Since I'm getting back into backpacking, I've been perusing new gear. I don't need a new sleeping bag, as my 20 year old Moonstone PCT is probably one of the best investments in gear I've ever made, but was looking at the current crop of bags. An REI gear guide mentioned that goose down is becoming scarce, so I did some googling. Apparently the price has tripled in the past few years.
I guess most of our down comes from China, and the hypothesis is that more Chinese are moving into cities, and their diets are changing to less and less goose and duck (the feathers of which have also increased in price) so there is less down by-product from the food source. Somebody needs to start tapping into that overabundance of nuisance geese we have in some parts of the US!
