The Food & Fibers Project

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The Food & Fibers Project The Food & Fibers Project is a multimedia collection of stories aimed at making the connections between what we eat and what we wear.

01/07/2019
Never gonna give you up: how plastic seduced America

Plastic is everywhere, from the grocery store to our wardrobes. "Synthetic materials took over our economy, our lifestyles, and our imaginations."

Once we lived without it, now we can’t escape it. A historian unpacks the origins of our plastic addiction

24/06/2019
Pizza for boys, cupcakes for girls—and junk food for all

"What Pesch and her team found is that more than one out of every 12 clothing items they’d examined featured food in some way. And 72 percent of the clothing was coded as being either unhealthy or moderate. That fits neatly with pervasive notions about which foods are “fun!”—and which ones are less so. Pizza and cake are treats associated with comfort or celebration, while broccoli and Brussels sprouts get pushed around a plate or tossed into the trash. (Out of 3,800-plus items, only five portrayed vegetables.)"

A new study takes stock of how often food imagery appears on children’s apparel. Turns out, it happens a lot—and there are gendered divides.

19/06/2019

Dresses made from spaghetti??? Absolutely not functional but artistically stunning.
"French interior designer and visual artist Alice Pegna says she’s attracted to surprising and unexpected materials. Her work, guided by experimentation, takes inspiration from nature and its intricate structures. For Ex Nihilo, an ongoing project by Pegna, the creative takes spaghetti and transforms the pasta sticks into geometric dresses and headpieces that stand out in their delicacy and structure."
https://www.designboom.com/art/alice-pegna-ex-nihilo-spaghetti-dresses-06-18-2019

18/06/2019

Wait WHAT???? Old bread becomes new textiles???
It's true.
"We have seen that much of the food waste from grocery stores is from bread and therefore we wanted to see how we could turn it into a new product, says Akram Zamani.
Filamentous fungi will be grown on bread waste in bioreactors, and will then be used in two different processes to create yarn and to produce nonwoven textiles."
Bioreactors and bread?
Read story here: https://phys.org/news/2019-06-bread-textiles.html

22/05/2019

Creative Chef combines product design and food to create meaningful dining experiences. Keeping with their mission to bring everyone together over food in unexpected ways, the designers decided to transform one of the most common dining accessories: table linens.

At first glance, the textiles appear to be just a colorful, visual treat, but their pattern is actually scannable sound waves, which when scanned create a musical composition to listen to over a meal. The idea is that the phone with the scanning app can be passed around the table, and each time a guest scans their placemat or section of the tablecloth, a new sound is added to the piece.
What else could these linens tell people at the table regarding fast food or fast fashion???
More on Core77: https://www.core77.com/posts/88394/Meet-5-Textile-Focused-Dutch-Designers-Exhibiting-at-Ventura-New-York

15/05/2019

Eater writes a great article (and case for/against) "Why Genetically Engineered Foods (and Fiber) Have Some Scientists Nervous About the Future."
"Originally used to produce medicines, biofuels, and super bacteria designed to eat oil spills, synthetic biology is increasingly being applied to the production of food and fiber — from vegan burgers to 'spider silk,' feed for farmed fish, synthetic flavors, and animal-free egg whites."
MUST READ: https://www.eater.com/2019/5/14/18623258/impossible-foods-synthetic-lab-grown-meat-science

26/04/2019
The Next Wave of Sustainable Fashion Is All About Regenerative Farming

"Regenerative farming has seen its most significant traction in the natural food space, but fashion brands are making serious inroads, too. In December, Kering announced a partnership with the Savory Institute, an NGO dedicated to the support of holistic land management and regenerative practices. The goal of the partnership is to help identify and develop a network of farms that Kering can use to source leather and fibers like cashmere, wool and cotton.

"Two thirds of environmental impact takes place at the very beginning of the supply chain at the raw material level," explains Vallejo on the phone. "We knew that if we wanted to be efficient in reducing our environmental impact, we had to act on that."

What you need to know about the sustainability buzzword that's going to be everywhere in a few years.

25/04/2019
4 Simple Guidelines from the Fibershed Clothing Guide – Fibershed

A great (and simple) guide to slow fashion from our friends at Fibershed.

4 Simple Guidelines from the Fibershed Clothing Guide Posted on April 22, 2019 by Fibershed Written by Jess Daniels based on the Fibershed Clothing Guide, available now as a free download Visuals created with Paige Green Photography except for the microplastic image courtesy of the Rozalia Project I...

05/03/2019
We have to fix fashion if we want to survive the climate crisis

"Fashion brands, I’m talking to you: Enough is enough. Stop making me think it is normal to shop all the time, not just when I need something. You make flimsy dresses in cheap factories, and I snap them up. You drop new items every day, then send me emails–freakily customized to my tastes–telling me I must buy them right now, or they will sell out. And I believe you. To make room for new outfits, I schedule regular trips to Goodwill to donate the old ones, which will likely end up in a landfill anyway. (In California alone, Goodwill spends $7 million on dumping clothes.)"

The industry churned out 100 billion pieces of clothing for 7 billion people in 2015. The problem is so bad, some brands are burning unsold inventory. The waste has got to stop.

18/01/2019

“Our seasons are like a tasting menu at a restaurant. You’re going to come back for a unique experience, not the thing you had last year when you came. It’s seasonal, and we’re pushing the level. Slow food pioneered all of this. What we’re doing, wellness, all of it. It’s reshaped the way people dine, and the way that people live. It’s about experiences, not something that’s cold and transactional.” — Max Kingery of co-founder of Older Brother clothing
More here on how "These Designers Just Want You to Get Amped About Their Chaga-Dyed Clothes" via Healthyish: https://www.bonappetit.com/gallery/olderbrother

03/01/2019
Opinion | The Feminist Power of Embroidery

“because of its history and associations embroidery evokes and inculcates femininity in the embroiderer. But it can also lead women to an awareness of the extraordinary constraints of femininity, providing at times a means of negotiating them, and at other times provoking the desire to escape.”

When I pick up needle and thread, I join a long line of women who have turned the domestic arts into political expression.

19/12/2018

Great article on Civil Eats. Thanks to our friend LocalFiber for posting.

This Veteran Learned the Value of American Wool in the Army. Now He’s Raising His Own Sheep.
"After nearly 30 years in the Army, John Lemondes is growing a sustainable farm operation while helping other veterans gain a foothold in farming."
https://civileats.com/2018/11/12/this-veteran-learned-the-value-of-american-wool-in-the-army-now-hes-raising-his-own-sheep/?fbclid=IwAR3isB1IO9cflRS8VfR-EK4VQm8n0M3MsVtzHNM66Lbt931dcDhRU5mJgX0

17/09/2018

Natural dyeing with onion skins, local black walnuts and poke berries this weekend on Cape Cod, wondering what life would be like if we dyed our clothes only with nature.

15/09/2018

Well we love this Botanical Colors and California Cloth Foundry more than you know!

Cheers to California Cloth Foundry for their (Botanical Colors dyes) GREEN farm-to-tablecloths for Alice Waters' Global Climate Action Summit dinner last night in SF!

CCF founder Lydia Wendt says "We are thrilled that we were chosen to produce local, botanical, organic tablecloths for this event!
Made with organic Texas cotton, dyed in an all natural recipe and sewn in LA, they represent a local, sustainable supply chain utilizing only clean green ingredients.
We are grateful to be a contributor to this Global Climate Action Summit, hosted by local chefs and volunteers providing a dinner for 500+ that meets the criteria of local and organic."
Learn more about California Cloth Foundry here: https://clothfoundry.com/

And the very important summit here: https://www.globalclimateactionsummit.org/

07/09/2018
‘We Are All Accumulating Mountains of Things’

"Shopping online also feels good. Humans get a dopamine hit from buying stuff, according to research by Ann-Christine Duhaime, a professor of neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School. “As a general rule, your brain tweaks you to want more, more, more—indeed, more than those around you—both of ‘stuff’ and of stimulation and novelty —because that helped you survive in the distant past of brain evolution,” Duhaime wrote in a Harvard Business Review essay last year. Online shopping allows us to get that dopamine hit, and then also experience delayed gratification when the order arrives a few days later, which may make it more physiologically rewarding than shopping in stores."

What are your strategies for avoiding this? How do we shift away from this rampant consumer culture? Would love to hear your thoughts?

How online shopping and cheap prices are turning Americans into hoarders

14/08/2018

We are wishing that somewhere in this story that sustainability was mentioned but with Joe Mimran, founder of Joe Fresh behind the wheel, you are so not going to see that.

"Grocery Stores Turn Fashion Destinations With New Collections."
Robert Clark, Kroger’s SVP of merchandising, added, “We know customers want to quickly pop in and out of the apparel department, not spend hours browsing. Great style you can just grab, go, and enjoy, at a great price; that’s the promise. This is an invitation to ‘Dip into simple. Dip into style.'”
Because clothing should be so accessible like dip.
https://sourcingjournal.com/topics/retail/kroger-meijer-apparel-colletion-114888/

13/08/2018
Oregon Linen Primer

Want to learn more about linen production in Oregon? Check out Fibrevolution's Oregon Linen Primer event on August 30. RSVP in link.

Oregon's Willamette Valley has a storied history with linen fiber, and a bright future ahead. Shannon Welsh and Angela Wartes-Kahl of Fibrevolution, present a primer about this incredible bast fiber and its close relatives, its evolution worldwide and in our region as well where this revived industr...

07/08/2018
Events

Hey Oregon friends: want to help Fibrevolution in their community flax harvest? "Fibrevolution is gathering and seeking volunteers for our annual community flax harvest. Please join us on Sunday August 27th at 10 AM to harvest our organic flax at the Lewis Brown Farm. The OSU Department of Horticulture operates this 115 acre farm, which is just east of Corvallis. Plantings and field laboratories at this location are used in field plot research work. With this crop we will be conducting field retting research, fiber quality analysis, and fiber flax seed grow out, with the mission of producing linen yarn and cloth. If you are interested in volunteering to harvest, please email [email protected] ​for details."

06/08/2018
How Avocado and Other Fruits Can Remove Pollutants From Water

Pretty fascinating video about how avocado peels can be used to clean up pollution.
The project focused on industrial effluents such as dyes and heavy metal ions.
"On a large scale, Samet envisions the peels may one day provide an affordable solution in parts of the world with dwindling supplies of clean, safe drinking water."

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-08-natural-low-cost-ways-pollutants.html

Cindy Samet '82, professor of chemistry at Dickinson College, demonstrates how an avocado peel can filter pollutants from water.

27/07/2018
As customers turn away from leather shoes, the beef industry is left with a glut of hides

"The leather industry buys up many of the hides left over as a byproduct from the process that turns cattle into the various cuts of beef that wind up in restaurants and grocery stores. That leather is used for all sorts of items, but the footwear industry is its biggest buyer, according to Bloomberg, accounting for 55% of demand. It’s a good relationship, ensuring that little goes to waste.

It’s getting thrown out of balance, though, as the world’s people—and Americans in particular—eat more US beef but are losing their desire for leather shoes. The consequence, Bloomberg reports, is a surplus of steer hides and falling prices as supply grows out of scale with demand."

Shoes and hamburgers have sort of a symbiotic relationship.

10/07/2018
Feeling blue? How this entrepreneur revitalized a natural dye industry

"Regenerative agriculture, or agriculture that restores the carbon content of the soil, Is the 11th most impactful solution to climate change according to Project Drawdown. At scale, regenerative agriculture practices, including no tillage, no pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, and diverse cover crops, can mitigate about 23 gigatons of carbon dioxide by 2050.

Synthetic indigo makes up more than 99 percent of the indigo dye market. Most is made from a single, vast factory in Inner Mongolia. In the mainstream process, indigo synthesis requires feedstocks such as benzene and formaldehyde and high temperatures from coal fired power plants; the process creates reaction byproducts such as ammonia gas and sodium sulfite."

With regenerative agriculture and carbon capture, Stony Creek Colors is pioneering into the new sustainable textile industry.

05/07/2018
The Slow Craft of Food and Color: Q&A with Maggie Pate of NÅDE Studio

"Oftentimes, I feel like a linguist trying to keep a dead language alive. Natural dyeing and weaving are lost arts. Companies use synthetic dyes and fibers and they use machines to speed up production to stay ahead of the demands of fast fashion and the consumers’ need for immediacy. Slow craft is dying off rapidly. There is zero connection to place and time." Interview with Maggie Pate of Nåde Studio on the blog today!

Maggie Pate of NÅDE Studio uses food and fiber as inspiration for her textile arts.

29/06/2018
Quilts as Tools for Resistance

Happy Friday. Keep resisting, in any form that works for you.

Embedded in this year’s QuiltCon, which featured over 350 works, were acts of protest.

18/06/2018

Can food waste take over the fashion industry?

Around the world, people eat around 100 billion bananas every year. That creates around 270 million tons of waste–from peels to stalks–which are often burned or left to rot.
Isaac Nichelson, a three-decade veteran of the sustainable fashion industry, learned of the magnitude of this waste and saw an opportunity. Food crop waste like banana by-products, pineapple leaves, flax and h**p stalk, and the waste from crushing sugar cane can be collected and spun into a natural fiber that can be woven into garments.
More here on Fast Company: https://www.fastcompany.com/40584274/food-waste-is-going-to-take-over-the-fashion-industry

12/06/2018
Carbon Farming Works. Can It Scale up in Time to Make a Difference? | Civil Eats

“We’ve discovered that there’s a version of agriculture that actually could transform atmospheric carbon into carbohydrates [i.e., grass] and soil carbon,” says Wick, who has spent over a decade evangelizing the benefits of carbon farming on his own ranch and envisioning a state where such practices become the norm. “So for us the challenge is how do we communicate that? Now that we have this new understanding, how do we inspire people to put new importance on the same old things that we’ve always looked at—like sunshine, rain, and soil?" via Civil Eats - featuring our friends at Fibershed

The knowledge and tools to sequester carbon on farmland have blossomed rapidly in California; now farmers and ranchers just need funding to make it happen.

10/06/2018

Franny's Farm​ is a small organic farm in Asheville, NC that is not only a big h**p advocate but among the first in NC to put seed into the ground after state lawmakers, in 2017, okayed growing the once illegal crop– under a regulated pilot program – action that caught the eye of the H**p Industries Association as they were planning their annual national campaign – H**p History Week.
Check out this NPR Blue Ridge Public Radio​ piece on what's going on with Franny's "Hootenanny": http://bpr.org/post/h**p-hootenanny-shines-spotlight-wnc-farm

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