Eco Farm 2018 – Movement Toward Carbon Negative Clothing

 The Eco Farm conference promotes sustainable agriculture and soil draw-down with attendees ranging from Idaho commercial farms to Northern California urban farm projects. Organic regenerative farming is steadily bringing in more industry adhearants.  At the conference, Patagonia featured their recently launched line of food products, Patagonia Provisions. Provisions foods source carbon sequestration ingredients and processing methods that use regenerative organic farming as a holistic, long-term solution to global climate change.  Patagonia sees the opportunity to enter the food market with a tasty, healthy and competitive food choice, building on it’s brand to innovate closer to net zero impact and now to look at carbon negative production.

Patagonia’s Provisions booth also featured an all-new line of canvas workwear made with an innovative organic hemp fabric known as Iron Forge Hemp Canvas. Using a blend of 55% pesticide-free hemp, 27% recycled polyester, and 18% organically grown cotton.  Perhaps it is just a coincidence that Patagonia’s line of deep farm-to-fasion is named Iron Forge, a mainstay tool used by founder Yvon Choinard to manufacture his early outdoor products, climbing pitons. 

Patagonia is one of the largest of the bold textile leaders to take direction from a mission to heal our planet through the purchasing of organic fiber farming products. On another continent, Swiss manufacturer Freitag is making 100% biodegradable shirts.  EcoFarm attendees can expect to see more content about clothing manufacturing as regenerative practices continue to gain ground in the textile industry.