by Sam Little
Hey y’all!
The next few issues of the FM Newsletter will be exploring the ecological impact of cashmere. I saw an interesting reel (+ a passionate comment section) that essentially said: stop buying cashmere, it’s bad for the environment.
As someone with cashmere in my stash and proud of discounted luxury yarn acquisitions, but also someone eco-conscious, the reel really made me think. And I wondered if the contentions in the reel were oversimplifications, or to what extent there was truth. We wanted to share our findings with you in case you might have had a similar reaction to anti-cashmere content recently.
The main idea is: cashmere is bad because higher demand → more goats in the herd → more grazing → land degradation.
In the first part of this series, we wanted to share what we found on this topic. This is not meant to be a comprehensive research paper (those already exist!), though by the end of the series, we’ll share our overall stance on cashmere as a fiber.
Context: What changed in Mongolia?
In the 90s, Mongolia shifted from a Soviet-style collective economy to a market economy. This meant that livestock became privately owned, government support systems weakened, and herders were much more exposed to market prices.
Cashmere was one of the few reliable products herders could export, so goats became the most economically attractive livestock to keep, especially when paired with high cashmere prices.
Historically, Mongolian herds were pretty diverse with sheep, horses, cattle, yak, camels, and goats. But as global cashmere demand rose, goats became a much larger share of the herd.
Is there really ecological devastation in Mongolia?
Yes, but it’s not entirely driven by cashmere goats.
Roughly 65-70% of Mongolian rangeland is estimated to be degraded to some extent. (https://www.undp.org/foodsystems/mongolia-sustainable-cashmere, https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/4c94d50c-5e34-4ac1-97aa-f9665a38cb9e/content)
But it’s important to understand that degraded =/= permanently converted into lifeless desert. There are varying levels of severity, ranging from “irreversible damage”, to needing up to 10-years of intervention, to “degraded but recoverable”. (https://ieg.worldbankgroup.org/blog/preserving-rangelands-people-and-climate-lessons-mongolia)
It’s also important to note that the degradation is not caused by cashmere goats alone. Other drivers are:
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Too many total animals: more livestock than a pasture can support
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Herd composition prioritizing goats & sheep: they’re the animals that eat the most grass
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Decreased livestock mobility: traditionally, herders would move across pastures as seasons come and go, but infrastructure changes, fencing, and poor grazing governance have concentrated livestock in certain places, leading to more land degradation
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Climate change: it reduces the amount of foliage available, making the same number of animals, or a growing amount of animals, more ecologically damaging
Do goats actually damage foliage this much?
You might have heard anecdotes of how cashmere goats will rip foliage from the ground, including the root. How they trample on foliage / soil and damage it with their hooves. There’s actually very little evidence of this. Goats are flexible browsers and can eat a wider variety of vegetation as compared to sheep.
What’s more defensible in the research is this: when there are a ton of goats repeatedly grazing on already stressed land, the plants may not be able to retain leaves, flowers, or energy reserves to regenerate. Trampling, coupled with concentration (too many goats in the same place over time), can expose soil and make erosion worse.
Key Takeaway
Cashmere demand matters and influences land degradation in Mongolia. However, goat behavior alone isn’t the whole explanation. Things like herd size, herd diversity, land management, herd mobility, and climate all matter too.
Y’all might be thinking - well if the problem isn’t the goats, then who is responsible? That’s what we’ll examine in the next issue!
- Sam