International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC)

Hello cotton lovers! We know what day it is, and what you're here for. However, like the rest of us, #TruthTuesday is getting older and needs to see the doctor once in a while to keep running smoothly — and today is one of those days. This post, although short and sweet, reflects that reality: Today's #Truth: If we don't start replacing synthetic fibers with cotton ASAP, we're ALL going to need to see the doctor, because humans eat the equivalent of a credit card in plastic every week, thanks to microplastics pollution. 😟 For the sake of our environment, for the sake of the animals we share this planet with, and for ourselves and our loved ones ... please choose cotton. We should be back at full strength next week with more #TruthAboutCotton! 👍 💪

The ICAC was proud to be a part of FICOTA 2024!

Tick tick tick ... #WorldCottonDay is coming! It's only 81 days away, so we have to ask ... What will YOU be doing on October 7 to celebrate cotton? If you don't have an answer to that question, get moving! The world's most important natural fiber needs your help to ensure that important people — legislators, regulators, brands, and most of all, consumers — are aware of the good that cotton brings to our lives every day. Cotton provides the world with: Poverty alleviation Gender equality Climate resilience CO2 sequestration Biodegradability And don't forget that every piece of cotton apparel that replaces polyester keeps microplastics out of our water, or food chains, and our bodies. Once you make your plans for October 7, be sure to add your event to http://worldcottonday.com. The official website is also where journalists and social media influencers go to learn more about World Cotton Day and generate ideas for their upcoming articles and social media posts. It's definitely the place to be if you want the maximum amount of coverage and exposure for your specific event. And it doesn't have to be big or expensive! Just support cotton in a visible way and encourage others to do so, too. If you have questions, need help creating your entry on the website, or need any other resources (such as the World Cotton Day logo in a particular language), please contact ICAC Director of Communications Mike McCue ([email protected]). He can send you credentials that will allow you to create your own entry on http://worldcottonday.com as well as a copy of the manual that explains how to use the site. October 7th is the biggest day of the year for cotton, and the day it is most visible to brands, retailers, legislators, and media outlets, so it's critical that we do everything we can to ensure the world is aware of the advantages of the world's most important natural fiber.

#TruthTuesday was on vacation last week, which means we’re raring to go today! As we promised two weeks ago, today’s #Truth is a follow-up to this post about pesticides: https://lnkd.in/eNVNrB69 That thread addressed the myths about cotton and pesticides in general, and it was the focus of the March 2024 ICAC Recorder — but there’s another layer to the story — the category known as highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs), a group of chemicals so virulent that they warrant special consideration. These materials are the subject of the June 2024 Recorder (both issues available for FREE here: https://lnkd.in/d84Nhdn). The Environmental Justice Foundation asserts that “cotton uses over 16% of global insecticides and a higher proportion of HHPs than any other crop.” They state that “globally, 69.1% of pesticides used on cotton are HHPs, compared to 25.8% on cereals and 43.5% on rice.” Indeed, those numbers look … well, not so good for our favorite natural fiber. But do they tell the whole #TruthAboutCotton? In the opening editorial of the June Recorder, ICAC Chief Scientist Dr Keshav Kranthi says the answer is a resounding NO. He says: "According to ICAC, the average share of HHPs in cotton’s pesticide use from 2018 to 2022 was 13.04%, significantly lower than the figures presented by advocacy groups. This discrepancy highlights how selective data presentation can skew public perception and policy discourse. "A comparative analysis of pesticide use across different crops shows that vegetables and flowers; soybeans; wheat; and rice exhibit higher overall pesticide usage than cotton. For instance, cotton’s average usage of highly hazardous fungicides (HHFs) — 1,475 tonnes annually from 2018 to 2022 — ranks below 14 crops," he points out. As always, we speak #Truth here: Other data points aren’t a good look for cotton. For example, from 2018-2022, cotton ranked third in global highly hazardous insecticide usage, averaging 8,671 tonnes annually. The point is that these discussions are rarely simple — they require patience, as well as a thoughtful, nuanced, open-minded approach. Cotton’s goal is to get better, and cherry-picking certain data points — whether they portray cotton in a good light or a bad one — does nothing but muddy the waters and confuse the people who need accurate information to make decisions about what products they want to buy, or what policies they want to enact. Combined, these last two issues of the ICAC Recorder contain nearly 90 pages of facts, analysis, charts, tables, and insights from Dr Kranthi, providing the framework that must be established before this important conversation about pesticide usage can even begin. Everyone is welcome to join that conversation, but if you do, check your myths, half-truths, and disinformation at the door — because only those who speak the #TruthAboutCotton will have their voices heard. 

Fantastic! There is no substitute for cotton on the catwalk.

Congrats to FICOTA, ACC, and ICAC Executive Director Eric Trachtenberg — the rest of the Secretariat wishes we were there!

It’s going to be a fantastic event! Photos coming soon.

To date, no myth about cotton has been as persistent, damaging, and flat-out wrong as the idea that cotton is a thirsty crop. It’s not. Stop it. That debate is over. But pesticide use has been a major thorn in cotton's side, too — so #TruthTuesday is here to set things right. ICAC Chief Scientist Dr Keshav Kranthi is among the most respected cotton researchers in the world, and his work on the last two issues of the Recorder is the key to finding out the #Truth about cotton and pesticides. You can read all about it for FREE (https://lnkd.in/dFzdSmB). Not all of this mis- and disinformation isn’t coming from cotton’s enemies; some wounds are self-inflicted, such as those "occasionally advocating for organic farming as a cure-all for perceived shortcomings in conventional cotton production systems," Dr Kranthi says. Cotton is often accused of being "the worst of the worst” when it comes to pesticide usage, but the reality is different. Cotton is right in the middle of the pack, according to most measures (see graphic below). Note that no one is saying, “Cotton uses no pesticides!” It does. But cotton is improving in its use of chemical insecticides, fungicides, herbicides etc — and will continue to do so. #Truth is about the way things are, not the way we want them to be (but we're working on it!). The reality is that of the 20 crops that use the most pesticides by active ingredients, cotton is ninth, between grapes/vines and citrus. The same ranking is true when it comes to pesticide use by volume: Cotton is ninth, between grapes/vines and citrus. Depending on what you measure, cotton sometimes does better, sometimes worse. For example, when you look at cotton's pesticide usage by country, you again see an extremely wide range of outcomes. The lies, myths and half-truths don’t benefit anyone — and saying cotton uses disproportionately high amounts of pesticides is just lazy and intellectually dishonest. It’s good advice about life in general, not just cotton: Speak #Truth, or don’t speak at all! Next week: Debunking lies about cotton and "highly hazardous" pesticides, which was the topic of the June 2024 ICA Recorder.

ICAC Executive Director Eric Trachtenberg, Chief Scientist Dr Keshav Kranthi, and Head of Textiles Kanwar Usman have their bags packed and are ready for an exciting week of discussions about the future of African cotton and textiles. Ten days is plenty of time to book a ticket and join them!

If there's one thing for sure, it's that the ICAC Secretariat doesn't let grass grow under their feet. For proof, let's check in on Executive Director Eric Trachtenberg and Economist Lorena Ruiz. They're on a deep-dive tour of the Brazilian cotton industry this week, which started at the Port of Santos and has now moved inland to the fields. Yesterday, the president of ABRAPA, Alexander Schenkel, invited Eric and Lorena to visit his farm, "Santa Rosa," in Campo Verde, Mato Grosso. They were able to visit the cotton fields and talked about the regen ag practices he is implementing, and how important it is to use biologicals as an alternative to chemical inputs when it comes to pest and disease control. The group also visited Mr Schenkel's ginning plant, called "Algodonera Brasil" — where things will start getting very busy in three weeks or so!   Yesterday's field trip ended at the Instituto Mato-Grossense do Algodao, where the project coordinator presented a broad overview of the research IMA is implementing. In the photo, from L to R: Fernando Rati, Algodao Brasil Alexander Schenkel, Abrapa President Eric Trachtenberg Lorena Ruiz Mario Sales, Data Intern, ICAC Márcio de Souza, IMA