Originally Posted by joan_quilts
... you would think we could produce enough cotton crops for our country.O
Well, we probably *do* produce enough cotton crops to cover our own needs. The US is one of the world's top 3 producers of cotton (see this informative link:
http://unctad.org/infocomm/anglais/cotton/market.htm)
However, we apparently do not do much of the processing of cotton anymore.
"Cotton consumption has shifted to developing countries mainly as a reflection of rising wage levels in developed countries. In the textile sector, labour accounts for about 1/6 of production costs. This means that raising labour costs eroded the competitive edge of developed countries, and contributed to the shifting of cotton processing to low-cost economies (most notably Asia and the Maghreb, but also Africa). "
If you followed the link above, you will not that China is now the world's largest producer of cotton. So it makes sense that they would also be the main producer of greige goods (unprinted cotton cloth) especially given their low labor costs.
So... what does this mean? While we occasionally find a company that says "our fabric is made from cotton grown in the USA" that's about as close to home as we can get. For quilting cottons, I think that Santee is the only plant that still prints in the US, and even so, the greige goods come from overseas.
What's a quilter to do? Well, you could do what I've tried to do: let the fabric manufacturers know that we at least would like our fabrics made from cotton that's grown in the US. I've spoken to people from several companies and have told them that it would be a good marketing edge, if they could do as Connecting Threads has done, and at least say that their fabric is from US-grown cotton. I don't know if they have been listening, but I've tried to tell them it would be good for their business.
My voice alone is small. Perhaps more voices together would be persuasive!