Raising the Value of California Cotton

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

The UC Cooperative Extension is working with a team of soil health and fiber sustainability experts to try to help raise the value of California Cotton.

They are offering an online workshop of speakers who will share new soil-building practices and ideas for marketing the crop's sustainable production system to make California cotton more valuable to consumers.

Here’s UC Cooperative Extension Cropping Specialist Dr. Jeff Mitchell.

Mitchell… “What we're trying to do here is bring together different people, including a number of farmers and some of the cotton brand folks. And just sit down together and share ideas and have a discussion about what some of the goals are from the markets, what they would like to see in terms of production systems and how cotton is produced. And then some of the practices and some of the stewardship efforts that farmers are doing and see how they come together. And if that can, at some point down the road result in greater rewards paid for cottons. We're trying to create a, a current dialogue between producers and the markets, the buyers, related to good production practices.”

Dr. Mitchell hopes this dialogue can lead to better alignment between the good production practices of California cotton growers, and the sustainability conscious consumer.

The virtual workshop will be held on Thursday, September 17th from 9am to noon.