7 U.S.C. § 2101 : US Code - Section 2101: Congressional declaration of policy

Search 7 U.S.C. § 2101 : US Code - Section 2101: Congressional declaration of policy

Cotton is the basic natural fiber of the Nation. It is produced
by many individual cottongrowers throughout the various cotton-
producing States of the Nation and also outside the United States.
Cotton moves in the channels of interstate and foreign commerce and
such cotton which does not move in such channels directly burdens
or affects interstate commerce in cotton and cotton products. The
efficient production of cotton and the maintenance and expansion of
existing markets and the development of new or improved markets and
uses is vital to the welfare of cottongrowers and those concerned
with marketing, using, and processing cotton as well as the general
economy of the Nation. The great inroads on the market and uses for
cotton which have been made by manmade fibers have been largely the
result of extensive research and promotion which have not been
effectively matched by cotton research and promotion. The
production and marketing of cotton by numerous individual farmers
have prevented the development and carrying out of adequate and
coordinated programs of research and promotion necessary to the
maintenance and improvement of the competitive position of, and
markets for, cotton. Without an effective and coordinated method
for assuring cooperative and collective action in providing for,
and financing such programs, individual cotton farmers are unable
adequately to provide or obtain the research and promotion
necessary to maintain and improve markets for cotton.
It has long been found to be in the public interest to have, or
endeavor to have, a reasonable balance between the supply of and
demand for cotton grown in this country. To serve this public
interest the Congress has provided for the comprehensive exercise
of regulatory authority in regulating the handling of such cotton
supplemented by price-support programs with the objective of
adjusting supply to demand in the interest of benefiting producers
and all others concerned with the production and handling of cotton
as well as the general economy of the country. In order for the
objective of such programs to be effectuated to the fullest degree,
it is necessary that the existing regulation of marketing be
supplemented by providing as part of the overall governmental
program for effectuating this objective, means of increasing the
demand for cotton with the view of eventually reducing or
eliminating the need for limiting marketings and supporting the
price of cotton.
It is therefore declared to be the policy of the Congress and the
purpose of this chapter that it is essential in the public interest
through the exercise of the powers provided herein, to authorize
and enable the establishment of an orderly procedure for the
development, financing through adequate assessments on all cotton
marketed in the United States and on imports of cotton, and
carrying out an effective and continuous coordinated program of
research and promotion designed to strengthen cotton's competitive
position and to maintain and expand domestic and foreign markets
and uses for United States cotton.