WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Why Does Cashmere Cost So Much?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Lauren Vogelbomb And this is a classic episode of

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<v Speaker 1>the podcast. In this one, we explore the fine fibers

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<v Speaker 1>and excellent animals that make cashmere possible and so pricey.

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<v Speaker 1>Hey brain Stuff, I'm Lauren vogelbaumb And if you were

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<v Speaker 1>to ask Wendy Pia, a goat farmer in bred and Maine,

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<v Speaker 1>to name what she likes most about her work, she'll

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<v Speaker 1>tell you it's the individual personalities of the goats for

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<v Speaker 1>which she cares. She said, think of the word capricious,

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<v Speaker 1>that comes from the word caprine, which is Latin for goat.

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<v Speaker 2>They're like that. They'll jump and dance, and they'll climb

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<v Speaker 2>on anything. They're affectionate. Pia's particular type of goats, forty

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<v Speaker 2>to eighty of them, depending on the year, are also

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<v Speaker 2>some of the providers of a valuable product for humans, cashmere. Yes,

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<v Speaker 2>in case you didn't know, your favorite, softest and probably

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<v Speaker 2>most expensive sweater, it comes from the fur of the

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<v Speaker 2>cashmere goat. And once you know what's involved in making

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<v Speaker 2>a cashmere sweater, the price might not seem so exorbitant.

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<v Speaker 2>The goats are one of at least eleven wool producing animals.

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<v Speaker 2>The list also includes sheep, rabbits, and lama. There are

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<v Speaker 2>several varieties of kashmir goats and a number of farms, factories,

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<v Speaker 2>and conglomerates around the world using various production methods to

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<v Speaker 2>make cashmere. The first goats purported to be used by

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<v Speaker 2>humans to produce fabric to keep warm are said to

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<v Speaker 2>be the Pashima goats. They are found in the super

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<v Speaker 2>high altitude regions of western and northern Tibet. The goat's

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<v Speaker 2>soft and dense underfur is built to withstand extreme temperatures

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<v Speaker 2>as low as negative forty degrees fahrenheit or celsius. The

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<v Speaker 2>wool from these bucks and nannies, favoured by British Royalty,

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<v Speaker 2>eventually came to be processed in cashmere in northern India,

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<v Speaker 2>hence the name. Various bloodlines of kashmere goats have, with

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<v Speaker 2>human help, spread around the world. Australia has a particular

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<v Speaker 2>breed that provides luxuriously soft threads, and North American kashmere

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<v Speaker 2>goat are found in the colder regions of the US

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<v Speaker 2>and Canada. North America is where pia and her husband,

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<v Speaker 2>Peter Goff, come in. They have run Springtide farms since

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<v Speaker 2>nineteen ninety seven. Pia bought goth eleven goats for his

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<v Speaker 2>birthday in part to help clear their farmland. It has

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<v Speaker 2>been a learning experience since then. Pia estimates its Springtide

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<v Speaker 2>is one of two hundred to three hundred cashmere goat

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<v Speaker 2>farms in North America. Most cashmere goat farms in the

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<v Speaker 2>US are small in size, less than sixty goats, says Paya,

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<v Speaker 2>who is also the president of the Kashmir Goat Association,

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<v Speaker 2>a nonprofit whose website claims it brings together breeders, fiber artists,

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<v Speaker 2>and others interested in these charming animals and the fiber

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<v Speaker 2>they grow in March and April. You know, early spring

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<v Speaker 2>is when the goats start to naturally shed their winter

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<v Speaker 2>wool and when production begins on the farms. Few US

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<v Speaker 2>farms shear these cashmere goats, though, because of production laws

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<v Speaker 2>and the high cost to weed out the valuable downy undercoat. Instead,

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<v Speaker 2>most facilities hand comb the w That means workers often

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<v Speaker 2>the farm owners themselves sit with each animal and slowly

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<v Speaker 2>tease out the fur that creates the fine wool for

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<v Speaker 2>Kashmir with a dog rake up to an hour and

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<v Speaker 2>a half per Goatpaya explained, when you look at these goats,

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<v Speaker 2>you see the long draping fur. That's the guard hair.

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<v Speaker 2>The Kashmere hair is under that. The crimp in Kashmere

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<v Speaker 2>is three dimensional, and that's part of what makes Kashmir

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<v Speaker 2>so incredibly soft. An average goat provides just three to

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<v Speaker 2>four ounces of cashmere that's about eighty five to one

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<v Speaker 2>hundred and ten grams. That means it typically takes about

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<v Speaker 2>six goats to make enough fiber for just one cashmere sweater.

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<v Speaker 2>Once the Kashmir fur is separated, samples of it are

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<v Speaker 2>sent for quality testing to one of two labs in

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<v Speaker 2>the US, one in Texas one in Colorado. Most legitimate

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<v Speaker 2>US kashmere farmers have made a commitment to provide only

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<v Speaker 2>high quality fiber, outlined in the Kashmir Goat Association standards

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<v Speaker 2>and backed by organizations like the Kashmir and Camel Hair

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<v Speaker 2>Manufacturer's Institute. That means consistency or uniformity in the fiber.

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<v Speaker 2>Each follicle should be at least one point twenty five

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<v Speaker 2>inches that's three point two centimeters in length in its

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<v Speaker 2>relaxed or unstretched state, and no bigger than nineteen microns

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<v Speaker 2>in diameter. If wearing wool makes you itch, that's actually

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<v Speaker 2>because the woolf fibers have an uneven thickness. The standard

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<v Speaker 2>thickness of wool is twenty eight microns. Cashmere is much finer.

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<v Speaker 2>That standard of less than nineteen microns is why cashmere

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<v Speaker 2>can feel less scratchy. Cashmere that fails to beat these

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<v Speaker 2>standards inevitably creates quality problems like pilling in the final product,

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<v Speaker 2>and there are plenty of examples of bad cashmere out there.

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<v Speaker 2>While the Federal Trade Commission enforces the Wool Product Labeling

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<v Speaker 2>Act in the United States, it gets murky on the

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<v Speaker 2>international market. Even the FTC says quote routine testing of

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<v Speaker 2>fiber contents by a qualified, independent testing lab is the

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<v Speaker 2>best way to assure accurate labels. That means it's hard

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<v Speaker 2>for consumers to determine where the cashmere there by comes

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<v Speaker 2>from and specifically how the goats are treated. Cashmir demand

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<v Speaker 2>is one of the problems. It reportedly far exceeds how

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<v Speaker 2>much goats could produce every year. That means less scrupulous

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<v Speaker 2>producers may turn to inhumane methods to produce more wool

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<v Speaker 2>or lesser operating costs. The organization PETA has accused Chinese

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<v Speaker 2>conglomerates of shearing the goats midwinter, when the animals need

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<v Speaker 2>the fur to keep warm. Pias says that some farms,

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<v Speaker 2>to save production costs, have even experimented with restricting goat's diets.

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<v Speaker 2>But aside from compromising the animal's health, it also directly

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<v Speaker 2>affects the quality of the cashmere. She said. If you

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<v Speaker 2>starve your animals, the hair will get finer and shorter

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<v Speaker 2>and more brittle. You can't spin it. They call it

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<v Speaker 2>hunger fine. So if you wear cashmere, Pia recommends buying

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<v Speaker 2>directly from the source or choosing very carefully. Cashmeer will

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<v Speaker 2>consist of about one percent of a goat's total wool production.

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<v Speaker 2>For apparel, so the fabric and those sweaters should have

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<v Speaker 2>a price to reflect the scarcity. Even for farmers like Pia,

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<v Speaker 2>who sells her cashmere online and at fairs and festivals,

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<v Speaker 2>it's difficult to tell if it's the real deal. Pia

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<v Speaker 2>herself has been fooled. She recalls a time when she

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<v Speaker 2>found kashmere sweater at a store for less than one

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<v Speaker 2>hundred dollars she bought it. It turned out to be

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<v Speaker 2>a crylic. Another time, she and her husband were visited

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<v Speaker 2>by a group of people who said they were interested

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<v Speaker 2>in getting into the Kashmir industry. They brought with them

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<v Speaker 2>samples of Kashmeir they had bought at trade shows in Italy.

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<v Speaker 2>Pyah recalls they had this one shawl. It was shiny,

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<v Speaker 2>and Kashmere isn't shiny, so we had to say to them,

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<v Speaker 2>you know, this is really nice. I don't know what

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<v Speaker 2>it is, but it's not Kashmir. Today's episode is based

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<v Speaker 2>on the article why is Kashmir so Expensive? On how

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<v Speaker 2>stuffworks dot Com, written by Jamie Allen. Brain Stuff is

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<v Speaker 2>production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com

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<v Speaker 2>and is produced by Tyler Klang.

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<v Speaker 1>Four more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

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