Cotton provides governments with tax income which countries receive from cotton growers or as taxes on imports and exports Cotton has been extremely important in the development of many African countries as well as Asian nations including Kazakhstan Uzbekistan Tajikistan Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan In 2015 the value of all cotton exported worldwide was more than 54 billion In the United States alone the cotton trade was worth more than 6 billion 4 It was one of the country’s most important crops because the money spent to grow and harvest it also created income for the processing shipping and textile production industries This means the original value of the cotton crop has value added to it with every new process piece of equipment or industry that receives money from handling it US farmers spend approximately 5 billion each year for the tools Cotton Is Money In the United States paper currency is made from 75 percent cotton and 25 percent linen 5 This makes the bills more durable than if they were made from wood pulp It also allows the US Mint to insert security fibers and other security features into the bills These features include security ribbons woven into the bill which glow pink under ultraviolet light as well as ribbons that create a changing 3D image Watermarks which are faint images that are woven into the paper and that are only visible when held up to light are also possible with cotton paper In an average year the US Mint prints six billion bills of all denominations 1 5 10 20 50 and 100 That is nearly 22,000 cotton bales The face value of all these bills combined is more than 219 billion which means every pound of cotton makes more than 21,000 in bills 6 10
equipment and services needed to grow cotton 7 Only China and India grow more cotton than the United States In the United States cotton is grown in 17 states from Virginia to California Cotton fields cover approximately 12 million acres 4 9 million ha US cotton farmers harvest approximately 15 million cotton bales every year totaling 7 3 billion pounds 3 3 billion kg Of this crop of cotton approximately 75 percent is used for clothing Another 18 percent is used for home furnishings while 7 percent goes to industrial products In addition nearly 5 2 million short tons 4 7 million metric tons of cottonseed and 90 million gallons 341 million L of cottonseed oil are also produced 8 STABILITY OF THE COTTON INDUSTRY However cotton as a trade commodity is somewhat unstable Part of this is because unlike commodities such as oil or lumber cotton is vulnerable to good and bad growing seasons A good crop of cotton might mean there is too much cotton available and prices fall as a result A bad growing year may result in insufficient cotton raising prices but also meaning farmers do not have as much to sell Cotton is subject to quotas under which some countries limit how much cotton can be imported or exported Other countries impose tariffs on imported cotton There is the added element of demand too In some years there is a greater demand for cotton But when the global economy is slower and not as many people are buying clothing and home goods textile manufacturers buy less cotton It is beneficial for farmers when cotton prices increase since they get more for their crops But high cotton prices might force textile manufacturers to use more 11
The global market for cotton is always changing manmade fabrics and the farmers will lose income from their cotton So why should people care about cotton other than the cost of a new pair of jeans or a bag of potato chips Cotton is both an important commodity for everyday lives and a big piece of a country’s economy as well as the world’s But even more so cotton has had a tremendous impact on the history of the United States and the world This small plant has been responsible for major historic decisions and organizations it has contributed to settlements trade routes and wars and it played a major role in institutions such as slavery To understand where the cotton industry is today it helps to look back at the history of cotton itself the birth of cotton as an important element of trade and how the crop has shaped people and governments That is a lot of history even for a plant first discovered more than 7,000 years ago 9 13 The Cotton Industry Approximately 440,000 Americans are employed in the cotton industry 10 This number includes farmers and laborers who grow and harvest the cotton but also people who work in other industries related to cotton There are 3,500 cotton gins cottonseed mills warehouses merchandisers shipping companies and textile factories in the United States 11 Employees clean and deseed raw cotton in gins They process the cottonseed and crush it for oil in cottonseed mills Merchandisers sell these products to places such as factories that make food with cottonseed oil or textile factories that spin cotton into cloth Shipping companies move cotton products from one place to another by ships trucks and trains All of these industries provide many jobs for Americans across the country
