How climate change is making tampons (and more) more expensive

When the Department of Agriculture completed its calculations last month, the results were startling: 2022 was a disaster for upland cotton in Texas, the state where the coarse fiber is mainly cultivated and then sold all over the world. globe in the form of tampons, cloth diapers, gauze pads, and other products.
In the greatest loss ever, Texas farmers gave up 74% of their crops planted - nearly six million acres - because of the heat and parched soil characteristic of a mega-drought made worse by climate change.
This crash has helped to drive the price of tampons in the United States up 13% over the past year. The price of cloth diapers jumped 21%. Cotton Balls increased by 9% and Gauze Bandages increased by 8%. This was all well above the country's headline inflation rate of 6.5% in 2022, according to data provided by market research firms NielsonIQ and The NPD Group.
This is an example of how climate change is reshaping the cost of daily living in ways that consumers might not realize.
West Texas is the primary source of upland cotton in the United States, which in turn is the world's third largest producer and largest exporter of the fiber. That means the upland cotton crop collapse in West Texas will spread beyond the United States, economists say, to store shelves around the world.
"Climate change is a secret driver of inflation," said Nicole Corbett, Vice President of NielsonIQ. of production, the cost of basic necessities will continue to rise."
At the other end of the world, in Pakistan, the world's sixth largest producer of upland cotton, severe flooding, aggravated by climate change, wiped out half of this country's cotton crop.
There were other brakes on global sourcing In 2021, the United States banned cotton imports from the Xinjiang region of China, an import ante cotton-growing region for fear of the use of forced labor.
But experts say the impact of global warming on cotton extends across the planet with consequences that could be felt for decades.
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World Feb 19, 2023 0 43 Add to Reading List

How climate change is making tampons (and more) more expensive

When the Department of Agriculture completed its calculations last month, the results were startling: 2022 was a disaster for upland cotton in Texas, the state where the coarse fiber is mainly cultivated and then sold all over the world. globe in the form of tampons, cloth diapers, gauze pads, and other products.

In the greatest loss ever, Texas farmers gave up 74% of their crops planted - nearly six million acres - because of the heat and parched soil characteristic of a mega-drought made worse by climate change.

This crash has helped to drive the price of tampons in the United States up 13% over the past year. The price of cloth diapers jumped 21%. Cotton Balls increased by 9% and Gauze Bandages increased by 8%. This was all well above the country's headline inflation rate of 6.5% in 2022, according to data provided by market research firms NielsonIQ and The NPD Group.

This is an example of how climate change is reshaping the cost of daily living in ways that consumers might not realize.

West Texas is the primary source of upland cotton in the United States, which in turn is the world's third largest producer and largest exporter of the fiber. That means the upland cotton crop collapse in West Texas will spread beyond the United States, economists say, to store shelves around the world.

"Climate change is a secret driver of inflation," said Nicole Corbett, Vice President of NielsonIQ. of production, the cost of basic necessities will continue to rise."

At the other end of the world, in Pakistan, the world's sixth largest producer of upland cotton, severe flooding, aggravated by climate change, wiped out half of this country's cotton crop.

There were other brakes on global sourcing In 2021, the United States banned cotton imports from the Xinjiang region of China, an import ante cotton-growing region for fear of the use of forced labor.

But experts say the impact of global warming on cotton extends across the planet with consequences that could be felt for decades.

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