Floribeth González-Schuyler is Cotton Council International’s regional manager for Mexico and Central America, her work is reflected in the more than 16,000 American families who own the land where they grow cotton, work and live on their farms.
“Being their land, of course these families are interested in taking care of nature so that their future generations live well and can sustain themselves in the same way,” Floribeth said in an interview with Forbes Women.
However, sustainability goes beyond those 16 thousand families. Cotton Council International It has as a priority in the case of Mexico and Central America because cotton production maintains the United States as one of the main exporters with 38.5% of the total worldwide according to the USDA.
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And for all this, how is it that those 16 thousand families manage to produce cotton in a sustainable way in such a massive way? … In the United States they use a method called “precision agriculture”, whose approach is directed to not using water more than when be necessary.
Another characteristic of this cultivation method is that most of the water consumed in cotton plantations in the United States comes from the rain, which makes the cultivation process even more round.
So, what impact can this method have on the consumption of this cotton with sustainable production?
Pandemic reflections suggest that capitalism is such a powerful system, that despite the confinement by COVID-19, the way to earn money simply changed from being a physical platform to a virtual one. Among other things, the pandemic also evidenced the desire of consumers to have a more sustainable life and in favor of climate change.
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“Today, with fast fashion on the surface, the consumer and especially young people are the ones who are becoming very interested in knowing where the clothes they buy come from, department stores now see a responsibility to buy materials or garments that are manufactured in a sustainable way, then it is not only about the cotton facing this procedure, but also about the factories that they use to obtain the final product ”, reflects Floribeth.
With more than 35 years of experience and a 44% decrease in water consumption plus the consumption of 60% of rainwater in addition to the fact that land use has been reduced by 50% and greenhouse emissions fell with a 40%, Floribeth González-Schuyler feels optimistic with his achievements to curb the environmental impact.
By 2025, he confessed to having more goals to continue improving the entire environmental footprint.
Just as the precision agriculture methodology has helped more than 16,000 American families, the Floribeth effect has had an environmental impact that represents a commitment to future generations, but above all, it has been an expansive effect that has a positive impact on the world.
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