The following is a 5/27/2026 story by Marketplace.org’s Kai Ryssdal, Sarah Leeson, and Livi Burdette. Read on for encouraging news from the “fiber side” of sheep raising! If you prefer, click to listen here.
While buyers are willing to shell out a bit more if the item is made with organic or sustainable products, that interest doesn’t go very far if the supply doesn’t exist. For instance, buyers on the hunt for wool products might be out of luck.
Stepan Sveshnikov wrote in Offrange about why demand for wool is up — fears around microplastics in clothing and concerns about sustainability are two reasons. Sveshnikov joined “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal to talk about how the industry is working to ramp production to meet the desire for natural fibers.
Below is an edited transcript of their conversation.
Kai Ryssdal: I’m just going to read you the first line of this piece, which you know, of course, since you wrote it. But then we’re going to talk about it, because it contains multitudes here. “The U.S. wool industry,” you write, “is staging a comeback. So, where are all the sheep?” First of all, talk to me about wool and this comeback, because clearly I missed that.
Stepan Sveshnikov: Yeah, well, I’m not surprised you’ve missed it, but there’s a group of people who’s interested in wool, Kai, and I think that that group is growing. Wool answers three concerns that are prominent, and I think you’ve heard about these concerns. One is a health concern about the microplastics in our clothes. There’s a growing body of research that’s showing that that might be affecting us in ways we don’t like. Now, if you’re talking about wool socks or wool underwear—and they even make wool bikinis now—those aren’t going to have any microplastics in them. The second concern is environmental, and I’m talking about oil, which has been in the news. Those plastic clothes, they’re made from polyester, and polyester is made from crude oil, so we’re talking about a group of people who are concerned about the environment, and wool is a lot more sustainable than oil. And the third thing is ethical. In the news recently, there’s been some talk about polyester recycling. When you recycle old clothes, they go off to places like India, and the dust from those recycling operations is making people sick. I think wool actually is able to answer those concerns. And as there are more people who are worried about these things, they’re starting to buy wool products.
Ryssdal: Okay, here comes the second part, then, of your first question. Where are all the sheep? You actually say there’s not enough sheep in the world to meet all of our demand.
Sveshnikov: No, there’s not enough sheep in the world, not even in big wool-producing countries like Australia, and in the U.S., the situation is especially bad. But surprisingly, the farmers and industry people I talked to were optimistic, so they felt like we’ve hit rock bottom, but there’s room to start bringing some sheep back.
Ryssdal: The catch, of course, is that — and look, I don’t know much about sheep procreation, but I imagine it takes, I don’t know, a couple of years for sheep to get to the point where it can be sheared and wool can get into the supply chain.
Sveshnikov: That’s the problem. Yeah, so Christa Rochford, who’s the wool marketing program manager at the American Sheep Industry Association, she told me that it’s not like you can rebuild the American herd overnight. You can’t just come up with breeding stocks. So, demand is spiking, which, of course, is great for farmers, because the price for wool goes up, but then they’re not going to be able to double their herd size overnight.
Ryssdal: There’s another part of this infrastructure that you talk about, and it’s not just the livestock, it’s mills and places where you can go to get your wool — what is it, combed and spun? I mean, I forgot all my fifth grade history stuff, but you’ve got to do stuff to get wool to a place where it can be used.
Sveshnikov: Yes, you do, and there’s so many steps. You’ve got to shear it, wash it, comb it so all the fibers are straight, spin it into yarn, and then that yarn gets woven into a textile, and the textile still has to be sewn into clothing, and those are just some of the steps. In the U.S., right now, there are probably only about five mills left that can complete all of those steps.
Ryssdal: Alright, so, look, as I said in the introduction, you’re a contributing writer, but also you’re a PhD student in history. So, apply your analytical history lens here and tell me where this goes now.
Sveshnikov: I think we’re going to see some more investment in infrastructure. It’s going to be slow, and a lot of it is going to come from unexpected places, but you know, I talked to a guy named Chase Hill in Idaho, who’s, oh, he must be in his late 20s, maybe early 30s. He started an organic wool pillow company, and it’s all made in the USA. His cotton is from Texas, and his wool is from Montana. He wasn’t happy with the infrastructure, so he actually bought a wool mill this year, and he’s bringing more production in-house. So look, it’s an uphill battle, but there are people doing it, and I think it’s going to grow.
