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CCI takes sustainability message to foreign contactsBy Jennifer M. Latzke Cotton Council International hosted a breakfast to kick off the 2008 Beltwide Cotton Conferences in Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 9, sharing with media all of its accomplishments in 2007. CCI President Michael Adams stressed CCI's message that sustainable cotton production is important to meeting both environmental and market demands. "The amount of cotton in a pair of jeans, takes three pounds of CO2 out of the atmosphere," Adams explained. He added synthetic fiber production is petroleum-based and not renewable in the long run. Cotton produced using sustainable methods increases production on the same amount of land, saves soil and tractor fuel and causes less erosion. "We've increased production by 3.4 percent on the same amount of land," Adams said. Sustainably produced cotton saves 306 million gallons of tractor fuel, nearly 1 million tons of soil and captures an amount of carbon dioxide equal to removing about 27,000 cars from the environment. A concern of CCI and most everyone in the cotton industry is the increasing amount of cotton acres that have been turned over into corn and soybean acres. Adams explained that the United States should have enough cotton carryover to meet demands until 2009, but what's more troubling is the infrastructure that's being lost in the meantime. Adams said several gins in his area have closed and several growers are selling equipment and those who stay in cotton in the next few years will benefit from better seed technology and a growing demand for cotton.
Jennifer M. Latzke can be reached by phone at 620-227-1807, or by e-mail at jlatzke@hpj.com. 2/4/08 Date: 1/31/08
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