April 11, 2025

An Event To Remember Why We Move Forward

Plains Cotton Growers Hosts Successful Annual Meeting

By Kara Bishop

 “As a New York city guy, I didn’t know what it was like to have a real friend,” said keynote speaker Paul Mobley. “Not until I met a farmer.”

The agriculture industry has always been genuine. Genuine relationships, genuine passion for what we do and a genuine desire to leave this life knowing we gave everything we had to our God and our family. It’s a difference that you notice immediately if you’ve ever worked in other industries. A place where you get real hugs from real people who really care about you as a person rather than just what they can get out of you.

And the last three years have been really hard. It’s been hard to love what you do in this industry lately. This year’s annual meeting of Plains Cotton Growers helped us take our blinders off somewhat on an uncertain future and remember why we love this industry so much.

We tried to mix reality with encouragement and hope you feel we achieved that. From Joe Nicosia’s eye-opening depiction of what cotton production in America looks like now and must look like in the future to survive, to Paul Mobley’s appreciation for farmers from an outside urban world, the Texas High Plains cotton industry had their cups filled as they prepare for crop year 2025.

There may be hard days ahead, but for just one day, we got to gather together as one industry and remember why we do what we do. We’ve been called to a higher calling, one that isn’t always glamorous or rewarded, but one that the entire nation depends on.

Thank you for your contributions to the cotton industry and I hope you enjoy this video and these photos of my favorite day of the year: Annual Meeting Day.