Responsible cotton production - this is the future. Increasingly the growing of cotton will need to be conducted in a way that minimises its perceived impact on the environment and greater community. This will need to involve a greater understanding of the interactions that occur within our cotton production system such that we start to maximise the synergies that can be achieved by optimising the components that interact. A top down approach of looking at important driving influences such as economics and linking this to rotation and agronomy planning can provide some important clues as to the direction cotton growers can take their production systems in the future. The farming systems approach aims to link some or all of the various components (soil, insects, weeds, disease, water, economics) into a single framework. Many components of a sustainable system have been researched and are ready to be applied to a package.