Drought is costing U.S. cotton industry billions of dollars

The combination of too little rain and extreme heat is decimating the cotton crop in Texas, where 40 percent of the nation's total is grown. “It’s been one of the harshest growing years that we have ever seen historically, all the way back to the 1950s,” said Kody Bessent, CEO of Plains Cotton Growers. The U.S. is one of the world's largest exporters of cotton.