Leading the Way to a More Sustainable World
January 28, 2014 From a global perspective, there is an incredible challenge between balancing economic growth and social and environmental considerations. In agriculture, and cotton, there are incredible international efforts to attend to the social, environmental and economic factors and insure continual improvement, investment, research and sharing of best practices.
The United States is excited to be a leading member of this community. The United States has been blessed with some of the most fertile lands and productive agricultural areas in the world. Today’s farmers start and end their day thinking about how to conserve their land, their water, their inputs, in an effort to minimize their environmental footprint while producing some of the best and most competitive cotton in the world.
Behind this are 150 years of investment and research, developing and sharing best agriculture practices. In the 1860s, President Abraham Lincoln established the land grant university system. The twentieth century brought a host of legislation, regulations and implementation of land and water conservation programs and resource management. These programs continue to improve, buoyed by a dynamic dialog between independently funded consumer interest organizations, the U.S. industry and the government. The U.S. farm community is committed to provide real stewardship for their land, their communities and our future.
In addition, there is a federal regulatory system that is transparent, balances all stakeholder interests and maintains consistently high enforcement and compliance standards. The result is a system that includes effective food and consumer safety protections, meaningful labor regulations, including workplace safety and child protection, and comprehensive pesticide regulations, water and land stewardship requirements and conservation programs.
In addition, there is a strong, independently funded consumer advocacy community in the U.S. and a commitment, from farmers, brands and retailers and consumer advocates, to cooperate for social, environmental and economic benefit. One such forum of cooperation has been the Field To Market under the auspices of the Keystone Initiative. The U.S. cotton industry has provided leadership by working jointly with Field To Market and by developing its own life cycle analysis, the first step to meaningful review of the environmental aspects of any economic activity.
Field to Market
Field to Market is a diverse alliance working to create opportunities across the agricultural supply chain for continuous improvements in productivity, environmental quality, and human well-being. The group provides collaborative leadership that is engaged in industry-wide dialogue, grounded in science, and open to the full range of technology choices. Members include producers, brands and retailers and consumer interest organizations, like the WWF and Nature Conservancy.
In addition, the U.S. is supporting the international community committed to improving the social, environmental and economy of the textile industry by joining Cotton LEADS, an international standards system based on recognized principals:
- Commitment to the social, environmental, economic and regulatory factors to produce world-class cotton,
- Recognition that sustainable and responsible cotton production requires continual improvement, investment, research and sharing of best practices information among growers and industry,
- Understanding that leading change in a responsible and sustainable cotton practice will have the most positive impact when implemented in collaboration with farm, regional, national and international programs,
- Belief in the benefit of working cooperatively with similar programs that seek to advance responsible and sustainable cotton production in an effort to keep global cotton competitive in world fiber markets, and
- Confidence in a cotton identification system that ensures traceability from farm to manufacturer.
Cotton LEADS, in conjunction with like-minded programs, insures that textile manufacturers, brands and retailers will have access to this conscientiously produced raw material. Adding to these cotton end users’ confidence is that Cotton LEADS will demonstrate how Cotton LEADS cotton can supply this quality fiber.
For example, Cotton LEADS cotton is identified on-farm by a module ticket. When the cotton is ginned, each bale is assigned a unique bale identification number. By including Cotton LEADS cotton among their preferred cottons when procuring cotton, brands and retailers can assure their consumers that their cotton has been responsibly produced.
Cotton LEADS validation programs include national-level oversight, regulatory enforcement and transparency. Companies and organizations, including retailers, brands and manufacturers, can get involved in the program by supporting research at the field level, disseminating best practices and creating partnerships for continuous global production improvement. For example, current research ranges from precision fertilizer management to sensor demonstrations for irrigation scheduling.
Cotton LEADS is a platform for insuring cottons reputation by supporting the dissemination of best practices outside founder country production. In addition, the U.S. cotton producers and imports invest in research and the promotion of best technologies beyond the farm level. This includes benchmarking beyond the agricultural boundary. The Cotton Life Cycle Inventory and Life Cycle Assessment is the first independent peer reviewed life cycle inventory. The result is to focus research in agricultural, yarn production and textile manufacturing technologies for the greatest impact. Best practices are then developed and shared internationally. The topline results have already helped shape strategic initiatives including expanding research initiatives in water and nitrogen use efficiencies, developing better models for toxicity impacts, implementing wastewater reduction research in textile manufacturing, educating consumers on sustainable garment care.
Spreading the Word
As a renewable, biodegradable and carbon positive material, cotton has a great story to tell. Still, in the food, mineral or textile industry, producers, governments and advocates continue to ask how best to balance the social, environmental and economic factors in growing agriculture, producing inputs or manufacturing products for our world. In a world with limited resources, we all have an interest in adequately considering and local groups and communities and the environmental impact of our production and manufacturing decisions.
The U.S. industry commitment to Cotton LEADS is critical because in some regions economic growth can mean the difference between living above or below the poverty line. At the same time, nowhere more than in the developed countries of Europe and North America, where the environmental movement began, have we had to face and address the environmental considerations and balance these economic and social factors, and we have learned that they are not mutually exclusive. We all share a responsibility to insure that we are continually reducing our environmental footprint and improving our social metrics while we grow our communities, our countries and our world to meet the growing population and rising consumer demands. The U.S. cotton industry is proud to be one of the leaders in this join effort.
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