KTAB Going Green: Cleaner, Greener Crops

Producers have been "going green" for a very, very long time.

That term has just now gotten popular, but that's just the way they practice just to stay in business.

Brant Baugh has worked in the cotton fields for almost twenty years, and says for the past five or six years farmers have gotten serious about going green, it's been good for business as any farmers have really focused on reducing pesticides.

"The insecticide applications got cut in half and then, like I've mentioned, in the last five to six years, there have been zero applications made in any of the cotton fields that I look at for that pests," says Buagh.

It used to take dozens of pesticide applications to kill the bugs.

It turns out all that pesticide also hurt the crops-turns, and then there was the secondary impact on the environment.

Agricultural runoff makes up almost 70 percent of environmental contamination.

Baugh says reducing pesticides even on one farm at a time helps.

"It's a trend that's increasing across the country. Any time we can reduce the pesticide load on the environment, I think that's a good thing."

Baugh says crops have been stronger and are being produced in record amounts, and that usually helps profits.

"That's where we see the economic impact across the nation. When crops don't thrive we have to turn to foreign producers. If we have to start buying cotton and all of our products from overseas, then our cost is going to go up for the shirt you're wearing and the jeans you're wearing."

In the final analysis, environmental action on our farms seems to be paying off.

It's paying off for farmers, consumers and the planet.

Farmers are also using more water-conscious methods for the fields, and they're using less fuel to plant and harvest.