2009 is the International Year of Natural Fibers

Have you heard about this? I just happened to come across it while reading one of Adrienne's blog posts at The Dye Garden (of A Verb for Keeping Warm fame).

According to the webcast summary,

"The United Nations General Assembly declared 2009 as the International Year of Natural Fibres. IYNF 2009 aims to highlight the importance, significance and continuing relevance of a sector that produces close to 30 million tonnes of natural fibres worth some $40 billion annually."

As an excerpt from the website, here are the objectives behind this initiative:

• Raise awareness and stimulate demand for natural fibers;
• Promote the efficiency and sustainability of the natural fibers industries;
• Encourage appropriate policy responses from governments to the problems faced by natural fiber industries;
• Foster an effective and enduring international partnership among the various natural fibers industries.

I found the associated webcast to be pretty interesting too, and I feel generally inspired by this to keep stitching away at this love I call a hobby. It feels good to be taking my part in contributing to production in this industry and to supporting developing countries.

Plus,

How cool is it that we now a totally justifiable, socially responsible reason for acquiring more yarn??