trouble in cotton land

[donsu]

http://www.ocregister.com/news/cotton-farm-farmers-1919872-subsidies-california


Cotton subsidies in 2007 farm bill prompt global trade concerns


-snip-

From Williams' California fields to the Texas plains, farmers are plowing under cotton – once the king of U.S. agriculture – to seed crops that make more money.

Cotton also has lost ground for another reason that became apparent this week as the Senate debated the 2007 farm bill: the United States' cotton subsidy program is enmeshed in a global trade battle.

Last month, the World Trade Organization ruled subsidies handed out to American cotton farmers broke international trade laws, opening the door for foreign countries to levy billions of dollars in penalties against the U.S.

-snip-

This year, cotton acreage nationwide dropped by about 29 percent, hitting a 22-year low at 10.8 million acres, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Acreage dropped by about 23 percent in Texas, the national leader, and by 19 percent in California, which ranks fourth in domestic production.

The sharpest declines were in the Southeast and Mississippi Delta regions, where drought has parched fields that grew the crop since before the Civil War.

In Central California, where farmers rely on irrigation pumps to water their furrows, a recent court ruling limiting water pumping to protect a threatened fish species could cut water supplies by as much as two-thirds next planting season.
-snip-
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another economic US staple going down the drain

finding 100% cotton clothing isn't all that easy and now it will be more expensive.

[hlthe2b]

1. Seems I read that Hemp is far less water-hungry...

and could certainly replace some cotton clothing or be blended with cotton. OF course, the pot-paranoid won't allow that...:eyes:

[MuseRider]

2. It is a great crop

but you are right, we will not be allowed that.

I have some hemp clothing and I like it a lot. It is comfortable and durable. Oooh, but someone might smoke it.

[WilliamPitt]

3. If you grow smoke-weed anywhere near hemp plants,

the pollen from those hemp plants will kill every bud on the smoke-weed.

Fact.

Might make a good bait-and-switch campaign slogan to bamboozle the anti-fun bunch.

DOWN WITH WEED, UP WITH HEMP

KILL POT, GROW HEMP

HEMP MAKES REEFER MAD

(ok, that last one was abominable)

(and don't worry, those stodgy dumbasses still don't know about hydroponics)

(so everything's cool, and we get good hemp clothing to boot)

(sweet)

;)

[DCKit]

4. Given that cotton growers use more chemicals than any other crop...

I don't see this as a bad thing.

Someone I know almost died five years ago - and probably suffered permanent damage - from herbicide exposure in his own fields.