sign up log in
Want to go ad-free? Find out how, here.

Bruce Wills gets in behind the international campaign for wool, despite a longterm litany of marketing failures. Is this time different? Your view?

Rural News
Bruce Wills gets in behind the international campaign for wool, despite a longterm litany of marketing failures. Is this time different? Your view?
The Campaign for Wool

By Bruce Wills

How green are you?

I mean, do you genuinely care about your carbon footprint and the integrity of what you put into your house let alone place against your skin?

Would you be prepared to wear genetically modified fibres against your skin?

I imagine some would answer an indignant, no.

I could further ask if you would be prepared to wear oil, let alone fill your walls with the stuff or even lay it on your floors.

In Australia, recently, I learned the amount of non-genetically modified cotton could probably be held in one hand. Alright, a slight exaggeration there, but truth be told, almost all of the world’s cotton is genetically modified.

Whatever you may think staring into a drawer, at least it is a natural fibre. What then about the galaxy of ‘man-made fibres’ out there? 

While I am passionate about wool the industry has sometimes resembled a disaster movie. Instead of an asteroid hurtling towards earth, as in Armageddon, it has been Du Pont’s synthetics. Instead of Bruce Willis’ fictional heroics we can perhaps call on His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales. I have met ‘HRH’ and while Prince Charles may not be cut from the action hero mould, he is a farming hero.

On a soggy Auckland Spring day, his knowledge of farming took my breath away.

It was like talking to someone at a Federated Farmers meeting. Prince Charles not only understood sheep farming as a farmer does, but the market opportunities we have within our grasp.

At ‘Shear Brilliance', held in ‘The Cloud,’ HRH understood what was before him.

Wool is a material of tomorrow that can be harnessed with élan and innovation.

One of the innovative products on display came from the farm of Federated Farmers’ Ruapehu provincial president, Lyn Neeson.

Thinking about where it all went wrong for wool comes from the years of plenty. You can have too much of a good thing when it breeds complacency.

Instead of looking forward after the boom years of the 1950’s, the global industry started fighting one another. So much so, we lost control of our most precious asset being the word ‘wool’ itself. The Oxford Dictionary defines wool as “the fine, soft curly or wavy hair forming the coat of a sheep, goat, or similar animal”, but adds, “a thing resembling wool”. 

Any manufacturer can use the word ‘wool,’ even if it involves mixing sand and recycled glass at 1,450°C and converting the glass produced into fibres. Not a lot of sheep then.

You can say we lost wool’s integrity, because internationally, the industry sat back with a thumb in its collective mouth.

Even today, manufacturers in the United States go unchallenged using cute lambs to promote carpets made out of oil. 

As a result of Prince Charles’ visit downunder, it has allowed us to meet with Minister David Carter and industry leaders. The Campaign for Wool is a global one and proving HRH practices what he preaches, he showed off his high regard for New Zealand farmers by proudly telling guests about his suit made from “beautiful New Zealand wool”.

More importantly for the assembled international media, it stood up to that soggy Auckland weather.

Wool matters because it is central to the future of our entire sheep industry.

Given we live in a green aware age, its export potential ought to be in the billions of dollars and not the hundreds of millions it currently is.

This is also why that global Campaign for Wool and HRH’s patronage is central to wooing consumers back to wool. It is not about lecturing but turning consumers onto wools natural, flexible and renewable characteristics.

Thanks to innovation, it now offers stain-resistance too.

Why put an oil derrick inside your house or on your own back when you can have the real deal.

Perhaps the time has come for Federated Farmers to step up.  This is something we do rarely and only when something breaks down.  One thing for certain, the status quo is not an option going forward.

So what is to be done? 

Ownership of the product to first stage processing is a start and Wools of New Zealand is offering just that for growers.

This is a golden opportunity and arguably the last chance saloon for strong wool growers to own a collective future.

Federated Farmers is strongly and actively encouraging all farmers to get to a Wools of New Zealand roadshow. This is vital if we want to have an industry capable of realising the green future wool offers.

If you take our supposed clean, green 100% smart slogan seriously, natural wool or fibres is the way to go.

We cannot expect others to do what we are not prepared to do ourselves.

Farmers have to live the dream and I can tell you the wool insulation in my house is superb. As far as I am concerned, Prince Charles commitment makes him New Zealand’s ‘next top monarch’.

For more information about Wools of New Zealand and its roadshows for farmers, please click here.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Bruce Wills is the President of Federated Farmers. You can contact him here »

We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.

Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.

4 Comments

Yes Bruce! Wool is a great product. Warm, fire proof, natural, and the best wool in the world grown here in 100% pure N.Z

I'm not saying 100% pure. I am saying 100% pure N.Z the brand is N.Z. Maybe we are only 95% pure but for arguments sake that is still way better than "55%" pure England who also grows Wool.

Wear it, walk on it and put it your ceiling it is so warm even when it is wet.

Thats my promotion for our tremendous wool product.

Up
0

Yes, wool is great.

 

Yes, it has the potential to be called 'renewable'.

 

But the way we do it, it doesn't. It uses oil.

 

Get that fertiliser made from something else, get those fence-posts delivered by ?, get the shearers to arrive by bike, get the bales delivered by ?

 

On the right track, though.

Up
0

The thing is is to look at the CO2 and energy saved per dollar spent over the life of a product.

For instance fibre glass insulating my house...so wool is 3? 4 times the price?  So do all of the house in fibreglass or only 25% in wool?

NB what about straw bales?

Fibreglass is made out of uh well glass, often having a recycled component...so its ubundant and re-usable/re-used.

Also just how much wool can be produced? isnt it simply better to use in clothing where personally I think there is no better?

Again of course I can buy NZ bred, and made clothing at $120 v $5 for a "fleece" at k-mart, huge difference in cost, but both keep me warm.

What is the CO2 and methane footprint of a sheep per year?  How much oil does a farm consume in a year and how much wool output?  

So we need to see the "damage" in co2 per m2 installed in a house v equiv. fibreglass...then we can make an informed decision....

regards

Up
0

Hey Steven, try rubbing your nose on glassfibre insulation and then try wool, make sure you take a deep breath. Then make your choice.

We insulated with wool, same price, excellent product, no need for masks gloves and overalls and the kids even helped.

Always buy wool over other products. Do a bit of mountain biking and there is some really excellent products out there that work so much better in every way.

Up
0