Cotton Makes Comeback, but No Longer King

By Greg Hilburn, USA TODAY Network

King Cotton lost its crown in the new millennium, but it's staging a Louisiana comeback in 2017. Louisiana farmers have planted 200,000 acres of cotton in 2017, a 43 percent jump over last year. Though that remains a fraction of the 800,000 acres planted just over a decade ago, it almost doubles the all-time low of 115,000 acres planted in 2015.