dollars on a wool blanket, sweater or other item can rest easy knowing that their item comes from a free-ranging, well cared for and humanely treated animal.