And … we’re back!
In case it wasn’t clear from the prior 4 issues, sheep farming is a new thing for me/us. Erin, of course, knows more than the basics about running a (sheep) farm; I know considerably less about what to do with the outputs - meat, wool, dairy, breeding stock.
In the eagerness and excitement over this project I jumped headlong into the sexy part of sheep (no, not that sexy part, that’s Erin’s job) - wool. I started researching Icelandic wool, how to process wool, how to manufacture garments, what the supply chain looks like, and what retail looks like for wool garments1. I even acquired some Icelandic (and Corriedale) roving and bought an e-spinner to learn how to spin wool into yarn. I bought and started reading the amazing Fibershed book. It quickly became very clear to me that I am in way over my head.
Not only did I realize I am technically out of my depth (I am terrible at spinning), but I quickly realized that there are very real institutional hurdles to what we want to try to accomplish with our farm. The technical problems can be overcome with time and practice - they are not “hard” problems. The institutional problems however are actual “hard” problems.
What is a “hard” problem?
I define a hard problem as one that cannot be overcome simply by time, effort, or manpower. Lots of problems look “hard” because they take a lot of effort or gaining new knowledge or even inventing new knowledge. But these aren’t really hard problems. As the saying goes, put enough monkeys on typewriters and they will eventually write War and Peace. These problems can be solved by adding people, practicing, applying science, etc. It may take a budget that you don’t have, or people that you don’t have, or knowledge that you don’t have, but once you have those things, it’s simply a matter of putting them in motion. These are not “hard” problems - they have a solution, you just need the resources.
Hard problems are problems that, even with all of the resources necessary to complete the task, there is no clear way from the beginning to solve it. Hard problems don’t involve putting people to work; hard problems typically involve convincing other people to change their behavior, agree with others, or make social/cultural change. Regardless of how many people you put to the task, how much knowledge you have, how much science you do, getting people to agree with each other is not guaranteed. Want proof? See Israel and Palestine. That’s a hard problem.
So, what is my hard problem? Certainly not making a wool blanket; I can do that with enough time/effort/practice. But, commercially making and selling 1,000 (or 10,000 or 100,000 or whatever number you think is sufficiently large) Icelandic Wool undergarments using local thel2, local(ish) processors, and sustainable/regenerative manufacturing processes for a low-carbon final product? That’s a Hard Problem.
It is clear that there are two main issues making this a particularly hard problem. One is unique to Icelandic Sheep, the other is not. First, it turns out that there just is not a infrastructure for manufacturing garments from Icelandic Wool - the thing that makes them so unique - double coat, natural water resistance, differentiated colors - is also what makes them hard to process. The second is the industry is simply not set up for the kind of decentralized manufacturing necessary to be sustainable, let alone regenerative.
On its own Lopi (non-separated Icelandic wool) is not suitable for undergarments, but is OK for thicker sweaters or home goods. So, to make the technical garments to have a line of clothing appropriate for Campleisure (TM on that btw!) requires separating the tog (long outer layer) from the thel (short underlayer). Turns out nobody actually does this at any scale, let alone have commercial processes for doing it.
That natural water resistance? Comes from the lanolin in the sheep’s wool. Turns out for Icelandic wool normal scouring doesn’t remove it (nor do you want it removed). Also, it prevents dyes from sticking to the wool making the coloration from the dyes mottled at best.
The beautiful colors that Icelandic Sheep are known for? The industry (commercial scale production) doesn’t (for the most part) want anything other than white, so it can be dyed whatever color they want. The industry is not set up for natural colors and imperfect dyes - let alone the kinds of natural dyes and blended fibers that we would want to use to keep in line with our sustainability requirements.
In short, one of the biggest hurdles is that the industry doesn’t want Icelandic Wool because it is hard to process. So there simply isn’t an infrastructure for commercial scale production, let alone the kind of innovation and sustainability we are trying to accomplish. This is a Hard Problem.
Moreover, and we’ll talk about this more in future issues. The industry is very very centralized. Even the gold standard (to me at least), Duckworth, has their garments shipped all over the United States to accomplish their garment production (note: I am not begrudging them this at all - that they even managed to figure out how to accomplish this feat just staying in the United States was a major feat).
So, we aren’t abandoning. Oh no. I LOVE solving Hard Problems. It’s one of the things I’m actually really good at.
But it does mean that we won’t be focusing on garments to begin with. And, of course, if you think about it, it is a stupid place to start for a whole lot of reasons. Next time, we’ll talk about the actual strategic plan for launching this thing now that wool garment production is pushed to the back of the line while we focus on other things.
Much more later on all of this, but I did want to shout out the Australians and their Woolmark Certification Program that I am working through. It is a fantastic resource for learning about the industry.
You will recall from our prior issue that Thel is the soft, short undercoat of Icelandic Sheep that is similar to Merino wool.