The sound of transhumance is relaxing. Almost like an ASMR, those noises that generation Z uses to sleep. The ringing of sheep bells has a uniform, low intensity sound that suggests the existence of a certain order, at least in some ancestral rites of man and nature.
If the fate of the sheep sheared to obtain the wool for its coat this winter keeps you awake at night, the sound of the flock in this region of Babia, in León, could help you regain a certain serenity. Not all. We are not going to romanticize the office of pastor here. The one who guides this flock is called Nemecio Pérez, he is 56 years old – he has been a shepherd since he was 12 -, he has three mastiffs, a few months ago his veteran died and now he is raising a puppy that he must put on track to guide the 1,500 sheep. He is also autonomous, a far from bucolic circumstance. And this is what Nemecio tells from the highest part of the mountain where he has brought his sheep to graze: “The day I am gone, the sheep will no longer come here, and it is a shame. You don't trick anyone into working on this anymore. “I haven't rested a day for four years.” But the shepherd doesn't let anyone touch his flock either. “Mine are the fattest, I keep them.”
It's still hot and the sheep are light, they will make it to winter with wool. Between April and May the shearers have lightened them. Another hard job: they work bent over and sometimes move animals that weigh 15 kilos. They charge between 1.20 and 1.80 euros per sheep if the wool is quality, if it is waste the rate drops to 0.80 cents. The most skilled ones can shear 100 sheep a day.
We have arrived here with Ecoalf, the sustainable fashion brand founded in 2009 by Javier Goyeneche. With a flock of sheep like this they have drawn the thread of their first capsule collection of regenerative wool coats. A concept—regeneration—that goes beyond sustainability, as it not only tries to minimize the impact of the garment on the environment, but also aims for that impact to be positive. The project's objectives are to protect tradition, crafts and the way of life created around the wool economy. Transhumance enriches the biodiversity of the paths and ravines, since as they pass, the sheep release the seeds that remain in their hair and clean the fields naturally.
Each coat in the collection is knitted by hand, and this report is an exercise in transparency or traceability, as they say now in the jargon of sustainability marketing. A sin that Ecoalf gets rid of, since from the beginning they set out to create pieces with a long life and minimal environmental impact. It wasn't called sustainability yet. No one can accuse them now of jumping on that bandwagon. “We have existed since our beginnings to protect the planet's natural resources by creating a sustainable lifestyle brand,” says Carol Blázquez, director of innovation and sustainability of the brand. She no longer likes the adjective sustainable. It seems vague and abstract to you. “I prefer to talk about environmental impact because it is a concept that is based on data, there are indicators of CO2, water and biodiversity and they can be compared with the other pieces on the market.”
“The cards are on the table,” Blázquez says. It refers to the fact that the product sheet collects all the information. If you go to the website there is the traceability and impact data for each piece. “That builds trust,” she says. He also recognizes that there may be many people who are not interested in knowing as much. “Not everyone will read the QR code and get to the bottom of the garment, but we have a responsibility to tell it.”
Since 2015, Alberto Díaz, a textile businessman, and also an actor and film and theater director, has led the project. Made in Slow to protect the more than 800 years of history of transhumance and the entire industrial fabric that supports the wool economy. Thanks to their research we know that these sheep that today graze freely in the fields of León are the ancestors of the Australian merino sheep, benefited by wise genetic selection. From Díaz's perseverance, a high-quality raw material has emerged that competes with wool from Australia, New Zealand and Chile and to which he gave a very long name: Wool yarn from Spanish Merino sheep that has been transhumant. Dior, Loewe, Hermès and now Ecoalf work with his threads.
Díaz discovered while making a documentary about transhumance that 80% of the wool produced in Spain ended up in China. “My problem now is how to make the thread without leaving here, I'm betting on doing everything nearby, but there is very little industry,” he explains. They shear in Extremadura, they washed and combed in Béjar, but the factory has closed and they have had to go to Portugal, the yarn is made in Catalonia. “My intention was to produce everything in Spain, now I'm thinking about at least producing it in the Iberian Peninsula,” says Díaz. He prays that the dry cleaners in Spain do not close because that would force him to take the wool to Romania or Bulgaria. Further and further away from Nemecio and his sheep.
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