Sustainability message could bolster efforts to increase demand for U.S. Upland cotton.
At a Glance
- 40% of AZ cotton acres unsprayed in 2024
- Cotton Board partners with brands to boost sales
- IPM saves $600M, cuts 40M lbs of pesticides
Almost half of Arizona’s cotton acreage last year was never sprayed with an insecticide, a testament to changes in pest management technologies and a message that university scientists and cotton industry representatives believe could bolster efforts to increase demand for U.S. Upland cotton.
The U.S. Cotton Board, which oversees programs run by Cotton Incorporated to promote the use of American Upland cotton, is embarked on a change in strategies to bolster U.S. cotton sales by partnering with the various brands that use cotton in their products. News like this out of the University of Arizona could help Arizona cotton farmers to this end.
The U.S. cotton industry has faced international competition from synthetic fibers since the polyester leisure suit became popular in the 1970s, according to Christi Short, Southwest regional communications manager with The Cotton Board. Even so, various other factors continue to weigh heavily on U.S. cotton grower returns as the per-pound price of cotton paid to U.S. farmers has not improved since the leisure suit.
Paul Bush, president and CEO of Calcot, a cotton marketing cooperative, told Arizona cotton farmers at their annual industry meeting in mid-June that tariff uncertainties, reduced cotton purchases by China, foreign cotton production, and the competition from synthetic fibers continue to keep cotton prices depressed.
Short told those same farmers that efforts under way by The Cotton Board seek to leverage relationships with major clothing brands and capitalize on the marketing dollars they spend to promote their products.
“We’ll spend the rest of 2025 to implement these changes, and you’ll see them in 2026,” Short told Arizona cotton farmers.
Among these efforts is the promotion of U.S. Upland cotton as a high quality, sustainably produced natural fiber that consumers want. Within that is the goal to encourage spinners, manufacturers, brands, and retailers to make conscience decisions to add cotton to their ingredient mix, Short said.
Part of that battle is to get cotton products in front of consumers.
“What we have found is that if you want to buy a cotton T-shirt, but there are no cotton T-shirts on the shelf, there’s really not a whole lot you can do about that as a consumer,” she said.
Leveraging marketing costs
While the U.S. cotton industry is looking to get brands to use more cotton in their products, there is a bonus to this that Short believes can create a positive snowball effect.
These brands have much larger marketing budgets than Cotton Incorporated, the research and marketing arm of The Cotton Board. For instance, Levi’s will spend more than 10 times Cotton Incorporated’s marketing budget to promote their branded products, according to Short.
“We just can’t make an impact at the same level that these brands and retailers do,” she said. “But what we do need is those brands and retailers to market cotton. If we can work with these decision makers to keep cotton in their products, we have (the money) they’re spending to market cotton products to their customers.”
Consumer messaging
With all the attention from consumers and brands to promote sustainability and other positive environmental practices, Peter Ellsworth, an entomologist and integrated pest management specialist with the University of Arizona, says Arizona farmers continue to demonstrate their willingness to produce high quality cotton in ways that the corporate brands can promote.
“Every one of those apparel manufacturers has a vice president of sustainability,” Ellsworth said. “And guess what, they all know what highly hazardous pesticides are.”
Ellsworth has 30 years of data to show how Arizona cotton farmers have reduced their use of highly hazardous pesticides by a factor of at least 1,000 times. These products, while still labeled for use in cotton and other products, are generally not used anymore by Arizona cotton growers because of the advent of genetically modified cotton and targeted insecticides that can control troublesome insects while protecting beneficial insects and pollinators, Ellsworth said.
Arizona’s cotton crop may be the cleanest in the United States when it comes to pesticide use. Last year Arizona cotton farmers averaged 1.5 pesticide applications on their crop for the entire season.
Such has not always been the case.
Arizona was once “ground zero” for the pink bollworm, a pest that destroyed cotton by eating the fibrous cotton boll. Prior to the advent of genetically modified cotton in 1996, Arizona farmers were spraying their crops 10-15 times a year to combat the pest. The introduction of Bt cotton in 1996 cut that by more than half and led to the eradication of the pink bollworm, according to Ellsworth. The addition of targeted pesticides and the introduction of predator threshold practices (letting predatory insects control the problem pests whenever possible) has greatly helped Arizona farmers reduce their insecticide treatments.
“Astonishingly, 40% of cotton acres in Arizona last year were never sprayed with an insecticide,” Ellsworth said.
Arizona cotton farmer Dennis Palmer said he effectively grew his crop last year organically by not applying any pesticides to his crop because the beneficial insects did all the work for him.
Ellsworth said this work over the past 30 years to promote IPM and predator thresholds has saved Arizona farmers over $600 million and reduced the application of over 40 million pounds of active ingredients in that time.
“This is a great story for Arizona farmers to tell,” Ellsworth said.
Source: https://www.farmprogress.com/