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A show about farming regeneratively, wisely, and profitably, on pasture: The ins and outs of the craft of grassland management, farm business, marketing, animal husbandry, and the changing nature of agriculture and rural life.
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Fashion and apparel. It touches nearly everyone. When its at its best, fashion and apparel is not only functional, but also fun, expressive, sexy, and for some businesses, very profitable. But when it is at its worst, fashion and apparel is superficial, exploitative, polluting and extremely wasteful - in other words the essence of unsustainable consumption. And while it is argued that the industry's rapid growth has created employment opportunities for more than 300 million people worldwide, ...
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show series
 
Is our current for-profit economic model a root cause of many of today's sustainability challenges generally, and specifically in apparel and fashion? Dr. Jennifer Hinton, author and Post-Doctoral Fellow at The Centre for Environmental and Climate Science at University of Lund, has concluded so. She studies how societies relate to profit and how th…
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Ken Pucker, former Timberland COO and current Professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts, recently published a series of pieces critiquing the circular agenda for fashion. In this content rich interview, Ken explains the history of how market-led voluntary solutions became the norm and the rise of what he calls Sustainability In…
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Now that climate action has rapidly moved to the top of the apparel industry's agenda, it is crucial that the industry moves from intention to action - and fast. The latest analysis indicates what we need to do, but the 1 trillion dollar question is how much capital will be required to do it. Enter the Apparel Impact Institute (AII) and Fashion for…
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For the past decade, two families have settled on a rolling 120 acre property in Henry County, KY under the name “Valley Spirit Farm”. Together the the Fiechters and Monroes have partnered in the care of the land, and the building of a business that sustains their way of life. In this conversation we discuss their unique partnership, the ways they’…
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When done thoughtfully, farms can provide a great context for raising kids; especially when education is seen as life-long, and as wide as the real world around us. Dave and Ginger rely on their children to run their successful farm business with them. And they rely on their farm to provide the context for learning about the world around them: how …
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I talked to Joelle Wood about her path towards guiding her farm as she took on a lot in 2020, feeding her community and seizing on great opportunities to grow her farm; all while holding to her aspirational values. https://www.theoldfashionedfarmstead.com/ The Old Fashioned Farmstead (@theoldfashionedfarmstead) • Instagram photos and videos My Link…
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Forests play a crucial role in promoting biodiversity, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and supporting livelihoods, especially in poorer countries. But because wood is the basis for so many of our products, the pressure to exploit forests, usually in unsustainable ways, continues to increase. What does this have to do with the fashion in…
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It's been nearly a decade since Patagonia, Walmart and a number of other brands, retailers, manufacturers and NGOs established the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), an innovative industry collaboration. As the coalition's website states, its vision is "an apparel, footwear, and textiles industry that produces no unnecessary environmental harm an…
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Sweden has a reputation for being a sustainability leader in many areas, so you can imagine how curious we were to learn about a newish proposal from the current Swedish government for a chemical tax on textiles. The proposal was recently made available to stakeholders for comment, and of course, a robust debate has ensued. Is this proposal, as pre…
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Cliff Davis spent much of his adult life, and became known across the region as a permaculture educator, helping people learn how to apply ecological literacy and system thinking to their footprint on the land. But in this episode we talk about his new act: farming and breeding pigs, and selling food to his community in central Tennessee. This epis…
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Sweden has a reputation for being a sustainability leader in many areas, so you can imagine how curious we were to learn about a newish proposal from the current Swedish government for a chemical tax on textiles. The proposal was recently made available to stakeholders for comment, and of course, a robust debate has ensued. Is this proposal, as pre…
  continue reading
 
After Jesse sharing about their business and sales models on episode 17, Matthew joins the conversation to share more about the ins and outs of their operation; but especially hiring and managing employees, and navigating USDA inspected slaughter and processing with both poultry and mammals. They are doing a lot, and quite impressively so. See the …
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Sasja Beslik, Head of Sustainable Finance Development at J Safra Sarasin, fled Bosnia when he was 18 to escape the war. He ended up in Sweden and today spends his time leveraging the power of the financial sector to improve the world. He is particularly interested in the fashion industry's impact on people and has recently attracted attention for h…
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I had the pleasure of speaking with Jesie and Matthew Lawrence about the many sides of their diverse business, including farming, marketing, selling, and processing on a growing farm. In this episode Jesie helped me wrap my brain around all they do, their infrastructure, staff, and the ways they get their products to their customers. Check them out…
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Phil Patterson, Managing Director at Colour Connections, has been working at the intersection between the textile industry and influential retail brands for over twenty years, and after some recent soul-searching he had an epiphany. He has come to the conclusion that the current way we use and dispose of chemicals is extremely wasteful and will not…
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I asked some of our past guests to share their answers to seven questions, so that we could hear some unique perspectives on how different farms and farmers across the country are faring during the wild year that is 2020. Joe Koopsen, Jordan Green, and Ben Grimes all shared their answers to the following questions: 1. What kind of changes came in M…
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In this episode we continue to explore the most commonly repeated "factoids" in fashion and sustainability in order to determine whether they are substantive and useful. As a reminder, a "factoid" is information that is reported and repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact. During Stockholm Fashion Week, Mike spoke with Alden Wicker, free…
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Curtis Brown is back for part two of our interview, where we talk all about how he has, and will continue to, get his meat into his customers' hands. We talk CSA logistics, marketing ideas, and streamlining through a cooperative distribution network. Curtis and Ashley's Links: foodethosfarm.com instagram.com/foodethosfarm facebook.com/foodethosfarm…
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Curtis and Ashley started out, like me, raising vegetables on a small plot about a decade ago. Now they are regenerating a large section of prairie, selling Meat CSA's, and taking names. In this first episode of a two-part series, Curtis and I discuss their farm, its history and his history on it: as well as his pig operation and marketing strategy…
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You've heard it before: The global environmental challenges we face are daunting and time sensitive. If we want to avoid catastrophic tipping points, we need to move quickly and ambitiously. If we want to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) we need to invest trillions of dollars. And so we scratch our heads and wonder if the actions we…
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As a listener of Big Closets Small Planet, you are likely interested and engaged in changing the apparel industry. So for those of you who are keen to strengthen your change agent skills, we are introducing a new segment called Leading Change. In this first episode we are joined by Per Espen Stoknes who is that rare combination of thinker and doer.…
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Experts and practitioners agree that simply improving upon today's take-make-waste linear business models will not ensure the apparel industry can operate within the planet's ecological boundaries. Instead, a new circular economy is needed and thus new circular business models. Circular business models, like resale and rental, are not actually new.…
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In this new segment we will explore commonly repeated "factoids" in order to determine whether they are substantive and useful. Perhaps you have heard the statement that the production and use of clothing creates more climate impact than that of flights and shipping combined? A range of organisations - including the United Nations - have referred t…
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The impacts of the corona virus on the apparel sector have been fast and furious. We are all affected, but millions of low-wage garment workers are facing a potentially catastrophic situation. In this episode we talk to a number of experts and union representatives to better understand what is happening on the ground, what responsibility buyers hav…
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The Fabricant, a digital fashion house, recently sold a piece of digital clothing - clothing that is only available in digital environments - for over 9000 USD. This experience helped them realise that their expertise in 3-d digital modelling could be used for a better purpose: creating a new industry sector for digital only clothing which is very …
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Many first generation farmers start on family land, or from scratch in their home region, making a go of it nearby to, and selling into their own community. Well Josh started Ramble Creek Farm by moving across the country, purchasing an existing farm with infrastructure and market access, and built his business quickly from there. We get into a div…
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Mark Brady and I discuss the ins and outs of what our farms are doing to cope and thrive in these trying times, when it seems like everything is changing. The final answers to all the problems aren't here. But real-time problem solving and thinking is! Timberfeast.com Find me here: Grocefamilyfarm.com info@grocefamilyfarm.com…
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...to develop and mainstream the sustainable apparel innovations required to meet key sustainability goals for the apparel industry. Listeners of this podcast series are familiar with our on-going focus on the crucial role finance and investment plays in enabling industry transformation. For the past two years SFA and Fashion for Good have been con…
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3/23/20: A journal of what happened in the past two weeks: How our farm is adapting, capitalizing on opportunity, feeding our community, and looking towards the future to try to make wise choices about how to make sure we can keep on farming and meeting the needs of our community now and into the future.…
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Joe Koopsen has been farming since the age of 15 in Southern Michigan. His egg and broiler business have taken off in the decade since -and now he supports a young family through the production of broilers, eggs, brooded broiler chicks, and turkeys. In this episode we discuss his path into the wholesale markets, his brooder and broiler setup, his u…
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In this new segment - Make Your Case - Big Closets Small Planet provides industry experts and stakeholders a platform to argue for a particular position or perspective. In this episode, Lewis Perkins, President of the Apparel Impact Institute (AII), outlines his organisation’s vision and advice for accelerating change in the apparel industry. He ma…
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Here is a quick dose of inspiration! At Planet Textiles, Mike spoke to Spencer Null about Natural Fiber Welding's breakthrough solution: enabling natural fibers like cotton to behave like polyester. Is this a game changer? It is if it means poor quality fibers can be upgraded to premium fibers... Listen to this bite size pod to get a quick lesson o…
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Do you ever wonder how CEOs from some of our industry's most influential companies view the big social and environmental challenges we are facing today and the potential of business and innovation to adequately address these? TENCEL is a sponsor of this podcast series, so Michael took the chance and invited Lenzing's CEO Stefan Doboczky to discuss …
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Dr. Lea Esterhuizen, an expert in gathering sensitive data from scared populations, believes we are unwittingly eating and wearing products that have likely been made or assembled using forced labor. Typically the apparel industry has used the "social audit" to address this problem. But social audits provide an incomplete picture of the situation. …
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Mike had the unique opportunity to sit down with an impact investor and a vertical manufacturer to share their real world views on what it takes to accelerate the uptake of sustainable apparel technologies in the apparel supply chain. Tanvi Karambelkar, representing the newly launched Good Fashion Fund, introduces the fund’s pioneering approach for…
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Between 2014 and 2016, an increasing number of journalists began reporting on disturbing new research showing that microfibers from synthetic garments were making their way from our washing machines into fish and other aquatic animals. Since then the textile industry has been scrambling to understand the extent of the problem and what our industry …
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The United States Military is required to make their clothing in the United States. But because very little clothing is produced in the United States today, the U.S. Military needed to find alternative solutions. Enter Pete Santora, who launched SoftWear Automation 13 years ago to respond to this challenge. Today his technology, which automates sew…
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At Planet Textiles, Mike Schragger spoke with two of his favorite chemical and textiles experts, Phil Patterson and Linda Greer, about the state of the industry regarding chemical management in textiles today. If this does not sound sexy to you, then you don't know Phil and Linda! In addition to getting a primer on chemical history and good and bad…
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The founders of Tyton BioSciences are not personally interested in fashion, but that won’t stop them from using subcritical water to help solve the current textile-recycling conundrum. Mike Schragger talks to Luke Henning, CFO of Tyton, about their unique process for separating cellulose from polyester in blended materials. This podcast is sponsore…
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