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The article focuses on cotton farmers in the U.S. South. This month has seen two blows to cotton farmers' prospects. First, the Bush administration, trying to cut the budget, has proposed reductions in cotton subsidies, limiting them to $250,000 per farmer. Second, the World Trade Organisation has ruled that America's cotton subsidies exceed the limits determined in 1994. Subsidies were created during the Depression of the 1930s to help small farmers and ensure domestic production of food and cotton. Cotton farmers thought they, like other farmers, were protected by the 2002 Farm Security and Rural Investment Act, which was supposed to ensure hand-outs until 2007. Cotton farmers complain that they face competitive disadvantages. The subsidies, they say, are needed to defray the huge capital costs of their business, and also the fact that prices fluctuate so wildly.

The article announces Len Alphin, co-owner of Commonwealth Gin has received the Southeast Ginner of the Year for 2017 and farmer Mike Tate has received the 2017 Producer Recognition Award from Southern Cotton Growers.