Alpacas Magazine - 2010 Spring

Alpacas have

two sets of teeth

for processing

food. They have

molars in the back

of the jaw for

chewing cud. But

in the front, the

alpaca has teeth

only on the bot-

tom and a hard

gum (known as a

dental pad) on the

top for crushing

grain, grass, or

hay. Unlike goats

and sheep that

have long tongues

which they some-

times use to rip

plants out of the ground, alpacas have

short tonges and nibble only the tops

of grasses and other plants, resulting in

far less disturbance of the vegetation.

Another feature of the alpaca which

makes it environmentally-friendly is its

foot structure. Unlike most livestock

which have hard hooves that compact

the soil and damage the terrain, alpacas

have soft, padded toes (much like the

soft underside of a dog’s foot), and

therefore do not tear up pastures to the

same degree as other livestock. A softly-

trodden paddock means quicker grass

recovery, promoting pasture production.

Most importantly, not only do alpaca

herds out perform other livestock on

lush pasturage but they can also thrive

without it. It is easy enough to envision

massive herds of alpacas roaming the

great plains of North America, thriving

where other livestock either would not

be economically feasible, or feasible

only by overgrazing and damaging the

land. By their nature, they are a natural

choice for creating sustainable agricul-

ture; an ancient beast with a bright

promise for our future.

In summary, alpacas haven’t gone

green, they were that way since the

beginning. The alpaca yield is high,

and the footprint is low. But what

about the product itself? How does

alpaca fiber stack up against the other

fibers we use to make our clothing?

The previously described wealth of

natural colors available in alpaca herds

provides a broad spectrum of fashion

choice. Even if nothing in the entire

range of lustrous earth tones suits your

fancy, alpaca will still not disappoint.

The preponderance of white alpaca

fiber is there to absorb natural dyes.

Red, blue, and orange alpaca can still

be green!

Synthetics? We already had a history

and genetics lesson, we can skip the

chemistry. Synthetics usually mean oil.

Comparing alpaca fiber to synthetics

is not like comparing gas vehicles with

electric, it’s analogous to comparing gas

vehicles to walking. I think all will agree

that pumping and processing oil – espe-

cially to make clothing – is not the most

eco-friendly activi-

ty. But there is one

point that never

seems to get made.

Petroleum-based

clothing may

appear to be a

good value to con-

sumers, but the

way we consume it

destroys that value.

Inexpensive by

comparison to

alpaca and other

natural fibers for

sure, but do you

keep it forever?

Synthetic fibers are

used to make our

“disposable cloth-

ing.” Perhaps future archaeologists, exca-

vating our landfills, may find the buried

polyester as interesting as we found the

ancient alpaca in the tombs of Incan

royalty. Interesting, that is, as in “Why

did they wear this stuff ”?

So what about cotton? Is it eco-

friendly? A search of the Internet

appears to suggest most cotton is not

(the exception being organic cotton,

which only represents a very small per-

centage of the world’s cotton produc-

tion). It’s hard to find a crop that,

worldwide, uses more pesticide per acre

than commercially-grown cotton.

Cotton requires much more energy use

to harvest and process than alpaca.

Alpacas make wonderful organic

fertilizer, cotton growers use massive

amounts of chemical fertilizer.

Is alpaca fiber more eco-friendly than

sheep’s wool? The answer is yes. Sheep’s

wool requires more energy to process,

and detergents must be used to remove

the grease present in raw wool. The

grease in wool does provide a useful

by-product: lanolin. Having said that,

however, some people have reactions

to lanolin. Others experience skin

irritations to sheep’s wool, due to the

Spring 2010

Alpacas haven’t

”gone green,”

they were that way

since the beginning.