EFS® System News & Notes

EFS® News & Notes Issue 52

Cotton Incorporated and the Environment
Following the Green Road

Recently, Cotton Incorporated has been releasing information about its efforts to reduce cotton’s “environmental footprint.” These conservation efforts begin in the field at the agricultural level and move up through the consumer level in home textiles and apparel.

From an agricultural standpoint, the latest technology allows cotton farmers to use less land, less water, fewer pesticides, and produce less carbon emissions. Cotton fields today use 14 million acres in contrast to 44 million acres in the 1920s, although the production yields are the same. Drought-resistant strains of cotton and advanced irrigation monitoring have allowed for 45 percent less irrigation per pound of cotton compared to what was used only 25 years ago. Pesticide use is now half of what it was 15 years ago due to insect-resistant strains of cotton and high-tech pesticide monitoring systems. Using conservation tillage reduces carbon emissions equal to removing more than 27,000 cars from the road permanently all over the world.

The cotton industry is also searching for ways to recycle cotton waste by-products for use as food, hydromulches and natural insulation for homes. Cottonseed is almost 23 percent protein. In the past, humans and most livestock have not been able to eat cottonseed because it contains a plant chemical called gossypol. Research at the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station identified the enzyme that creates gossypol, which may allow it to be repressed from the cottonseed. This development means there could be 48.5 million tons of edible cottonseed created each year. Also in the area of food, Hollybrook Cottonseed Processing has created a food substance that is ideal as a cattle feed. The company developed a modern extrusion process that creates a by-product consisting of 26 percent protein, approximately 25 percent fiber and 6 percent fat. Mulch & Seed Innovations, LLC, with the help of Cotton Incorporated and the USDA, created two hydromulches that prevent erosion and encourage grass growth. Bonded Logic has created UltraTouch™ insulation by converting old jeans and other denim apparel collected from U.S. colleges and universities during COTTON’S DIRTY LAUNDRY TOUR™ promotion. This insulation was donated to Habitat for Humanity for rebuilding in Baton Rouge, La., from the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Many consumers consider environmental impact as a factor when contemplating purchases. Many are buying cotton products because they see a natural fiber as being more environmentally friendly. This decision making is simply being fueled by their natural instincts rather than informed purchasing decisions. Some of the terminology such as “sustainable agriculture” and “renewable” are confusing to consumers. Only 2 percent of men and 4 percent of women spend a considerable amount of time specifically looking for clothing that is environmentally friendly. Price is the key motivator of apparel purchases, although many consumers are now more willing to pay a higher price for clothing made of natural fibers such as cotton. In the future, informed purchases are expected to increase because marketing messages will help consumers become more familiar with eco-friendly terms.

To follow with Cotton Incorporated’s environmental conservation efforts, Fiber Competition wants to transition the traditional paper newsletter to an electronic publication for as many recipients as possible. Please send the e-mail address to which you want to receive your newsletter to EFSSystem@cottoninc.com. You will receive the newsletter in an Adobe® Acrobat® .pdf file format, which allows you to view it online as well as print it, if desired. We hope you will enjoy receiving the newsletter electronically and participating in conserving our natural resources.

Top

Fiber Competition’s Involvement with the World Cotton Research Conference-4 (WCRC-4)

10-14, 2007, in Lubbock, Texas. This location was chosen due to the large presence of cotton research facilities and cotton production in general. Texas produces more cotton than any other state, and two-thirds of the cotton crop in Texas is produced in the closely surrounding areas of Lubbock. There was a record production of 1.85 million metric tons of cotton in Texas in the 2005-2006 crop year, which made up 35.5 percent of all the U.S. cotton crop. In addition, Texas produces more cotton than all but four countries. Texas Tech University’s International Textile Center, the Texas A&M University Research and Extension Center, and the USDA-ARS Cropping Systems Research Laboratory are prominent cotton research facilities located in or near Lubbock that also make it a desirable location for the WCRC-4.

The theme for the conference was “Cotton: Nature’s High-Tech Fiber.” Topics at the conference covered 13 areas of cotton research including abiotic stress management, agronomy and cotton farming systems, arthropod management, economics of production and marketing, extension and technology transfer, fiber quality evaluation and preservation, genomics and biotechnology, harvesting and ginning, physiology, plant breeding and genetics, plant pathology and disease management, value-added issues for fiber and seed, and weed management. Mike Watson, Vice President, Fiber Competition and Vikki Martin, Associate Director, Quality Research in the Fiber Competition department, attended the conference. Attending the conference allowed them to have project review meetings for research projects being conducted by Texas Tech University; USDA-ARS-CQRS, Clemson; and USDA-ARS-SRRC, New Orleans.

The sessions on fiber quality were focused on improving existing methods or creating new methods for measuring fiber quality, continued efforts to develop a simplified quality index or score to easily relate fiber quality to resulting yarn quality, and the improvement of fiber quality in general through agricultural research. Dr. Greg Constable, Program Leader, CSIRO Plant Industry, Cotton Improvement and Production, emphasized the negative relationship between increasing fiber yield and improving fiber quality. There is a need to investigate a wide range of genetic combinations to uncover the few times when high yield and high quality are possible simultaneously—a difficult goal to achieve.

Dr. James Rodgers III, Research Leader, Cotton Structure & Quality RU, USDA-ARS-Southern Regional Research Center, presented a paper on “Investigations of the Impacts of Instrumental and Operational Variables on Color Measurements,” a research project funded by Quality Research in the Fiber Competition department. The research was conducted to relate how Rd (reflectance) and +b (yellowness) relate to the more current color measurement of L*a*b*. The purpose of the research project is the future creation of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) traceable color measurements. NIST color measurements set a more globally recognized standard for color measurement.

The WCRC-5 will be held in 2011 in Mumbai, India.

Top

Updates to the EFS®-USCROP™ Program

USCROP program are now available. The updates include the most recent CCC loan update and a new option for showing short fiber content (SFC). The short fiber content index value provided in this release is calculated using the USDA’s 2003 regression formula. You can use the SFC option for selecting bale data to view. A histogram can be viewed for the SFC index as well.

The latest EFS-USCROP update includes an SFC index value that is calculated using the USDA’s 2003 regression formula.