The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) has marked the end of its fourth season of operation in the United States, announcing that in 2017, more than 1 million bales of cotton (236,000 metric tonnes) were produced by farms participating in the Better Cotton licensing program.

“We launched in the United States in 2014, in response to our retailer and brand members, who wanted to source U.S. grown cotton that meets the Better Cotton Standard for social and environmental performance,” said Scott Exo, BCI USA Country Manager. “Since then, along with our industry partners, we’ve now grown to include 366 farmers in 14 states, who now grow 5 percent of US cotton.”

Key to BCI’s rapid growth in the US has been an innovative group assurance approach to managing the requirements for participating farms. Growers participate as a part of a grower group, joining together with other growers in their area. A BCI Group Assurance Implementing Partner — typically from a co-op, merchant, gin or grower association — provides farm-level support, helps growers understand licensing requirements, gathers data, conducts farm monitoring and coordinates third-party verification. BCI provides training and support to the partners.

Among the partners now managing BCI assurance groups are U.S. offices of all the major global cotton trading companies, as well as several regional merchants, marketing co-ops and one Texas gin. Several local gin managers are helping with data-gathering and verification visits.

Exo, the USA country manager, said, “The group approach has enabled merchants and others to respond to this demand by helping farmers participate, but it also holds great potential to advance a fundamental goal of the BCI program—continuous improvement.

“Nearly all U.S. farms meet the core requirements for licensing. But unlike many other certification programs, which merely emphasize compliance, the Better Cotton Standard System also measures and encourages ongoing improvements, in things like water stewardship, soil health, and worker well-being. BCI participation creates a framework to assess and accelerate improvement, with the active encouragement of our partners.”

Cheryl Luther, manager at Black Oak Gin in northeast Arkansas, has been working with the BCI program since its first year in the U.S. She said, “I’ve encouraged our farmers to participate as a way to benchmark themselves against globally recognized standards, set goals for ongoing improvements, and meet growing expectations from brands, retailers and their customers—not just about where their cotton comes from, but how it’s grown. And it adds the increasingly important layer of independent verification.”

Rapid growth in the number of U.S. BCI partners, farms and bales is in direct response to parallel growth in BCI retailers and brand members, many of whom are setting aggressive targets for their use of Better Cotton. In the last three years, North American brands like Target, Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Guess, Williams-Sonoma and others have joined earlier BCI members like Nike, Inc., American Eagle Outfitters, ANN Inc., VF Group and Levi Strauss.

 About the Better Cotton Initiative

The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), a global not-for-profit organization, is the largest cotton sustainability program in the world. Last year, together with our partners we provided training on more sustainable agricultural practices to 1.6 million farmers from 22 countries. We are truly a joint effort, encompassing organizations all the way from farms to fashion and textile brands, driving the cotton sector towards sustainability. New global figures for the 2016-17 season will be released soon.

Thanks to these efforts, Better Cotton accounts for around 15 percent of global cotton production. BCI aims to transform cotton production worldwide by developing Better Cotton as a sustainable mainstream commodity. By 2020, our goal is to train 5 million farmers worldwide on more sustainable agricultural practises, and account for 30 percent of global cotton production.

Source: Morgan Ferrar, PR & Media Coordinator, [email protected]