Agraria_Journal_WINTER_2022

AGRARIA JOURNAL 2022 23 We Are What We Wear AN INTERVIEW WITH FIBERSHED’S REBECCA BURGESS BY MEGAN BACHMAN What is needed to feed and clothe people? It’s an essential question. But only one-half is answered by our movement to cultivate local food systems using regenerative land practices. One organization, however, is weaving a vision for a robust food and fiber economy, where rotational grazing, soil- building and silvopasture contribute to a vital resilience. In a country with less than 1 percent of its own fiber production, Fibershed, a California-based nonprofit with a national affiliate network, is catalyzing new ventures, building regional fiber economies that include a variety of producers, from regenerative smallholder ranchers to small-scale textile mills to artisan seamstresses and designers. Earlier this season, its founder and director, Rebecca Burgess, talked about why fiber needs to be a part of the regenerative land use conversation. Burgess is the author of the best-selling book Harvesting Color , a bioregional look into the natural dye traditions of North America, and Fibershed: Growing a Movement of Farmers, Fashion Activists, and Makers for a New Textile Economy . The interview has been edited for length. Bachman: People think a lot about food miles and what they’re eating and maybe where their energy comes from. But why does it matter to think about what we’re wearing, where it comes from and what goes into it? Burgess: The reasons for paying attention to one’s clothing, and its source, are pretty similar to why we would want to know where our water and food is coming from, or the materials that build our home or where our medicine comes from. Our clothing is tied to all of these ways in which land is stewarded, and it connects to all of the issues we look at in rural communities that we care about, like land access. All those issues come into play in the fiber system as much as they do in the food system. So we have work to do to improve it, and we can’t really improve anything if we’re not putting our attention there. Our work is primarily to help people put their attention onto clothing as a form of agriculture. It’s helpful to ruminate on that and then start asking questions and figure out how to align one’s values, what you care about, with your clothing. PAIGE GREEN The Hulsman Ranch, a Fibershed producer, is a fourth-generation family farm dating back to 1862. It’s been owned and run by women since 1914. Photo courtesy of Fibershed.