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AP, Karnataka tobacco farmers told to regulate production 

Tobacco farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka should stick to the crop size fixed by the board and not grow surplus, even though they have been getting record prices for the past two seasons, according to Mr J. Suresh Babu, Chairman of the Tobacco Board.

At the Tobacco Board Formation Day celebrations here on Friday, he sounded the note of caution to farmers in both the principal tobacco-growing States.

He said the board had fixed the crop size at 170 million kg in Andhra Pradesh and 100 million kg in Karnataka and it would not be possible to revise it upwards anymore.

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Tobacco players back in action  

GUNTUR: Murky politics among the tobacco traders' lobby has brought the auctions in Karnataka to a grinding halt. Though the prices soared to an alarming level, the Tobacco Board did not intervene to avoid antagonising the farmers, averred highly-placed sources.

According to insiders in the board, a giant cigarette manufacturer has unleashed the price war on the Mysore floors with a view to cornering other competitors. "It is an open secret that the lead purchaser has kicked off the murky game to make the others either face huge losses by picking up stocks at high rates or run away from the scene," confirmed a senior board official here.

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• Central Virginia benefitting from tobacco settlement money  

Some of Virginia's "tobacco settlement" money this year helped pay for cattle chutes, a set of metal bars that makes it a little easier and safer for Eric Morgan and farmers like him to do the work that leads to better herds of beef cattle.

Bedford County farmers who had the right qualifications found 38 grants were available this year -- of up to $3,000 each -- when Virginia's Tobacco Commission chose to fund a Central Virginia Beef Expansion Project.

Much larger amounts of tobacco settlement money have gone into a broadband network, college scholarships, and economic-development projects of every stripe since 2000, when Virginia started disbursing funds it gained from the National Tobacco Settlement.

Central Virginia Community College and entities in three nearby counties -- Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell -- benefited from $10.7 million in Tobacco Commission money over those years.

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• RAILEY: Ex-smoker likes second-hand smoke, first-hand memories 

Like so many other North Carolinians, I'm ambivalent about tobacco. It's helped build churches, hospitals and colleges in this state, and it's put many a student through those colleges. It helped build Winston-Salem and many other North Carolina towns.

David Payne, who grew up in Henderson, eloquently summed that up in his 1993 novel Ruin Creek. A young doctor tells the elderly owner of a tobacco warehouse in fictional Killdeer, N.C., to quit smoking. The old man tells a friend, "if tobacco's wrong, then this whole town's wrong … 'cause every store and house and church in Killdeer came from it … Every dollar was a leaf of bright tobacco first and grew right from the ground. ..."

True that. And adults can still choose whether they want to smoke. I'll never condemn it. Heck, I still love the smell of second-hand smoke once in a while. I can sympathize with President-elect Obama's battle to quit smoking.

I started at 16. . . .

I loved smoking a cigar while walking my dog. I loved the taste of cigarettes with beer.

I miss smoking. I envy the people who still enjoy it. It's still a way of life here. But it's a way of life that's rapidly changing as farmers go out of business and Big Tobacco keeps getting pummeled.

In a few generations, smoking will be a distant memory. But for now, I still like a whiff of second-hand smoke now and then.

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Tobacco cultivation shows no sign of abating  

Tobacco cultivation shows no sign of abating in Nilphamari.

Sources said, though the government is not encouraging the farmers to cultivate tobacco any more rather it is discouraging the farmers across the country to decrease it the farmers are not paying heed to it.

Although the real quantity of lands on which tobacco is being cultivated in Nilphamari district for the last several years could not be known for lack of information by the Agriculture Extension Department (AED) tobacco is being cultivated on more than 10 per cent arable land in the district.

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Tobacco growers urge research to improve quality 

Tobacco growers have requested authorities to meet them, visit tobacco fields and research centres before taking important decisions.

The growers supported existing regulatory system according to which price of tobacco crop should not be lower than that of previous year, saying it worked well as the farmers got higher returns on their crop every year.

In addition to that, they said under tobacco marketing control all companies needed to indicate their requirements for the forthcoming season by Oct 21 every year and to support growers the tobacco industry had to purchase the entire crop regardless of demand forecast.

During the current year, the farmers said tobacco price was Rs82 per kg, from which 1,000 cigarettes could be produced. Average cost of one cigarette comes to Re1, meaning Rs1,000 out of one kg of tobacco. About Rs82 goes to the farmer from Rs1,000 while 65 per cent or Rs650 goes to the government in taxes, leaving Rs268.

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Tobacco growers urge research to improve quality 

Tobacco growers have requested authorities to meet them, visit tobacco fields and research centres before taking important decisions.

The growers supported existing regulatory system according to which price of tobacco crop should not be lower than that of previous year, saying it worked well as the farmers got higher returns on their crop every year.

In addition to that, they said under tobacco marketing control all companies needed to indicate their requirements for the forthcoming season by Oct 21 every year and to support growers the tobacco industry had to purchase the entire crop regardless of demand forecast.

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Tax proposal burns lawmakers, farmers  

As the state government brainstorms options to counter a looming budget deficit, local politicians and those involved in the tobacco industry resoundingly oppose Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's proposed sales tax increase on cigarettes.

They cite general economic malaise and particular concerns for Southside residents.

Kaine announced proposals this week to address a projected $2.9 billion budget shortfall, including spending cuts in every sector of the government, from streamlining transportation operations to holding off on state employee salary increases, along with a doubling of the 30-cent tax on cigarettes. . . .

Delegate Danny Marshall, R-Danville, also argued that Virginia retailers close to North Carolina will be hurt as people may just go over the border to purchase cigarettes.

"When they're over there buying cigarettes, they're going to buy other things, too," he said.

For his part, Kaine argued that his proposal isn't a general tax increase that would put a strain on Virginia families already struggling. Rather, he said, it is "targeted to a specific non-essential product."

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• The “Green” Cigarette?  

According to the Southeast Farm Press, organic tobacco is “the biggest growth area in US tobacco production.” The stuff fetches about twice the price as regular tobacco on the open market. “Any tobacco without pesticide residues is more attractive than conventional in the current market,” said organic tobacco producer Micou Browne.

Browne's company, Organic Smoke Inc., bought twice as much leaf in the past year. But that won’t be even half as much as what the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., makers of the additive-free Natural American Spirit brand cigarettes, grew. Already the largest organic tobacco product manufacturer, Santa Fe continues to see its sales grow by more than 10 percent each year. . . .

The mass consumption of cigarettes, which is increasing globally by slightly more than one percent a year, can only be met through the exhaustion of natural resources, environments, and labor. Big companies like Reynolds American, which owns RJR and is itself 42 percent owned by British American Tobacco and manufactures about one of every three cigarettes sold in the US, tend to buy cheap leaf from developing countries where farm practices are lax and tobacco-control efforts are more easily suppressed.

In fact, by 2010 a projected 87 percent of tobacco will be grown in developing countries like South Korea, where more than 40 percent of annual deforestation is due to the production and curing of tobacco; Brazil, where pesticide sprayings have polluted fresh water; and Malawi, which has the highest incidence of child labor in Southern Africa (tobacco farms in Malawi that have a contract with multinationals, about 20 percent of the total, have a ban on child labor). . . .

In a paper McDaniel had published last year on smokers’ perceptions of “natural” cigarettes, she concluded that “tobacco companies may be inclined to introduce natural brands as part of their burgeoning corporate social responsibility efforts” and that “such efforts may involve expanding the current concept of natural cigarettes, with their emphasis on no additives, into 'green' cigarettes—organic (pesticide-free), completely biodegradable, or manufactured using renewable energy.” Indeed, market research shows that informing smokers of the chemical contents of most cigarettes results in shock and alarm, and also suggests that, for many smokers, this alarm can be allayed by a “natural” cigarette. In Germany, ads for “organic” cigarettes have been banned because regulators there decided they mislead consumers into thinking they're a healthier product.

Like a subliminal message, the soothing words of the environmental movement have become powerful enough to override the proven negative health effects of cigarettes and the government-mandated warning label. There's some sense of trust and reassurement hearing a company say, as Santa Fe does on its website, “Supporting sustainable agriculture is part of our commitment to reducing our footprint on the Earth, and protecting our natural resources.” But McDaniel points to a “need to expand our definition of sustainable. It’s all well and good to grow something organically and use renewable energy sources, but if it kills half the people who use it then it’s not very sustainable.”

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• Tobacco states weigh higher cigarette taxes to plug budget gaps, but some old habits remain  

Two of the nation's top tobacco-producing states are weighing whether to raise cigarette taxes to plug budget deficits that have sent politicians scavenging for sources of revenue.

The governors of Virginia and Kentucky have each proposed raising their cigarette taxes -- each currently 30 cents per pack -- to help offset revenue shortfalls of $2.9 billion and $456 million, respectively.

Such a move was once unthinkable in Virginia, where Philip Morris runs the world's largest cigarette plant miles from the state Capitol, and ceiling murals in the rotunda include impressions of the golden-brown tobacco leaf.

"I wouldn't be surprised if all the tobacco-producing states aren't at least considering it before long," said Amy Barkley, who directs advocacy efforts in the major tobacco states for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. . . .

Lawmakers in the six major tobacco states -- North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia -- have historically been more reluctant than other states to turn to their cash crop for extra revenue.

But since 2002, 44 states and the District of Columbia have increased their cigarette taxes. Still, while the average tax nationwide is $1.11 per pack, it is 33.5 cents per pack in tobacco states.

"A while ago some people would have said there's no way there's going to be any tobacco tax increase in any of these states, but there has been and it's been because of these dire budget needs," Barkley said.

That doesn't mean the taxes have had an easy time passing.

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• China's new tobacco campaign 

China's State Tobacco Monopoly Administration is set to use the redundant labor from the crisis-hit manufacturing industries to expand China's tobacco farming. Up to 1 million workers will be hired.

"We will invest 40 billion yuan ($5.84 billion) for tobacco farmers to increase their acreage by 35 million mu (2.33 million hectares)," said Jiang Chengkang, an official with the national tobacco monopoly.

The weekly newspaper China Business Journal, quoted him as saying that as a reward to the farmers, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration "will increase the purchasing price for their tobacco leaves by 20 percent."

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VIRGINIA: Kaine defends proposal to double cigarette tax 

Kaine estimated that the 30-cent-per-pack boost would generate about $148 million a year for health care, softening cuts he proposed for Medicaid costs.

Republicans say the higher tax could lead to tobacco industry job cuts in Virginia, where Philip Morris runs the world's largest cigarette plant near Richmond.

Kaine says the effect on global tobacco sales would be negligible.

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Corn farmers shifting back to tobacco 

Many corn planters in Northern Luzon are beginning to shift back to tobacco farming, especially after the price of the staple in the world market has dropped to record lows.

"Prices of locally grown yellow corn have plunged, and we have no recourse but to plant again tobacco which prices are more stable," said Victor Vallevor of Barangay Laping, San Juan, Ilocos Sur. "If prices of maize continue to go down, our families will starve." . . .

San Juan Mayor Benjamin Sarmiento said the local government is now assisting farmers who were affected by the slide in the prices of corn. "We have set aside some funds for farmers who want to plant tobacco," he said, adding that a team of agronomists is now in the field showing farmers how to produce quality crops.

Farmers are beginning to restore their curing barns in time for the tobacco harvest next season. . . .

Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc. (PMPMI) managing director Chris Nelson said the farmers' decision to return to tobacco growing reinforces confidence that the future of the tobacco industry in the country is bright.

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• Special Reports - Tobacco Industry: The Search for Tobacco's Future 

Cigarettes have come a long way from being a bit of paper rolled around chopped tobacco leaf. Here's a look at what's inside -- and at what Philip Morris USA researchers are focused on as they delve deep into the science of smoking at their secretive new research and development center in Richmond.

• Tobacco's future 

On Sunday and Monday, Times-Dispatch writers David Ress and John Reid Blackwell examine the future of the tobacco industry that is being explored at the Philip Morris Center for Research and Technology in Richmond. Read the articles Sunday and Monday and join us Monday at noon for a live chat with the writers.

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