permaculture

["jamie" <jamie@tiscali.fr>]

As a small addition to the recent thread about the pleasure of deliberately
applying nettles to skin, here's a story about the latest in natural
clothing fibres - nettles!

Jamie
Souscayrous

>   Farmers urged to grow stinging nettles
>
>
>   July 1, 2003 07:00
>
>   It is cursed as a pernicious weed that leaves a
> never-forgotten
>   burning sensation, however lightly you brush past
> it.
>
>   And yet farmers in East Anglia are being urged to
> grow acres of the
>   common stinging nettle – for the likes of us to
> wear against our
>   skin. Inconceivable as it may sound, the enemy at
> the gates of our
>   gardens could soon become a friend of farmers in
> the region.
>
>   Farmers are wanted to grow 600 acres of the urtica
> dioica, (that's
>   the common stinging nettle to you and me) to turn
> into the latest
>   fashion jeans. East Anglia's fertile soils are
> ideal to produce high
>   yields of the plant.
>
>   Those who got the chance to feel the fabric at the
> Royal Norfolk Show
>   last week said the designer jacket on display was
> cool and soft to
>   the touch. It had been created by Italian fashion
> house Corpo Nove,
>   based in Milan with not a dock leaf in sight.
>
>   Melvyn Askew, head of agricultural and rural
> strategy at the Central
>   Science Laboratory, is serious about the potential
> for nettles. "They
>   can be harvested to produce the finest fabric for
> clothing.
>
>   "The fibres are absolutely ideal because they are
> so strong and yet
>   so soft," he said.
>
>   "We know that we can make clothing out of nettles
> which is even finer
>   than silk. The fibre is very tough and
> long-lasting," said Mr Askew,
>   who is based at York and heads a project funded by
> Brussels and two
>   Whitehall departments. "There is a market out
> there for a group of
>   farmers to start supplying industry with stinging
> nettles. We need
>   about 600 tonnes of nettle fibre," said Mr Askew,
> who heads a team
>   investigating the potential for growing non-food
> crops.
>
>   He said that the nettles, ideally harvested when
> they reach about 8ft
>   tall, grow best in more fertile soils. "East
> Anglia would be ideal
>   because you have the soils," he added.
>
>   The jacket on display at the show was made from
> nettle fibre, and
>   modelled on a style worn by the Emperor Napoleon.
> "I understand that
>   they're looking at producing fashion jeans next.
> That could be a huge
>   market," he added.
>
>   Selected London stores are due to stock the jeans
> in the autumn.
>
>   Mr Askew said that sandbags made to line trenches
> in the first world
>   war from nettle fibre have survived to this day.
>
>   During the first and second world wars, nettles
> were used for
>   producing textiles, in addition to flax and hemp.
>
>   "It's an old English crop," he said.
>
>   A good yield of nettles would produce around eight
> to 10 tonnes an
>   acre of fibre, which must be extracted from the
> plant.
>
>   An industrial process, decortification,
> effectively strips out the
>   valuable fibre from the stem of the plant.
>
>   The hairy outside stem is put through rollers to
> leave the strong
>   fibre. From the grower's point of view, the leaves
> of the stinging
>   nettle are surplus to requirements. "We need a
> farmer to grow nettles
>   as tall as possible to produce as much fibre. The
> leaves are of no
>   use at all," said Mr Askew.
>
>   However, a specialist cheese maker from Cornwall
> could benefit from
>   the nettle strategy. He uses nettle leaves around
> the sides of
>   Cornish Yarg and there is a shortage of nettle
> leaves in his native
>   county.
>
>   Mr Askew said the total market for non-food crops
> in Europe is worth
>   around £10bn. In Britain, we have an opportunity
> to lead by producing
>   crops with real potential, from insulation
> materials made from hemp
>   and flax, and green oils made from oilseed rape,
> to recyclable
>   upholstery for cars.
>
>   New lines of fire-retarding seatings for planes,
> trains and buses are
>   also being developed – made from natural
> materials.
>
>   "Around 100 years ago we were growing materials
> for use in industry
>   and then artificial fibres came along. There is a
> huge potential out
>   there. It is not often that we're in a position
> that there is a
>   market out there and we can grow the crops.
> Farmers in this country
>   can take a lead. We're ideally placed," he said.