By Clint Thompson
The Georgia Cotton Commission (GCC) reminds its producers about the benefits of enrolling in the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol.
Taylor Sills, executive director of the GCC, emphasized the importance of growers participating in the program.
“The Cotton Trust Protocol has obviously been in place for a couple of years. We’ve been encouraging growers to sign up and enroll their bales. We’ve had a goal for a few years as a nation to have six million bales of cotton enrolled in the Cotton Trust Protocol, and we’ve got about two million bales now. Georgia, per capita, is doing a lot better than the rest of the states, and we’re proud of that. But we want to continue to grow,” Sills said.
“In addition to the success of the program, we hear of people getting premiums for their cotton by enrolling those bales in the protocol. We’re excited about the fact that the USDA, through their Climate Smart Ag Initiative, has granted the Cotton Trust Protocol a significant amount of money for their Climate Smart program. That’s creating new ways to promote Climate Smart Ag practices to growers.
“We are sustainable. We are climate smart. Everybody has to do their part and do more. The only way we’re going to produce enough food and fiber to feed this country and the world is to do more with less.”
Background
The U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol was launched in 2020. It drives continuous improvement across six metrics, including water use, energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, soil conservation, soil carbon and land use. It is the first program that provides access to supply chain transparency and science-based field-level, verified data.
The Trust Protocol has also been recognized and published in the ITC Standards Map, recognized as a standard for sustainable cotton by the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles, and confirmed as an ISEAL Community Member.
Visit TrustUSCotton.org to learn more about the Trust Protocol.