Cotton grown in Australia and the U.S. under the Cotton LEADS program, which promotes the responsible production practices, has received the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) 100 percent biobased designation. This news release from Cotton LEADS says that puts the textile in USDA’s online BioPreferred Catalog.
Cotton LEADS™ cotton easily met the BioPreferred program’s new stipulation for innovation, due to the manner in which cotton growers in Australia and the United States approach and operate their businesses. The cotton industries of both countries are well established, well-regulated, transparent and committed to improvement. But it is the growers’ self-investment into research programs and the willingness to embrace new technologies and techniques that continues to yield high volumes of quality cotton; and significant and measurable environmental gains.
The goal of the BioPreferred program is to increase the purchase and use of biobased products while spurring economic development, creating new jobs and providing new markets for farm commodities. Additionally, the increased development, purchase, and use of biobased products is intended to reduce reliance on petroleum, increase the use of renewable agricultural resources, and contribute to reducing adverse environmental and health impacts.
The 2014 Farm Bill expanded the initial scope of the USDA BioPreferred program to “promote biobased products that apply an innovative approach to growing, harvesting, sourcing, procuring, processing, manufacturing, or application of biobased products regardless of the date of entry into the marketplace.”
More information on the USDA’s BioPreferred Program can be found at: www.biopreferred.gov.