Cotton Farming Vs Cotton Farming

labor” (Foner, 393). Cotton not only became the most profitable crop for the Southern farmers,

Genetic engineering is already providing a more stable solution for agricultural production in the economy to stand on. In nine years (i.e. 1996-2005), profits from genetically modified crops were twenty-seven billion dollars. Those twenty-seven billion dollars were not just in the United States or countries like it, but the profits almost split half and half between first and third world countries (O'Neill 19). In India, for example, cotton yields have jumped to one hundred-fifty percent from the use of genetically modified crops, vastly increasing the farmers’ profits (19). The planting of these crops can really help farmers know what they are going to make every year and plan accordingly. Also, helping the farmers’ expenses is the lack of chemical pesticides needed on the crops and reducing time spent using the pricey traditional breeding methods (Mannion and Morse 749-751). Even if genetically modified crops are not planted in every field, adjoining fields can benefit due to the “halo effect.” The “halo effect” is the ability of pest protection on the genetically modified crops to affect the non-genetically modified crops due to the lack of insects in the genetically modified field (754). Genetically modified crops affect the economy in a positive way and should be seen as a smart

During this time period in the U.S. History cotton became the biggest agricultural product in the world. The states that produced it where able to pour out loads and

The South’s first experience with exporting wasn’t a good one, in fact it was horrible. One bale of cotton was sent to England and that one bale of cotton rotted on its way across the Atlantic. At that time all of America’s cotton was grown on a total of two hundred acres on the Sea Islands just off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia, however this was just the beginning. The only downside of growing cotton was the intense labor it demanded. The most tedious work with the cotton was the picking out of seeds, eventually Eli Whitney’s cotton gin would make this a much faster process and lowering the price of cotton as well. The cotton industry took off after the invention of the cotton gin, there was a much higher demand for cotton especially in

In 1793 Eli Whitney revolutionized America’s South with his invention of the cotton gin machine. This machine separated the cotton rapidly, without the need of having slaves take out individual cotton that took a lifetime thus causing many injuries. The cotton gin was such a big success that it

In the 1850s, cotton was a very valuable cash crop. We sold this cotton to the British for money, and the South's economy relied on this crop. One bad thing about growing this upland cotton is that the seeds inside the crop have to be removed by hand. Slaves were used to gather and remove seeds from the cotton, but they could not gather more than they could deseed, so they could not produce cotton very fast.

To begin with, natural, human, and capital resources played a huge role in the growth of cotton production. Land was a very essential natural resource to cotton farmers. With fertile land, farmers could grow their big business, cotton. Also, because of land, the number of cotton farms in America began to increase greatly. For instance, in Texas, cotton farms grew an astounding 251.6% from 1850-1860. An important human resource that helped increase cotton manufacture was slaves. Slaves were needed to pick and plant cotton as it was a long and tedious job. From 1800-1860, the amount of slaves increased 342% and by 1860, the slave population amounted to over 3 million (Davidson, 388). Money and profit was a very imperative capital resource. After farmers collected their profits, they would buy more slaves, land, and machinery in hopes of improving their cotton business and growing more cotton (Davidson, 388-389).

[In 1830, the United States’ annual production of cotton was about 750,000 bales. By 1850, when Eli Whitney’s cotton gin had been widely adopted across the South, the amount of cotton produced rose to an incredible 2.85 million bales, the vast majority of the production of which was focused in the South. The efficiency of the gin increased the profitability associated with planting large amounts of cotton. The fact that the cotton gin allowed for much faster processing led to the establishment of enormous plantations in the southern United States. These plantations grew to sizes that would have been impossible to maintain prior to the introduction of the cotton

Cotton was a minor part of Georgia’s economy in general until farmers began importing Sea Island cotton, a high-quality

     After the invention of the cotton gin, the production of unprocessed cotton doubled each decade after 1800. Other inventions of the Industrial Revolution were the machines to spin and weave cotton and the steamboat to transport it. America was growing three quarters of the world's supply of cotton in the mid-century. Most of it was shipped to England or New England where it was made into cloth. During this time, tobacco’s value decreased, rice exports stayed at the same price, and sugar began to flourish, but only

Texas economy throughout the ages has become quite famous for its ever changing basis. When Texas was just a young state it did not have the economy that other states at the time possessed but it did have potential which was picked up on starting out with the livestock and cattle economy, Texas went through a rapid expansion and quickly caught up with its statehood brethren. As time carried on so did the cattle of Texas with farming and production of cotton which sparked another economic shift for Texas, which caused demand to spike when other state could not produce enough cotton, Texas became popular with its cotton production. As time passed and a civil war on the brink Texas started to produce lumber for nearby towns and few other states.

Cotton has been known for many years, but it was not used as much as compared to today. For many years, the only way to separate the cotton seeds from its fibers was to pull them out by hand. It was a very slow and hard occupation. The way the cotton gin worked was by; the cotton needs to fall through the feeder hopper, goes through a place where it comes into the wire teeth, which seizes the fibers for the seeds and comes out of the machine. Although the cotton gin was a very advantageous machine, it affected many slaves. It came with a number of unintended consequences, especially towards slavery. During this era, cotton was the most arduous plant since the seeds needed to be removed and that was a wearying process.

In Empire of Cotton: A Global History, Sven Beckert narrates the beginning of the Industrial Revolution of Europe through the history of cotton and its production. The cotton commodity reinvented the manufacturing system of the late seventeenth and eighteenth century, even being traced back to the Bronze Age and pushed towards modern capitalism. According to Beckert, the cotton industry became an empire itself as it depended on fundamentals of “plantation and factory, slavery and wage labor, railroads and steamships, on a global network of land, labor, manufacture, and sale.” This industrialization of cotton led to the enslaving of Africans for labor, the advancing of technological inventions, and a strong influence of capitalism.

However, these risks are purely speculative: 81 separate studies costing approximately $65 million have been conducted by the European Commission alone and have shown no evidence of any risk linked to GM foods (1). Indeed, the U.S. has concluded that the risk of GM crops is minimal. As a result, in the U.S., genetically altered crops accounted for 93% of planted soybeans and cotton and 86% of corn in 2009. (2). Considering the success and benefits of GM crops in America, developing countries have followed suit. In 2009, India planted 84,000 square kilometers of genetically modified cotton, and Brazil planted 214,000 square kilometers of GM soybeans, a 26% increase from the year before (3). Like the U.S., these countries conducted a risk-benefit analysis and concluded that the economic, health, and food surplus benefits of GM crops offset the unproven risks (4). Thus, agricultural biotechnology is being implemented in farming techniques throughout the world.

In this brief, the reader will see how organic and genetically modified organisms are viewed and interpreted. They will see the “facts” about the genetically modified organisms and organic organism, and how producers and consumers view this. The reader will be able to understand what is actually happening to genetically modified organisms and organic organisms during the production and when it is getting processed. They will also learn about certified organic and the USDA organic and how each one is determined in the production. Everybody has an opinion about organic and GMO and believes which ones are better. The reader of this paper will also learn the differences between organic and GMOs and the pros and cons of each of them. After reading this paper the reader will be educated on what to buy at the grocery store between organic and GMO. Organic and GMO will always be a topic that has controversy.