Cotton

Much as they're trumpeted by so-called eco-designers, plant-based alternatives to cotton are a minuscule piece of the fashion puzzle. Dwarfed by cotton and synthetics such as polyester, spandex and rayon, textiles made from flax, wood pulp, hemp and bamboo make up less than 2% of the market. But that percentage is growing due to consumer and corporate demand, as well as technological advancements that make natural fibers easier to transform into wearable fabrics. One of the more promising developments in sustainable textiles is flax , a stalky and fibrous plant that can be grown with far less water and fewer pesticides than cotton and produced at a lower price.

Raise cash, head for the sidelines. That was the guiding sentiment in stock and commodity markets Thursday as some investors and traders sold what they could and looked for a hiding place amid fresh doubts about the global economy. Commodities took the heaviest hit: Gold futures dived $54, or 3%, to $1,719.80 an ounce in New York, the biggest one-day drop since Sept. 23. The Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB index of 19 commodities slumped 2.5%, the biggest decline since Sept.

As youngsters in the United States return to school, children in Uzbekistan will be returning to the fields. For them, it is the autumn cotton harvest. From now through the end of November, instead of attending classes, 2 million Uzbek children ages 6 to 15 will be forced to spend their days picking cotton. Unlike most instances of forced child labor in agriculture, this mass mobilization is not driven by exploitative plantation owners or desperate families but by the government.

Late last football season, Los Angeles Loyola was desperate. A concussion to starting quarterback Jerry Neuheisel had left the Cubs struggling to find a replacement. "Believe me, we were going through quarterbacks like tissue," Coach Mike Christensen said. "We were hemorrhaging badly and looking for somebody. " In week eight, Loyola turned to backup receiver Nicolas Cotton , who had never taken a snap from center in his life. "I thought, 'This is ridiculous, this is crazy,'" Cotton said.

James G. Boswell II, the intensely private businessman who transformed his family's cotton holdings into California's first giant agribusiness and one of the nation's great farming empires, has died. He was 86. Boswell died of natural causes Friday at his home in Indian Wells, Calif., according to a statement from the family. As head of the family-owned J.G. Boswell Co.

Come Sept. 22, the Kern County town of Shafter will be celebrating its roots in the cotton business. A state historical marker will be dedicated that morning at the 100-acre site where scientists first determined 75 years ago that the San Joaquin Valley could yield a premium cotton crop. The facility, now known as the University of California Shafter Research and Extension Center, was established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1922 to develop a cotton industry.

The 1988 cotton crop is expected to be at a seven-year high of 15.4 million bales, up 5% from the 1987 harvest, the Agriculture Department said.

Cotton farmers in China's far west clashed with police and paramilitary guards over alleged price fixing by local authorities, leaving 40 people injured, witnesses and a Hong Kong news report said. The riot broke out Sept. 22 in Ili, an area in the northwestern corner of the Xinjiang region, after police raided farmhouses looking for caches of hidden cotton, farmer Zhang Xiaolan said.

Regarding "A New Name, but the Same Old Polyester," by Denise Hamilton (July 27): I think that Hamilton has been seduced by the Natural Fiber Cult. I've had a 40-year love affair with man-made fibers. They have saved me 6,000 to 10,000 hours of standing over a hot ironing board. They have made traveling lighter and easier because we rarely need to spend time or money on laundry service. To me there is no excuse for making lovely white 100% cotton nightgowns that look like used handkerchiefs before morning or creating white cotton blouses with beautiful embroidery, tucking and details that make them so difficult to iron and only look well for one wearing.

The United States has failed to scrap a series of illegal subsidies paid to American cotton growers, the World Trade Organization declared Tuesday, opening the door to Brazilian trade sanctions worth billions of dollars. The formal release of the ruling is a major victory for Brazil's cotton industry and for West African countries that claim to have been harmed by the U.S. payments. "The United States has failed to comply," the three-member WTO compliance panel said.

Five things to watch this week in college football: 1. Texas vs. Texas A&M might be on last legs as a storied series, but it appears the Big 12 preservationists club will be able to save Texas-Oklahoma. This week's Red River Rivalry game at the Cotton Bowl gets cranked up a few deep-fried turkey legs as both teams enter undefeated. 2. Florida had the misfortune on this year's Southeastern Conference schedule to be the school designated to play Alabama and Louisiana State in consecutive weeks.

Before Hurricane Irene smacked his tender tobacco plants sideways, David Parker was headed for a terrific crop, maybe his best in 32 years of farming. Now, as Parker rushes to save a few acres of shredded leaves before they rot on the dying stalks, the math looks different. "I've never had a year I didn't make money farming, but I think this will be the one that gets us there," he said last week, driving up a dirt road between a beaten-down cotton field and a 17-acre patch of dejected-looking tobacco.

Levi Strauss & Co. reported a second-quarter profit, aided by higher sales to store chains and in Asia and Europe that helped mitigate the damage to margins from higher cotton costs and discounting. The private company said second-quarter net income was $21 million, compared with a loss of $14.4 million a year earlier. Revenue, which includes sales and licensing revenue, rose 11.9% to $1.09 billion. Sales grew 19% in Asia and 17% in Europe; in constant-currency terms, the increases were 12% and 9%, respectively.

COTTON Prized for: Soft feel and easy maintenance; wide availability Percentage of clothes sold in the U.S. that incorporate cotton: Almost 75% Primary sources: China, India, U.S. FLAX Prized for: Color and performance traits similar to cotton; plants require no irrigation and fewer chemical fertilizers and pesticides than cotton Percentage of clothes sold in the U.S. that incorporate flax: 1.1% Primary sources:...

Leather, tulle and silk may be the stuff of runway dreams, but when it comes to most U.S. apparel, cotton is king. Almost 75% of clothing sold in the U.S. contains at least some of the tufty fiber, according to the 2010 Cotton Inc. Retail Monitor, a survey of mass retailers. Farmers in this country will grow 8.16 billion pounds of cotton during the current growing season. Add China, India and the 100-plus other countries that cultivate cotton, and the yield is 62 billion pounds produced annually worldwide.

Much as they're trumpeted by so-called eco-designers, plant-based alternatives to cotton are a minuscule piece of the fashion puzzle. Dwarfed by cotton and synthetics such as polyester, spandex and rayon, textiles made from flax, wood pulp, hemp and bamboo make up less than 2% of the market. But that percentage is growing due to consumer and corporate demand, as well as technological advancements that make natural fibers easier to transform into wearable fabrics. One of the more promising developments in sustainable textiles is flax , a stalky and fibrous plant that can be grown with far less water and fewer pesticides than cotton and produced at a lower price.

The World Trade Organization ruled Friday that $3 billion in U.S. cotton subsidies violated trade rules, upholding a preliminary decision in favor of Brazil from earlier this year, both governments said. The Bush team said it planned to appeal the ruling in the first-ever trade case targeting domestic farm payments. "U.S. farm programs were designed to be and are fully consistent with WTO rules," said Richard Mills, a spokesman for the U.S. trade representative.

A problematic cotton-planting season was expected to prompt unprecedented action from the state. El Nino-related storms and cool temperatures have prevented cotton growers from getting into fields, with the result that plantings are off in some areas by 40% or more. As a result, Gov. Pete Wilson was considering granting the San Joaquin Valley an emergency designation that would allow growers to plant shorter-season cotton varieties for this year only, beginning Monday.

Question: I am a shareholder of Kohl's Corp. and want to know if I can expect better performance from the stock. Answer: The reality for the nation's department stores and their investors in 2011 is that high cotton prices are raising the cost of apparel and high gasoline prices are constricting shopper budgets. Shares of Kohl's (KSS) were down 7.5% this year through Friday. But the company's first-quarter earnings were up 6% compared with the previous year, even though it was hampered by markdowns and weak demand for spring merchandise.

David Rubio stands high on a hill looking over the desert, where hundreds of white wind turbines spin in the dry air. Rubio promises that he'll soon be hiring, but the jobs won't involve those high-tech windmills. The work will be in the mine shaft beneath him, where his employer, Golden Queen Mining Co., plans to extract millions of ounces of gold and silver. "We'll be the first new mine in 20 years," he says, turning toward Soledad Mountain, where a ladder is just visible through a tunnel.