Move over 100-Mile Diet: Vancouver Island fibre producers launch the 150-Mile wardrobe

A new initiative hopes to do for locally sourcedtextiles what the 100-Mile Diet movement did for local food.

Farmers, textilemakersand a newly reopened fleece-processingmill are among supporters of the launch of the Vancouver Island Fibreshedproject, which aims to help build alocal textile industry.

A fibreshedis defined as a geographic region that provides all the resources that go into the making of textiles including animal or plant-based fibres, dyes, processing and manufacturing.

"We need people to start thinking differently about what's in their closet," said Linda Drury, aco-creator of the Vancouver Island Fibreshed project.

Drury said the fibreshed for Vancouver Island and surrounding islands encompasses about150 square miles.

The goal of the project is to help create a local fibre economy on Vancouver Islandby providingsupportfor farmers to raisemorefibre-producing animals and crops, and ensure links to processors and markets for products.

In an interview with On the Island's Khalil Akhtar, Drury said a"game-changer" for a localtextileindustry is the recent opening of the only functioning fibre millon the Island.

Tracy Brennan bought the equipment from a struggling mid-Island business and moved it to a new barn in North Saanich. The new mill, calledInca DincaDo, began advertising for employees earlier this month.

"She really is getting it organized so she can be processing thousands of pounds of wool which used to go to Alberta or sit for a couple of years before it got processed," Drury said.

Drurysaid Vancouver Island farmers and fibre artists currently promote the use of local materials through communityorganized eventssuch as the annual 100 Mile Fleece & Fibre Fair in Coombs, B.C.

The making and marketing of fibre products needs an overhaul.

"Once people start looking at it in much grander economic terms it helps them to think differently about the fibre arts and textiles in general."

After an initial fundraising drivethis weekfibreshed project organizers awaited word on whether they will receive matching funds from the B.C. government to conduct an inventory of the needs of farmers who raise animals for their fleeceon Vancouver Island and the surrounding islands.

Meanwhile, Drurysaid anyone who wants to make thefirst steptoward dressing locally can start small.

"Buy the $35 T-shirt that's been handmade and it will last you for years," she said. "You won't be simply discarding it onto a waste pile."

:

With files from CBC Radio One's On the Island