Rural and urban consumers had to make big changes with their buying and could not talk about looking after the land if they were buying synthetic products that contradicted this position, he said.
“We’ve thought it was OK to put synthetic carpets in and solution-dyed nylon is fine, but at the end of the day, they are plastic.
“The end of life for synthetic carpet takes potentially hundreds of years to biodegrade down, so it’s damaging the planet.
“If we go to a natural wool fibre it will biodegrade back to earth within a matter of years.
“So the rural community has to walk the talk just as the government does.”
Strong wool continued to be a net cost for most strong-wool farmers, he said.
“The revenue they get for their wool is actually less than the cost to get the wool off.
“Depending on the farming model it could be $1 a kilogram and if we are producing ballpark 100 million kilograms of strong wool per annum it’s costing New Zealand sheep farmers at the moment $100 million, so unfortunately behind the farm gate it’s still critically bad.”
Farmers would look to eliminate the cost by going out of sheep, reducing their numbers or going to self-shedding sheep breeds.
He joined the campaign in 2019 as a disgruntled farmer who felt a new direction was needed when farmers were still breaking even for wool, O’Sullivan said.
“My biggest frustration is that there needs to be a rethink and some real collaboration as there’s too many players in the wool scene and they need to collaborate behind a united strategy and potentially even a combined united entity.
“But unfortunately it just seems to be taking so long to get that happening.”
Strong wool had been in decline for decades and “drifting” since frustrated farmers voted against the wool levy.
Independent leadership was needed to take the industry in a new direction, O’Sullivan said.
“I still feel optimistic and it won’t happen overnight, but the key reason natural fibres have suffered is the absolute domination of man-made synthetics since the 1970s and driven by consumers happy to buy an oil-derived product, but now we are starting to wake up to the really alarming damage we have done through those purchasing behaviours to the environment and potentially to the climate.”
It was becoming obvious to consumers globally they could not continue down that track, he said.
They needed to move to products such as wool which were biodegradable, sustainable and complemented the environment.
While this had yet to translate to consumer purchasing it would happen, he said.
“My message to farmers is it’s brutally tough and they’re losing money on wool and have been the last couple of years, but I honestly believe with my hand on heart that the potential for wool moving forward is very good and it’s probably the best potential for decades.”
There were promising “green shoots” as companies looked to replace plastic and move back to natural products.
Big companies such as car manufacturers were moving to electric and continuing to sell petrochemicals was going to become risky for them as consumers were being turned off by it, he said.
Until a few years ago 60 per cent of Bremworth’s range was synthetic but it has since moved completely to wool.
“I guess they’re early adopters and they see that there is a movement by consumers and I think that will just snowball.
“We are just on the cusp of seeing a massive movement, particularly younger consumers who’ve been brought up with the negatives of plastics.”
Farmers would be heartened by the support of rural schools seeking wool on classroom floors, he said.
Even urbanites were “horrified” by wool being under-appreciated in the marketplace given its sustainable attributes.
The Ministry for Primary Industries deserved praise for supporting businesses and co-funding products or innovations and the industry needed more collaborations, he said.
Industry-good organisation Beef + Lamb New Zealand is among those backing sheep farmers by choosing commercial wool tiles to carpet its Wellington office.
Chairwoman Kate Acland said the wool tiles were sustainable and supported Kiwi farmers.
