Editing Cashmere wool (section)

==Criticism of industry==
{{Clothing and the environment}}
The production of cashmere wool has been criticized for the detrimental [[Environmental impact of fashion|environmental effects]] directly resulting from raising the herds. The high demand for cashmere is causing [[grasslands]] in China and Mongolia to disappear, [[air pollution]] to increase and the herds to starve.<ref name="Chinadesert" /><ref name="Grassland" /> Factories in Alashan are forced to close several days a week due to water rationing as the deserts there expand by 400 square miles per year.<ref name="Chinadesert" /> As of 2016, the degradation of 65% of the grasslands in the area has been linked to a four-degree Fahrenheit increase in the temperature of Mongolia, three degrees higher than temperatures in other areas of the world. With proper management, the grasslands could recover in the space of ten years. Mitigation efforts include changing trades, grazing bans, hand-feeding the goats, and attempting to convince Mongolian herders to raise [[yaks]] or [[camels]] instead of or in addition to fewer goats, as the hair from these animals is also valuable and their impact on grasslands is less.<ref name="Chinadesert" /><ref name="Grassland" />

Air pollution, caused by the combination of industrial heavy burning of coal creating atmospheric particulates, and the desert dust storms resulting from disappearing grasslands in China and Mongolia, crosses the Pacific Ocean to the Americas. Health officials in Canada, China, Mongolia and the US have had to issue air quality warnings to the public.<ref name="Chinadesert" />

The demand for the fiber has caused some vendors, both knowingly and not, to sell yarns or textiles containing little to no cashmere<ref name="Lanham" /> representing themselves as being composed of cashmere. Wool and other fibers have been mixed in by unscrupulous manufacturers, deliberately selling mislabeled items to well-known department stores. Complaints of mislabeling after testing for cashmere content were reported by the Cashmere and Camel Hair Manufacturers Institute to the [[Federal Trade Commission]], leading to more stringent examination of cashmere products.<ref name="Crackdown" />

As part of achieving [[Cradle to Cradle]] "gold" certification for its clothing, in January 2023, fashion brand [[Ralph Lauren]] announced it would provide shipping labels to return cashmere clothes of any brand to  be recycled by [[Re-Verso]] in [[Tuscany]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Paton |first=Elizabeth |date=2023-01-24 |title=Who Will Take Your Old Cashmere? |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/24/fashion/ralph-lauren-cashmere-recycling-program.html |access-date=2023-07-20 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>