| are interesting times in which to be a tobacco farmer. | | | | chose to work with farms not participating in the |
| Less than five years ago, the federal government | | | | system, and brought stability to an industry that had |
| ended the price-support and subsidy system that had | | | | been through some chaotic times. It also, however, |
| set the boundaries within which the entire economy of | | | | made it unprofitable for new farmers to enter the |
| tobacco farming, for better and for worse, had | | | | arena of tobacco growing, and it effectively cut certain |
| operated for nearly fifty years. Now, with the number | | | | states out of the tobacco game entirely. |
| of smokers expected to decrease as a result of a | | | | In 2004, the government bought out all existing quotas |
| recent increase in tobacco-product taxes, and tobacco | | | | from farmers who still owned them, with funds kicked |
| companies adjusting their purchasing from growers | | | | in by tobacco companies. Many farmers then chose to |
| accordingly--well, let's just say that's another reason | | | | retire (some of these folks were the children of those |
| why there's never a dull moment for American | | | | original Great Depression tobacco farmers and were |
| tobacco farmers. And with global climate change likely | | | | just reaching retirement age themselves). This meant a |
| to fundamentally change growing patterns--and a long, | | | | big drop in tobacco acreage the following year. People |
| chaotic, unpredictable transition to those new patterns | | | | publicly expressed fears (or hopes) that tobacco |
| ahead of us (hopefully not too chaotic)--well, boring | | | | farming in the US would die entirely, and cigarette |
| times aren't likely to come in the foreseeable future. | | | | makers wondered if there'd be any US farmers left to |
| Tobacco grows easily and yet, paradoxically, is a | | | | buy from. |
| tough plant to grow. Of the three major kinds of cigar | | | | But the system began to sort itself out again. In 2007 |
| tobacco, for example, only two (binders and wrappers) | | | | reports surfaced that many farmers from traditionally |
| grow well in the United States. Tobacco likes moist soil | | | | non-tobacco-growing states had begun to make the |
| without a lot of rain (which is sort of like enjoying | | | | stuff again, since they didn't have to buy a quota from |
| hamburgers, but preferring to avoid meat when | | | | some farmer who already had one, or compete |
| possible); it absolutely needs warm temperatures (frost | | | | against price-supported farmers from other places. |
| can kill it) but can easily get baked if left out on a | | | | This meant the return of tobacco growing to the |
| too-hot day; it wants things between 68 and 73 | | | | farms of southern Illinois, for example, from which it |
| degrees, with a certain fixed relative humidity. (That's | | | | had been gone for decades. Overall acreage inched |
| why you've got to be so careful in setting your | | | | upward, until it was almost within 50,000 acres of 2004 |
| humidor to just the right conditions.) Since, unlike | | | | figures. North Carolina, a historically tobacco-producing |
| tomatoes or corn, it's not something you can just drag | | | | state, exemplified this trend; after an all-time low of |
| to the farmer's market with you and get a decent | | | | 123,000 acres devoted to tobacco just after the |
| price on by trading directly with the buyer, tobacco | | | | buyout, it was up to 164,000 a few years later. |
| farmers have to think carefully about raising a large | | | | A happy ending? An uncertain future, more like. |
| crop as efficiently as possible. If you have one plot and | | | | SCHIP-related increases in the tobacco tax, which |
| you grow great tomatoes, you can make a few | | | | kicked in April 1, 2009, raise the question of how long |
| bucks selling them to neighbors; the only likely buyer of | | | | this upward trend in tobacco acreage will continue. |
| your tobacco crop is a tobacco company of some | | | | Tobacco companies are already decreasing their |
| kind, and it doesn't make as much sense to go small. | | | | orders from farmers, expecting decreases in revenue |
| But these large fields also mean larger labor, storage, | | | | from smokers quitting (or at least cutting back). And |
| and materials costs. These are just the basic problems | | | | long-term, no one is really sure what environmental |
| any US tobacco farmer has to deal with, no matter | | | | changes will do to US farming and land use--except |
| what the political, cultural or literal climate. | | | | make things a lot less predictable for a very long time. |
| In addition, the whole field (no pun intended) has | | | | What it means, in the short term, is simply that the |
| changed since 2004. In that year, subsidies first | | | | climate is stranger, more extreme, and harder to |
| imposed by the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 | | | | predict. More sixty-five degree January days in |
| were repealed. This law had set a price-support and | | | | Michigan, more May ice storms, and wilder, more |
| quota system to manage the amount of tobacco | | | | violent hurricanes. With a plant as sensitive to extreme |
| grown in the United States (and make sure farmers | | | | temperatures as tobacco--well, that's not exactly good |
| could command a livable wage for growing it, given | | | | news. Let's hope American tobacco farmers are |
| that the Great Depression had just wiped thousands | | | | ready for adjustments that will make the 2004 quota |
| of farmers out). It punished any tobacco buyers that | | | | buyout look like the tiniest of hiccups. |