I guess its more a question of what that fraction is versus cotton or synthetics, and then what the cost of processing is for wool vs cotton & synthetic.
Harvesting wool is done by hand, and takes probably 1.5-2.5 people per sheep (depending on how many shearers the rousey can work at once, how big the shed is, whether sorting & pressing is done by another person as well as someone in the yards) and that’s excluding the farmer. I would guess that automatically makes it more expensive as a raw product than alternatives.
I don’t know how total emissions stack up for wool vs synthetic production, but the article suggests that sustainability be used as a rationale for subsidies.
I guess you have to start weighing up impacts of higher stock numbers vs impacts of non-degradable plastic. What do carbon emissions of sheep farming look like compared to say cattle? Because subsidising wool would surely lead to an oversupply of sheep meat.
My uneducated guess is that the raw material is only a fraction of the processing, manufacturing and distribution costs.
I guess its more a question of what that fraction is versus cotton or synthetics, and then what the cost of processing is for wool vs cotton & synthetic.
Harvesting wool is done by hand, and takes probably 1.5-2.5 people per sheep (depending on how many shearers the rousey can work at once, how big the shed is, whether sorting & pressing is done by another person as well as someone in the yards) and that’s excluding the farmer. I would guess that automatically makes it more expensive as a raw product than alternatives.
I don’t know how total emissions stack up for wool vs synthetic production, but the article suggests that sustainability be used as a rationale for subsidies.
I guess you have to start weighing up impacts of higher stock numbers vs impacts of non-degradable plastic. What do carbon emissions of sheep farming look like compared to say cattle? Because subsidising wool would surely lead to an oversupply of sheep meat.