Going Green with Alpacas

By Jim Tomaszek of Safehouse Farm Alpacas

Buy alpaca – it is eco-aware clothing

"Agriculture is sustainable when it is ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just, culturally appropriate and based on a holistic scientific approach. " NGO Sustainable Agriculture Treaty

Why waste yet more fossil fuels manufacturing petroleum-based synthetic fibers when the natural solution is in our own backyards? Alpaca fiber is:

> Sustainable – an ever-growing American herd and source of fiber is on the horizon

> Natural – not synthetic; not petroleum based like polyesters, acetates, acrylics, nylon, rayon (a wood pulp product which required dry-cleaning!) or Goretex. Cotton uses 25% of all insecticides applied to the crops. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deems seven of the top 15 pesticides used on U.S. cotton crops to be potential or known human carcinogens 

> Renewable – unlike mink or baby seal, we do not kill the animal; we simply harvest the fleece

> Durable – archeologists have found remnants of Peruvian Inca alpaca textiles from centuries ago

There’s more . . .

> Alpacas are the most agriculturally environmentally friendly of animals – they live lightly on the earth.

> Their soft padded feet do not cut into the topsoil.

o Sheep and goats are much harder on the earth.

o Damage to topsoil decreases long-term soil fertility and in the process, the soil is eroded and weed invasion is encouraged.

o Alpacas are kinder to pasture, browsing on a variety of grasses and other plants without disrupting root systems, rather than overeating.

o This allows faster pasture recovery and minimizes soil erosion.

o Where cattle (leather) pull up grass by the roots and compress the soil, alpacas do not.

o Alpacas can thrive in deserts and mountain plains, by doing something most other domesticated animals (and many humans) haven’t been able to master: They stop eating when they are full.

o They don’t mind eating brush; fallen leaves and other "undesirable" vegetation, leaving the good stuff for species that don’t have the stomach to digest such roughage.

o Alpacas’ fur, referred to as fleece, grows quickly and is lighter, warmer and softer than most sheep wool.

o Alpacas consume far less water than most other herds. Their efficient 3-stomach digestive system metabolizes most of what they eat.

o Their pellet-like droppings are Ph balanced and an excellent, natural, slow release, low odor fertilizer and even bio-fuel.

o They lack upper, incisor teeth, so they do not chew and tear the native vegetation. Rather, they gently "cut" it against their palate, which encourages the plants' growth.

> No chemicals are employed either during feeding or during the industrial production of the fleece into fiber.

o Sheep fleece contain lanolin. A multi-step detergent wash is needed to remove most of the lanolin.

o No need for insecticides (cotton), herbicides and fertilizers which pollute the groundwater.

o Alpacas come in nearly unlimited natural colors – offering a full array of choices with no chemical dyes required. But if desired, only 20% of a normal dye quantity is required.

o Manufacturing synthetic fibers is energy-intensive and can release lung-damaging pollutants such as nitrogen and sulfur oxides, particulates, carbon monoxide and heavy metals into the air, as well as climate-warming carbon dioxide.

> Alpaca fleece adapted to naturally resist intense solar radiation in rarified mountainous atmosphere.

> Even the less desirable fleece (lower legs, britch, etc) is being used as natural weed mats around trees. (Yes, it is biodegradable)

> Alpaca clothing breathes naturally, unlike synthetics that cannot remove natural perspiration from next to the skin.

> Alpaca fiber is very strong (durable end products), does not require dehairing, it is easy to process (no lanolin) and gives a high yield of end-product (twice the percentage that sheep yields.

Jim and Karen Tomaszek own Safhoues Farm Alpacas in Barrington, IL.

To visit their site, click here.