Cotton is a soft, fluffy fiber that grows around the seeds of cotton plants, used to make fabric for clothing, sheets, towels, and countless other items. If you look at the tag on your t-shirt or jeans, there's a good chance it says “100% cotton” or lists cotton as a main material.

The cotton plant produces white or cream-colored puffs that look like little clouds attached to a stem. Inside each puff are seeds surrounded by those soft fibers. For thousands of years, people have harvested these fibers, spun them into thread, and woven that thread into cloth. Cotton fabric breathes well and feels comfortable against skin, which is why it's so popular for everyday clothes.

Cotton has been grown for at least 7,000 years, with ancient civilizations in India, Egypt, and the Americas all discovering how to use it. Throughout history, cotton farming often relied on forced labor. In the American South before the Civil War, enslaved people were made to grow and harvest cotton under harsh conditions. Similar exploitation happened in other parts of the world as cotton became a valuable global trade good.

Today, cotton grows in warm climates around the world, with China, India, and the United States among the largest producers. Modern machines do most of the harvesting, though picking cotton by hand was backbreaking work for generations. When you wear a cotton shirt on a hot day and feel comfortable, you're benefiting from one of humanity's oldest and most useful agricultural discoveries.