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Holiday cashmere deals mask deep environmental costs, Cornell expert says
December 12, 2025
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Once considered a luxury fiber, cashmere has flooded the global market in the form of inexpensive sweaters and fast-fashion staples. But the rise of low-cost cashmere carries significant environmental consequences in the form of overgrazed grasslands, degraded soil, expanding desertification.
Ginger Allington
Assistant Professor, Natural Resources and the Environment
Ginger Allington is a professor in the department of natural resources and the environment. She says the boom in cheap cashmere is accelerating ecological damage across Central Asia.
Allington says:
“Investing in a cashmere sweater used to cost upwards of several hundred dollars, but now companies like Quince and Uniqlo are selling between $50-80, which has vastly increased demand.
“In order to meet this increased demand, herders have had to significantly increase herd sizes. Compared to sheep, cashmere goats are more efficient and destructive foragers. So, this takes a much larger toll on some of these sensitive grassland ecosystems across Central Asia, but primarily in Mongolia.
“This is a value chain infrastructure problem most of all. If there were more pathways by which herders could get more money for higher quality fiber, there would be an incentive to have smaller herds, which would reduce the environmental impact.”
