OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
2:20 PM – Friday, May 29, 2026
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has launched the Great American Cotton Plan, a sweeping federal initiative designed to revitalize American cotton farming, expand domestic textile manufacturing and increase exports and cotton trade opportunities.
On Thursday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the comprehensive strategic reset plan on X, framing it as a direct defense of traditional American agriculture.
“This campaign is for everyone who believes in real products made by real American farmers,” Rollins wrote.
Rollins explained in a USDA news statement that cotton has sustained rural America since 1607, but “over the last several years America’s cotton growers have been crushed by rising costs, unfair foreign competition, and a flood of cheap synthetic products.”
She lamented that the U.S. lost its status as the world’s top cotton exporter to Brazil in 2023. This is one of the challenges outlined in the 11-page plan.
Another challenge the plan seeks to combat is how “cotton exports rose steeply during President [Donald] Trump’s First administration and then rapidly dropped under President [Joe] Biden.” It added that the number of cotton gins in the U.S. dropped by 80% from 1980 to 2024 and the number of U.S. textile mills declined by 70% from 2002 to 2022.
“[The] USDA forecasts producers could lose approximately $2.6 billion across 9 million planted acres during the upcoming crop year,” the department warned.
Cotton producers are currently facing “a fifth consecutive year of negative returns driven by rising input costs, trade distortions, and increasing competition from synthetic materials,” the USDA said.
The department noted that nearly 70% of the world’s textile fibers are synthetic. As part of the plan, it is elevating the “Plant Not Plastic” initiative to encourage consumers to opt for natural American cotton fibers over plastic-based alternatives.
The USDA emphasized the benefits of cotton, including its ability to absorb up to 27 times its weight in water. Cotton allows air circulation and keeps “consumers cooler and more comfortable” by pulling moisture away from the skin through hot weather and physical activity. By contrast, synthetic, plastic and petroleum-based materials like polyester, nylon and acrylic, “often trap heat and reduce breathability.”
The Great American Cotton Plan has four key pillars, outlined by the USDA:
- Promoting domestic cotton consumption through the “Plant Not Plastic” initiative, funding the BioPreferred Program so cotton products can continue using the label.
- Providing affordable cotton by increasing domestic demand and production by prioritizing cotton processors and manufacturers within the Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program, increasing the Economic Adjustment Assistance for Textile Mills program from three to five cents per pound of cotton processed and supporting the Buying American Cotton Act in Congress.
- Improving cotton trade through its Three-Point Trade Plan, including new trade commitments from Indonesia and Bangladesh, participation in a first-ever agribusiness mission to Indonesia, and continued support through the Market Access Program and COTTON USA™ initiatives.
- Protecting cotton growers from adverse risk by researching ways to combat the spread of the cotton jassid pest, expanding access to Supplemental Coverage Option insurance and increasing the seed cotton reference price by 14% through the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, effective this fall.
“The Trump Administration is committed to ensuring American cotton once again becomes the fiber of choice with the Great American Cotton Plan — a bold effort to restore profitability for cotton producers, strengthen rural economies, rebuild domestic textile manufacturing, and bring American cotton back into the products families use every day,” Rollins stated. “Supporting natural fibers like cotton also aligns with the Make America Healthy Again agenda as Americans grow increasingly concerned about microplastics and synthetic materials in everyday products. Cotton is natural, breathable, biodegradable, and proudly grown by American farmers — not manufactured from petroleum-based plastics that can shed microplastics into our soil, water, and bodies.”
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