Three hundred miles off the coast of Argentina is a cluster of islands that would equal about the size of Connecticut if you could glue them together like a jigsaw puzzle. The Falkland Islands (more than 700 total) are home to 500,000 sheep and fewer than 3,000 people. Surrounded by seas that had frequently shortened the lives of sailors and pirates who dared to traverse the Drake Passage, the Falklands produce some of the finest wool on the planet washed daily by fresh salt air that commonly gusts more than 40 mph.
Featured Fiber
A renewable resource with a low carbon footrprint, revitalizing America's hemp industry is more complicated than a simple strike of the match. Rebecca Burgess, founder of Fibershed, is at the forefront of bringing this hemp back to the farmland. But even a bountiful harvest won't guarantee success as much of the infrastructure necessary to process this ancient fiber has been lost to modern manufacturing.
In this issue we also get serious about weed recalling a time when nearly everyone had their own stash. Hemp was a major agricultural export and provided the raw material (similar to flax) to manufacture lightweight clothing.