Between the light breathable shirt you wear, to the soft bed sheets where you brag your beauty sleep, cotton is the fabric of our lives. The Georgia Farm Monitor gives us a look at the new “Cotton Trust Protocol” and its importance for the industry.
According to Matt Coley, a Georgia cotton farmer, “As the consumers of cotton become more focused on where the crop was produced and the production practices that went into it, it’s important that we as growers are able to tell our story on how we are sustainable, to make sure that cotton is still the fabric of choice when it comes to your clothing selection.”
The Cotton Trust Protocol has been in the works since 2016. It is unique in the way that it provides quantifiable goals for sustainability in the future. It gives growers information on their farming practices with very little extra work involved.
“It’s basically a mechanism for cotton growers to document their production practices and show the things we’re doing on the farm that are sustainable,” Coley notes. “So, it’s things we’re already doing on the farm now, be it through a farm management software or even just writing it down in your date book. All you really have to do is go through the trust protocol website and enter that information in...”
The information will be verified by a third party, which is essential for the industry in world markets.
“It’s not just the industry saying we’re sustainable, we’re actually going to have the verification of it that what we as cotton producers are doing are producing a sustainable product... We got to make sure that U.S. cotton isn’t left off any list of what is considered a sustainable product. We want to be the cotton the world trusts, and we want to be the preferred choice of cotton for the world,” he adds.
For more information or to check out the Cotton Trust Protocol, click HERE.