The National Cotton Council (NCC) is urging producers and ginners to make seed cotton/lint contamination prevention a high priority. “This industry has worked for decades to build a reputation as a reliable supplier of contamination-free cotton, but recent occurrences of contamination, unfortunately, are jeopardizing that reputation, and it has economic consequences throughout the supply chain and for our textile customers,” says Gary Adams, NCC president.

In response to the problem, the USDA-Agricultural Marketing Service Cotton and Tobacco Program has implemented two new extraneous matter codes for samples containing plastic contaminants. To help farmers address the issue, NCC has developed an educational video on plastic contamination prevention. The video and more resources are available at www.cotton.org/tech/quality/contamfree.cfm.