Vidalia Mills in Vidalia, Louisiana, is the first and only mill in the world to embed a unique digital tracker into its plant-based cotton fibers. It’s a safe tracing technology similar to that used in pharmaceuticals and is made from a non-petroleum-based cellulose or sugar. This is a way of authenticating the cotton, tracing it back to its origins: the farm, the harvest, even the very seed.
“We have the ability to go from seed to shirt and know every step of the process,” said Daniel Feibus, CEO of Vidalia. “Now with Vidalia, we’ve identified the grower, the seed, the gin, the mill, and the ultimate manufacturer. That truly allows us to trace and verify the cotton through every stage of production. There’s no one else that has the traceability, trackability and transparency that we’re trying to provide the consumer.”
On a global basis, Vidalia’s hybrid Pima cotton accounts for about 25% to 30% of the total Pima cotton grown in the U.S. Vidalia has been growing the variety since the early 2000s. “Ninety percent of the U.S. Pima crop, ours included, is exported to Southeast Asia,” Feibus said. “I don’t think they truly value, or at least they’re not compensating for the value of the product. Most of the Pima cotton is exported to Bangladesh, Pakistan or India and from there transparency seems to be lost or is difficult. Once cotton leaves the U.S. and goes into a mass production system halfway across the world, it becomes difficult to maintain that high degree of transparency.”
Feibus said that consumers have been willing to pay more for hybrid Pima cotton clothing. “The consumer is demanding a better chain of accountability,” he said. “We’re really focused on elevating basic products like T-shirts, fleeces and denim. We think information is power. People realize the impact they could have with their dollars, and how they can make a positive difference in terms of responsible environmental stewardship.
Vidalia is working with farmers on developing a not-for-profit that would distribute the technology to any mills or supply chains that would adhere to its standards. “Farmers are teaching us,” Feibus said. “They’re eking a living out of a very challenging environment and are innovative, entrepreneurial and deeply committed to the land and the way of life.”
“A lot of cotton grown around the world really comes with a lot of misery,” Feibus said, referring to alleged child labor in Uzbekistan and alleged forced labor in China. “Instead of traveling 39,000 miles to go to Southeast Asia and be combined with cotton from China, we’re doing it all here.”
Vidalia is using seeds developed by the Gowan Seed Company for hybrid Pima cotton. Unlike traditional Pima cotton, it’s a much heartier crop because its been cross-bred with a standard cotton well-suited to dry environments. Hybrid Pima uses significantly less water than traditional Pima and slightly less water than traditional upland cotton. It will have the fiber characteristics of Pima, meaning its individual fibers will be substantially longer and substantially stronger.
“Our specific hybrid Pima Gowan 1432 has been on the market for 10 years,” said Rick Neuenschwander, head of Gowan’s hybrid-Pima program. “The lifespan of a commercial cotton variety may be only two to three years. The goal for commercial production is algorithms and large data bases. It’s a volume business, not a value- added business. Because growers have been growing this for 10 years, they know the crop, they know the variety, they know what to expect. If you’re only growing a variety for two to three years, by the time your figure out how to grow it properly, its phased out with the newest and greatest and latest. When you’re looking at a 10-year horizon, that’s akin to vintage.”
Cole Viramontes-Deming, a cotton grower in Texas, said Gowan’s hybrid seeds combine the great fiber quality with the potential yield of an upland cotton variety. “This year, we’ll grow 150 acres of hybrid Pima cotton,” he said. “There’s a supply and demand scenario, where there’s not nearly as much Pima cotton as the upland variety, but there’s a demand for the hybrid Pima fiber quality.”
Auggie Tantillo, President and CEO of The National Council of Textile Organizations, said the trackability of Vidalia’s hybrid Pima cotton is a game changer.
“Fully traceable, one-hundred percent U.S. cotton apparel would be a historic breakthrough,” said Tantillo, who was the former Executive Director of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Textiles and Apparel at the U.S. Department of Commerce under President George H. W. Bush. “American consumers are not only looking for the level of quality and environmental sustainability that comes through close-to-market sourcing, they also want certainty that the items they purchase are not entangled in forced and exploited labor practices that plague global supply chains, especially in Asia. The ability to trace a cotton piece of apparel completely back to the farm would revolutionize a product sector desperate to free itself from antiquated and often abhorrent labor practices.”
