As someone who once partnered with my parents in farming cotton in Arizona, I can’t help but reflect on how significant it was for USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins to announce the Great American Cotton Plan in our desert state.

Arizona doesn’t have the largest number of cotton acres — that distinction usually goes to Texas. But together with California, we grow the highest-quality cotton in the country.

Announced last week at Post Farms in Marana, this comprehensive initiative aims to strengthen the U.S. cotton farm economy, restore domestic textile manufacturing, expand trade opportunities and boost demand for products made with American-grown cotton.

For a family like mine, with roots deep in Arizona soil for nearly 90 years, it feels like a long-awaited turning point.

No more 'Grown and Made in the USA'

The Murphree family’s story mirrors the broader saga of American agriculture. 

My parents, Pat and Pennee Murphree, along with generations before them, poured their lives into growing cotton, alfalfa, grains and other crops across Arizona. Our family farmed actively until retiring from production after 2004, yet our connection to the land and the industry never fades. We’ve watched with both pride and heartbreak as cotton helped build rural America, only to see parts of its value chain erode.

In the 1990s, my mother, Pennee, and I became active in the National Cotton Council’s National Cotton Women program. We traveled, spoke and advocated tirelessly under the banner of “Grown and Made in the USA.” 

That slogan wasn’t just marketing — it was a rallying cry. We encouraged consumers to look for American cotton in the clothes they wore, the towels they used and the sheets they slept on. We believed then, as we do now, that supporting domestic fiber and manufacturing strengthened families, communities and the entire economy. 

Every farm dollar spent generates significant ripple effects — studies have shown multipliers as high as $15 in economic activity, supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs across farming, ginning, transportation and textiles.

But the “Grown and Made” slogan collided with harsh economic reality. As global trade agreements opened the floodgates to cheap imports, America’s textile industry hemorrhaged. Massive offshoring to Asia and elsewhere decimated mills that once thrived from New England to the Carolinas and across the South.

Between the late 1990s and the 2000s, hundreds of plants closed, and jobs vanished. We had no choice but to retire the “Grown and Made in the USA” slogan. It no longer rang true when so little American cotton was being spun, woven or sewn on our own shores. We pivoted to “Cotton Counts,” a broader effort to highlight cotton’s benefits amid a sea of synthetic alternatives.

It was a necessary adaptation, but it carried the sting of retreat. And at times felt hollow.

Can this cotton plan bring it back?

Today, the challenges persist. The U.S. lost its position as the world’s top cotton exporter to Brazil in recent years. Synthetic fibers — petroleum-based plastics that shed microplastics — have captured much of the market, despite cotton’s natural, breathable and biodegradable advantages. 

Arizona’s growers, like those across the Cotton Belt, face volatile and low cotton prices, water constraints in the desert, and competition from subsidized foreign producers. Yet our state’s contribution remains outsized in quality and innovation. Arizona cotton still helps clothe America, even if the full journey from field to finished garment often leaves our borders.

Can we bring all this back?

The Great American Cotton Plan offers a bold counteroffensive. It emphasizes promoting natural American fibers over synthetics through campaigns like “Plant Not Plastic,” tied to broader health and environmental goals. 

It includes tools such as the Buying American Cotton Act for loans and tax credits to spur domestic demand, enhanced trade missions, improved crop insurance, and research investments. Secretary Rollins underscored cotton’s historic role in building rural America and committed the Trump Administration to making it “the fiber of choice” again. By focusing on restoring textile manufacturing, the plan seeks to rebuild the full supply chain — turning raw American cotton into American-made products once more.

For the Murphrees and thousands of other farm families still growing cotton, this isn’t abstract policy. It’s personal.

We remember the dusty boots, the early mornings and late nights checking irrigation, the community gatherings where cotton was king. We recall the pride of seeing “Grown and Made in the USA” tags and the frustration when those tags disappeared from store shelves.

Let's weave a stronger future for America

Our retirement from active farming in 2004 didn’t end our advocacy. Through roles with the Arizona Farm Bureau and a brother, Brent, that works for a farm publication and ongoing engagement in agricultural outreach, we’ve continued championing the industry that shaped us.

Modern U.S. cotton is a story of innovation: high-yield varieties, sustainable practices, and world-class quality. Revitalizing it means not just economic gains but reclaiming self-reliance in a critical agriculture sector. With domestic manufacturing revived, we could reduce reliance on imports, create jobs in rural communities, and offer consumers genuine choices for natural products.

As we stand at this crossroads, optimism feels warranted. The announcement in Arizona wasn’t symbolic alone — to me it was strategic, highlighting a state that punches above its weight in quality even if not in volume. The Murphree family, like so many others, stands ready to support this effort with the same dedication that defined our 80-plus years in the fields.

Hopefully, this administration’s Great American Cotton Plan will succeed where past efforts faltered. By bringing back textile manufacturing, expanding markets and prioritizing American-grown and American-made products, we can weave a stronger future — one where farmers, mill workers and consumers all prosper.

Cotton helped build this nation. With focused action, it can help renew it.