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Fur Production is "Earth-Friendly"
The production of fur and fur apparel consumes relatively small amounts of energy and generates little pollution.
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Farmed furs While farms clearly use some electricity and fuel, and wastes must always be responsibly managed, farm-raised fur is also a pollution reducer because farmed mink and fox are fed leftovers from fish and meat processing, proteins that are not fit for human consumption. In fact, the 5.5 million mink raised on North American farms recycle more than 500 million pounds of food wastes annually. Less land is needed to raise mink than to produce cotton or wool, and fur farms use very little electricity, fossil fuels or water. In addition to producing fur, fat is rendered for valuable mink oil (used for skin care, cosmetics, fine lubricants and to protect and preserve leather) while carcasses and manure provide fertilizers. Nothing is wasted.
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Wild furs Trappers also use some fuel to run their snowmobiles across wilderness trap-lines, and fuel is also used when furs are transported to auction houses, manufacturers or retail stores. Nothing is perfectly “green” in our age of international markets. Nonetheless, wild furs are the ultimate “free range” clothing material, based on the sustainable use of natural production cycles and ecosystems.
Every plant and animal species tends to produce more young than their environment can support to maturity. This “surplus” feeds other species, and humans are part of this “circle of life”.
Just like farmers send some animals to market while retaining a healthy breeding stock for next year’s production, trappers take only a small part of the surplus produced by nature each season. This is assured by government-regulated hunting seasons, harvesting quotas and other controls. The modern fur trade is an excellent example of the “sustainable use of wildlife and other renewable natural resources”, a principle promoted by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and other respected conservation authorities.
Wildlife populations must be controlled in many regions, even if there is no market for the fur: to protect residential property, farmland, roads and forests (e.g., from flooding caused by beaver dams), for disease control (e.g., rabies among raccoons, foxes and skunks) and, generally to maintain a balance with available habitat.
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Processing The processing and dyeing of any clothing material must be carefully regulated to protect the environment. Again, nothing is 100% “green”. Fur tanning (“dressing”) and coloring, however, are relatively benign, as they must be, to preserve fur hairs and follicles. (By contrast, in leather tanning the hair is intentionally removed from the hide.)
The main chemicals used to “dress” fur pelts are table salt, water, alum salts, soda ash, sawdust, cornstarch, lanolin and other natural ingredients. Small quantities of formaldehyde can be used to protect fur follicles during dressing or dyeing, and gentle acids (e.g., acetic acid, which is vinegar) activate the tanning process, but local environmental protection controls ensure that there are no harmful effluents. Excess fats are skimmed and even PH levels must be neutralized before wastewater is released. And because furs are available in an extraordinary range of natural colours, only a small proportion are dyed.
By contrast, up to one gallon of petroleum – a non-renewable resource – is needed to produce three synthetic jackets. The production of synthetic fibers also involves chemical reactions at high temperatures, producing potentially harmful substances.
According to R.S. Blackburn (Biodegradable and Sustainable Fibers, pg xv): “The main problems with synthetic polymers are that they are non-degradable and non-renewable… Oil and petroleum are non-renewable (non-sustainable) resources and at the current rate of consumption, these fossil fuels are only expected to last for another 50-60 years… An even more important problem with the use of fossil energy is the huge translocation of carbon from the ground into the atmosphere accompanied by emissions of sulphur and nitrogen oxides as well as all kinds of hydrocarbons, and heavy metals. Fossil fuels are also the dominant global source of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHG).”
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Fabrication Each fur garment is meticulously made by hand. Furs are individually cut and sewn by skilled craftspeople using artisanal methods – with no heavier machinery than a fur cutter’s blade, a needle and thread, and a specially adapted,lightweight sewing machine. The furs are sewn with cotton thread, reinforced with wool batting and lined with silk.
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Curious about how fur measures up to other
important ecological and social criteria?
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