WAKEFIELD – The former head of the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) claims the cotton industry is being strangled and demonised by NGOs and retailers who are seeking to "build sales and enhance careers, while undermining the livelihoods of tens of millions of cotton households." Terry Townsend, an international cotton consultant, claims cotton's critics have ignored the strides the cotton industry has made in recent decades in terms of better production systems and reduced resource use and instead used exaggerated, out of date information to demonise cotton.