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Women Picking Cotton, China, 2003

Bundled against the wind, a group of women picks cotton in China. The Asian nation is the world's leading producer of cotton, with an output of 6.73 million tons per year. Farmers can't keep up with the burgeoning textile industry, however, which uses about 13 million tons of cotton a year. The Chinese often rely on imports to close the gap, which drives up textile prices for consumers worldwide.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Chasing the Wall," January 2003, National Geographic magazine)

Photograph by Michael S. Yamashita