Most clothing sold is made from cotton the most versatile fibers for clothing and other uses It is an excellent material for fabric innovations Cotton is breathable and natural takes dye colors easily and is comfortable instead of scratchy next to the skin Cotton and its by-products are used in ways that might not be as obvious as a T-shirt or a pair of jeans Cottonseed is used in feed for dairy and beef cattle Cottonseed oil which is produced when cottonseed is crushed is an ingredient in many foods such as French fries and potato chips It is also in cereal baked goods mayonnaise soap and cosmetics Cotton fibers are used to weave furniture upholstery Cotton is in the cloth that covers hardcover books and in the paper pages inside those books Cotton is used to weave fishnets create coffee filters and make bandages One Bale of Cotton A cotton bale weighs approximately 480 pounds 218 kg 1 According to the National Cotton Council of America one bale can produce the following number of products in any one of these categories 215 249 690 765 1,256 3,085 4,321 Pairs of jeans Bedsheets Terry cloth bath towels Men’s dress shirts Pillowcases Diapers Socks 21,960 Women’s handkerchiefs 313,600 100 bills2 It is the primary ingredient in paper money Cotton has so many uses that at any time most of the world’s population is eating or using something that came from the cotton plant 7
TRADING COTTON Because of its popularity and versatility cotton is a heavily traded commodity and it is extremely important to world trade Cotton is grown in more than 100 countries Depending on the year cotton makes up approximately 30 percent of the world’s fiber trade output 3 Cotton is processed in a Chinese factory to keep up with the high demand of cotton exports from the country Because it is grown imported and exported by many countries around the world cotton is also a politically important crop It can have a large effect on a country’s economy especially in developing countries Cotton is a significant part of some countries gross domestic product GDP which is the total value of all goods and services produced in a country in one year The GDP is a primary indicator of a country’s economic health The T-Shirt People often wear T-shirts either in solid colors or with a design or slogan on them This wardrobe staple has a long history Back in 1880 sailors in the US Navy were issued undershirts that reached their elbows and fell to hip length When the shirts were laid out on a flat surface they resembled the letter T which is how they got their name Farmers miners and construction workers started wearing T-shirts because they were lightweight and better to wear in hot weather than button-up shirts They were also inexpensive and easy to clean One of the first printed T-shirts appeared in 1942 when a man wearing a T-shirt printed with the Army Air Forces Gunnery School was shown on the cover of LIFE magazine Soon after Mickey Mouse started appearing on T-shirts By the 1950s T-shirts became fashion statements They featured advertising slogans city or state names protest images art or other images and words 8
