Stage 1: Growing
Have you ever held a T-shirt and wondered where its softness began?
How much water do you think a field can give?
What happens when a field needs more water than the land can spare?
Cotton can feel soft in your hand. But it begins in a hard place.
In Threads, the journey starts in the Texas High Plains, where huge fields of cotton grow in heat and wind. This part of Texas grows a very large share of the cotton made in the United States. But cotton is a thirsty crop, and the region depends heavily on groundwater from the Ogallala Aquifer. That water is under strain, and long droughts are making farming harder.
The cotton then travels toward the coast. In Galveston, where the shirt prepares for its sea journey. The water here is rising. NOAA’s long-term tide gauge shows sea level there rising by about 6.63 millimetres each year. So even at the very start, this T-shirt is moving through places where land, water, work and home are all under pressure.
Before you buy something new, could you check what it is made from?
Looking down at the clothes you are wearing...
Could you ask:
What did this fabric need before it reached me?
Some people in Texas are already taking action.
The Texas Alliance for Water Conservation works with producers across West Texas to protect water and soil while helping farms keep going for future generations.
The next t-shirt you are looking for is Gulf of Mexico…
If you’re stuck, you can find the main navigation page for Threads here (link).