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These tours helped inform many companies now using organic cotton, and serve as a great tool for educating employees and management about the importance of reducing chemical use in cotton cultivation.
Retail companies support SCP by sponsoring our tour. Past sponsors include Patagonia, Norm Thompson, Cutter and Buck, Levi, Gap, California College of the Arts, and Nike.
A one-day tour of the San Joaquin Valley that will challenge your perceptions about what agriculture is and what it could become.
Between late September and mid October, when cotton is harvested and farms throughout the state are at the height of activity, The Sustainable Cotton Project offers a one-day tour. Visitors travel a central loop through the San Joaquin Valley, gaining a behind-the-scenes look at the many sides of conventional, biologically intensive pest management (BioIPM), and organic cotton production.
The Sustainable Cotton Project holds informational meetings during the year. These meetings show a progressive interest by local farmers and members of the cotton industry. Our first meeting in Firebaugh in 2002, netted several new growers to the program and set the stage for meeting the program goals of over 20 farmers who farm close to 10,0000 acres of cotton. Each field meeting hosts speakers of interest to cotton growers’, provide an update on the local project, and have project mentor growers on-hand to answer questions and provide testimonials about how Cleaner CottonTM management practices are working for them. Through these meetings we attract local attention and gain credibility with local growers. Farmers tend to be “watch and see” folks who want to see how a new practice works for a neighbor before they adopt. Contact SCP for dates.
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