"An organic cotton tote needs to be used 20,000 times to offset its overall impact of production."

[Tumbulu]

13. I am an organic cotton breeder and grower in the irrigated west

Last edited Wed Aug 25, 2021, 02:19 PM - Edit history (1)

And cotton is a very very low value crop. It tends to be produced during years where water in plentiful. Like many other low value crops. And or on land that nothing else can grow upon. Cotton can be grown on super salt saturated soils.

The permanent crops such as trees and vines that produce fruit and nuts are a huge investment, and during years of drought people use whatever precious water resources that they have to keep their expensive crops going. They do not waste water on low value row crops. Most wheat ( another low value row crop) is irrigated only supplementally when there is not adequate winter rainfall. And in years like this last one, nobody except people trying to keep their seed lines alive wasted water that way. Irrigating is expensive in terms of time and equipment, even without the cost of the water, which varies greatly, area by area.

Cotton is a plant that requires far less water than most row crops- compare it to alfalfa or vegetables- but it’s low value leads people to consider it a waste of resources. But cotton was not always such a low value crop. It just is now.

The value is in the manufacturing of it into usable products. And it’s seed for dairy feedstuff.

But old memes take a long time to die. And this is yet another one of them.