Synthetic fabrics kneecapped American cotton. Industry leaders have a plan to revive it

A sprawling coalition of lawmakers, agriculture officials and industry insiders are looking to give a key American crop a leg up over the competition.

For decades, demand for U.S. cotton has remained stagnant.

“Over the last 20 years, we actually haven’t had any growth,” said Hank Reichle, who’s a board member of the National Cotton Council and CEO of Mississippi-based cotton cooperative Staplcotn, which exports American cotton around the globe.

Although people still buy lots of cotton products – including clothing, medical supplies, and bedding – many garment makers have replaced the natural fiber with man-made materials such as nylon or polyester, which are easier to work with and often cheaper.

“Consumers have become more comfortable with synthetic fibers, particularly polyester, in their clothing,” said Robert Antoshak, a cotton and textile consultant. “Going back to the 1980s, probably two-thirds of the consumption of apparel in the United States was made with cotton. Now it’s down to maybe one-third, and that’s all imported.”

As demand has fallen, the U.S. cotton industry has downsized as a whole.

In 1991, the U.S. Department of Agriculture counted more than 1,500 cotton gins, facilities where the plant’s fiber is separated from its seeds for use. There are now just over 400.

U.S. cotton has also faced increasing competition on the global market from countries such as Brazil, where farmers have dedicated significantly more acres to the crop over the past 20 years.

“International textile manufacturers have a range of choices, whether that be U.S. cotton or Brazilian, Australian, west African…or synthetic fibers. And unfortunately, in too many cases, they’re picking those alternative fibers,” said Gary Adams, president and CEO of the National Cotton Council.

Now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and others in the cotton industry hope to spur more demand for American cotton through new campaigns and help from Congress.

Cotton ready for harvest in north Texas sits in a field in 2011. The U.S. has faced increasing competition from international cotton growers in recent years.
Kimberly Vardeman / Flickr Creative Commons

U.S. cotton’s ‘time to shine’

Industry leaders like Adams are betting on new legislation that aims to boost interest in U.S. cotton, known as the Buying American Cotton Act.

The bill, which is currently making its way through Congress, would provide tax breaks for manufacturers who use U.S. cotton. The more material used, the bigger the incentive. Companies can also save by assembling and selling the product in the U.S.

The legislation requires manufacturers to verify that they’re using U.S. cotton.

“We wanted to give a tax credit that rewards and incentivizes the documented use of U.S. cotton, and then make sure that the tax credit scales based on any of the value added in the United States,” said Adams, who lobbied for the bill.

The National Cotton Council predicts that with the tax credits, U.S. growers and processors could produce up to 4 million additional bales of cotton per year. Right now, they produce about 14 million bales annually.

Many cotton growers, processors and exporters are excited about the bill’s prospects.

“It’s a big deal,” said Seth Stephens, who’s the general manager of United Agricultural Cooperative, a farm service business that processes cotton in El Campo, Texas. “If something like this can pass, it’s going to give United States cotton its time to shine, so to speak.”

Stephens said that years of low prices and higher costs of doing business have persuaded some Texas farmers to plant more corn or sorghum instead of cotton.

“[The Buying American Cotton Act] has a whole trickling effect across the industry,” Stephens said. “Prices have a shot to rise, more acres are going to be put in the ground, and that’s going to equate to more cotton to gin.”

Incremental gains from the legislation could have huge ripple effects across the industry, said Darren Hudson, a professor who specializes in agricultural policy and trade at Texas Tech University.

Cotton currently makes up 23% of all fibers used globally, Hudson said.

“If it went to 25%, that would be an extra 11 to 14 million bales of cotton which is the entire U.S. crop,” he explained.

‘Plant Not Plastic’

The Buying American Cotton Act has dozens of Republican and Democratic co-sponsors in both chambers of Congress. But it’s still waiting for a hearing.

Meanwhile, the cotton industry is working to recapture sales lost to synthetic fibers.

The National Cotton Council launched the “Plant Not Plastic” campaign last year to bring attention to microplastics – tiny shards of plastic pollution that can hurt human health. Through video ads and social media, the campaign claims wearing clothing made out of fabrics such as nylon and polyester will expose you to microplastics.

Textile researchers have found that synthetic fabrics can shed microplastics, and studies have linked microplastic exposure to human health issues – including DNA damage and a heightened risk of cancer development. The extent to which these plastic particles enter or affect the human body is still being studied, however.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture backs the Plant Not Plastic campaign, as well as the Buying American Cotton Act. The department has integrated both measures into a strategy for revitalizing the crop called the Great American Cotton Plan.

The plan also aims to support the industry through tax cuts, grants for textile mills and processors and funding international trade missions to open more markets for U.S. cotton. It’s part of an effort to ensure U.S. cotton becomes the “fiber of choice,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said when she introduced it in May.

Unlike synthetic fabrics, cotton is “natural, breathable, biodegradable, and proudly grown by American farmers — not manufactured from petroleum-based plastics that can shed microplastics into our soil, water, and bodies,” Rollins said in a press release.

Marta Miller, a garment maker who runs production facilities in Austin and Los Angeles, said some of her clients are asking for cotton products because of fears over microplastics.

“We’re finding big demand currently with people wanting to have a cotton-based activewear brand,” Miller said.

It remains to be seen if cotton can mimic the texture and stretchiness of nylon or spandex. But Miller is experimenting to try to make it happen.

“[Cotton] fits when we first put it on, but after six hours of wearing it, it kinda loses the ability to stay tight on the waist or something like that,” she said. “So we’ve been working on figuring out the exact way to mill the fabric.”

Cotton growers hope that those kinds of advances – along with some help from Congress – will help keep their industry healthy for a while longer.

This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.