Cotton is a soft fibre that grows from the seeds of the cotton plant. The fibre is long and thin, like hair. After the cotton fibre is gathered from the plant, it can be made into thread. The cotton thread can then be made into cloth. The cloth can be used to make clothes for people and many other things. Cotton clothing is very nice to wear, especially in hot weather, and is easy to move around in.
There are different types of cotton plants. Some cotton plants grow wild in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. This is how cotton was discovered many years ago. Most of the cotton gathered to make cloth comes from crops grown on cotton farms. Cotton farms can be found in Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, and the Americas. All parts of cotton plants are useful.

Cotton is a natural fibre harvested from the cotton plant. Cotton is one of the oldest fibres with traces of cotton over 7,000 years old recovered from archaeological sites. Cotton is also one of the most used natural fibres in existence today, with people everywhere wearing and using cotton for various purposes. Millions of acres globally are used to produce cotton, whether it be new world cotton, with longer, smoother fibres, or the shorter and coarser old world varieties.

In our second Planet Money T-shirt podcast we hear the interesting story of a Brazilian cotton farmer called Pedro.

Planet Money is a joint project of National Public Radio (NPR) in the USA and This American Life, the Chicago weekly public radio show which focuses on coverage of the global economy.

Planet Money is making a very special t-shirt, unlike any other.  It’s a t-shirt that can tell you the story of its own creation.

Almost every single t-shirt out there is the result of a complicated global journey. We will follow NPR on that journey. We’ll research the people who grow the cotton, spin the yarn, and cut and sew the fabric. We have ordered a t-shirt and we will follow the cargo ships that bring our t-shirt from factories in Bangladesh and Colombia to ports in the USA and on to Ireland.  We’ll also examine the crazy tangle of international regulations which govern the t-shirt trade the whole way. Click the play button below to listen to our first t-shirt podcast.