Farmers across the nation are taking steps to go green. Turns out, it's actually something they've been doing for years.

"Producers have been going green for a very, very long time. That term has just now gotten "popular but that's just the way they practice just to stay in business," said cotton farmer Brant Baugh

Baugh has worked in the cotton fields for almost 20 years. He says for the past five or six farmers have gotten serious about going green. He says it's been good for business. Many farmers have really focused on reducing pesticides.

"The insecticide applications got cut in half and then like I've mentioned, in the last 5 to 6 years there have been zero applications made in any of the cotton fields that i look at for that pest," Baugh explained.

It used to take dozens of pesticide applications to kill the bugs. Turns out all that pesticide also hurt the crops. Then there was the secondary impact on the environment. Agricultural runoff makes up almost 70% of environmental contamination. Baugh says reducing pesticides even one farm at a time helps. It's a trend that's increasing across the country. Baugh says crops have been stronger and are being produced in record amounts. He says that usually helps profits.

That's where we see the economic impact across the nation. When crops don't thrive we have to turn to foreign producers.