{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Julius Tillery aka the "Puff Daddy Of Cotton" on the need to remix both the perception of the cotton industry and the business model","description":"In episode 311, Kestrel welcomes Julius Tillery, founder of BlackCotton, to the show.  A 5th-generation cotton farmer from North Carolina, Julius founded BlackCotton to help center and uplift the Black community closest to the cotton fields in Northampton County, North Carolina. \u201cThere\u2019s so many demons and like bad spirits and bad tropes around cotton and the industry in general, and you know, just coming from the South, and people having these perspectives of cotton production relating to slavery \u2014 I felt like people was making these notions about cotton and not really knowing anything about cotton. And I wanted to start educating people about the cotton business, and even myself and how people like myself \u2014 how we end up in cotton. Families that work in cotton like, what was their value-in working in this type of production? And I wanted to change that outlook to make it look more stronger and prestigious than what was assumed.\u201d -Julius About 6 episodes back, we had a chat with the brilliant leader and self-proclaimed solutionist Tameka Peoples of Seed2Shirt. This episode was deeply focused on the work Tameka is doing to rebuild equitable and just cotton systems & foster the reclamation of cotton acreage for Black farmers. It\u2019s a really important show that helps provide some of the historical context around cotton in the United States, as well as ways that Tameka and her team are working to reimagine new systems for cotton. When guests lead to new guests, I like to acknowledge that because it\u2019s a beautiful thing. So, thanks to Tameka and our interactions, I was led to this week\u2019s guest \u2013 Julius Tillery. This week\u2019s guest was raised amongst cotton fields \u2013 growing the fiber is something that runs deep throughout his ancestry. As a 5th generation cotton farmer, he has followed in the footsteps of generations before, but \u2013 with a twist.   Known to many as the Puff Daddy of Cotton, he has approached the cotton industry with a focus on remixing what the business looks like today. As a young person, he saw the imminent need to rebrand cotton, and to help expand the narrative around the fiber away from the harmful alignment it often has with simply being a poor man\u2019s crop.   Julius shares more about how he\u2019s reimagining what a cotton farmer\u2019s business model can look like today, how he\u2019s creating alternative revenue streams, he reveals some of the financial challenges farmers face, and tells us how he was able to actually turn fiber from his family\u2019s plants into fashion. Quotes & links from the conversation: \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s what really makes us to the sustainability component of clothing and sustainable world in general \u2014 is this is actually real stuff that comes off a real farm \u2014 and I make it culturally and I make it about environmental where it\u2019s coming from a Black community from Black people that\u2019s growing cotton in an area, in a time period that we used to be oppressed by this crop, but actually now we\u2019re trying to control it and make it something that we can be proud of and uplifting our community. I hope that in my community I stand as a symbol of pride and of strength, being a farmer, instead of somebody who was oppressed.\u201d -Julius (10:22) \u201cWhat I\u2019m doing with my farm is trying to show pride in being a farmer, and that\u2019s moreso than just culturally \u2014 that\u2019s just all of the industry and environmentalism. Like, we have to have more respect for the resources that we create with our planet, so that we don\u2019t waste them, so that we don\u2019t have to have bad resources come back to us. I\u2019m really into like \u2014 why are we importing so many products when people need jobs here in America, people need jobs here in the Western Hemisphere \u2014 how can we connect dots so we don\u2019t have to ship stuff all across the world?\u201d -Julius (15:22) \u201cCultivating distress: cotton, caste and farmer suicides in India\u201d, research article that highlights the distressing statistics around cotton farmers and suicide (something that Kestrel brings up on the show) \u2014 \u201cNearly 4,00,000 farmers committed suicide in India between 1995 and 2018. This translates into approximately 48 suicides every day.\u201d \u201cI feel like it\u2019s important that as much as possible, we find ways to support sustainable so there\u2019s a reason for it to be in the marketplace.\u201d -Julius (19:27) \u201cAnd that\u2019s the only way we gonna be sustainable is these big companies see purpose in dealing with such small companies like myself. I hope that things can change but you know, I\u2019m really being real about who we are in regards to what\u2019s the culture of the industry we in. Cause I\u2019m so much smaller than the cotton farmers I\u2019m around but that allows me to make decisions and be someone who can think more efficiently and more lean.\u201d -Julius (20:05) \u201cWith urban agriculture and the growth of farmer\u2019s markets all across the country, I believe there\u2019s people seeing the value and worth of growing their own foods and products. So there\u2019s so many people that want to learn to grow their own food and products. So many people want to learn about the business of foods and products. I believe there\u2019s new energy around agriculture and it\u2019s a constantly growing industry right now. And I think that the way our education system has been set up for many years, and even right now \u2014 it\u2019s set up to disadvantage agriculture, like it\u2019s telling you not to go into it. Like our college prepatories teaching you to be a doctor, a lawyer, some type of high white-collar job \/ professional, but I think there\u2019s a lot of things in pop culture, I believe there\u2019s a lot of living arrangements right now that\u2019s bringing new energy to people that grow outdoors. The new look of a farmer is a lot more updated than 30, 40 years ago. You know, farmers are aging, but then there\u2019s young farmers coming in that\u2019s using the internet and really out here networking and connecting, and so there\u2019s a tide turning.\u201d -Julius (30:15) \u201cI like to compare myself as an ant to the whole cotton industry, the cotton jungle. Ants make mounds, and before long, there\u2019s more mounds than you can count.\u201d -Julius (32:16) \u201cRewriting The Story Of Cotton\u201d in Our State  \u201cMeet The Puff Daddy Of Cotton\u201d, Human Footprint episode on PBS that features Julius BlackCotton Website Follow BlackCotton on Facebook > Follow BlackCotton on Instagram > ","author_name":"Conscious Chatter","author_url":"http:\/\/consciouschatter.com\/","html":"