DlB—Lancasttf Fanning, Saturday, June 16,1984
How can Uncle Sam condemn
cigarette smoking through the
Surgeon General’s office and then
pay farmers to grow tobacco?
That’s an often asked question
especially by non-smokers who
would love to see cigarette
smoking banned and tobacco
production outlawed. As a non
smoker I can sympathize with
some of that point of view. But the
implications of banning cigarette
smoking and eliminating tobacco
production are far reaching and
very complex.
Down in North Carolina where
tobacco is the state’s number one
crop, some researchers have
written a publication on the
tobacco production situation.
They’re not even considering
outlawing the crop, just
eliminating the government quotas
and price supports. The authors
Daniel Summer and Julian Alston,
two North Carolina State
University economists, are quick
to point out that they are not ad
vocating this nor are they
predicting it. But they say that the
elimination of government con
trols in the tobacco industry are
within the realm of possibility and
so they are presenting some of the
possible consequences as food for
thought.
First off, they say to eliminate
the tobacco programs would result
in the loss of about 800 million
dollars in annual income to quota
and allotment holders. That’s a
considerable chunk of money
divided among a lot of farmers,
Farm
Talk
Jerry Webb
Delaware Extension
many of them small subsistence
farmers who count on no more
than a fraction of an acre of
tobacco for their livelihood. Bet
ween their government payments
and the sale from their garden size
tobacco patches, they are able to
get by.
The researchers don’t say this
but it’s my belief that many of the
elderly tobacco growers with small
allotments and small incomes
would otherwise be welfare cases.
It’s hard to believe but thousands
of tobacco farmers make a living,
not necessarily a good one, but
they survive, with a little patch of
tobacco and what income they can
generate otherwise on a small hilly
southern farm. Some don’t even
own modern machinery,
preferring instead to stick to the
old ways of a mule and a walking
plow. They grow their tobacco
allotment and a garden, raise
some livestock for their own
comsumption and do what they can
to hold down expenses. In that way
they are able to hang on to a way of
life they have always known and to
stay off the welfare rolls
something they are very proud of.
Sumner and Alston go on to point
out that contrary to popular belief
getting the government out of the
tobacco program wouldn’t cut
down on cigarette consumption. It
might clear the government
conscience not to be paying far
mers to produce something as
deadly as tobacco but the
researchers say that should the
government pull out, the price of
tobacco would fall perhaps 20 or 30
percent, demand would increase 50
to 100 percent and growers would
actually produce more tobacco to
meet the demand. They believe
total revenue earned by the
American tobacco growers would
increase by as much as 25 to 75
percent.
And here is another kick in the
pants, U.S. tobacco exports would
increase by about 100 percent. In
addition, U.S. cigarette
manufacturers would substitute
domestic tobacco for most im
ported leaf other than the oriental
types. In other words getting the
government out of the quota and
support payment business would
free up the industry. The price
would go down, production would
increase and instead of fewer
cigarettes there would actually be
more.
The North Carolina researchers
go on to point out that tobacco
production would shift to some
extent to areas of least cost
production. This might create new
income in some agricultural areas
while robbing from some
traditional tobacco counties.
The elimination of quotas would
mean tobacco farms would con
tinue to expand in size as are some
others kinds of agricultural en
terprises in today’s economy.
The government is into tobacco
production controls the same way
it’s into some other phases of
production agriculture. At some
point in time farmers asked for
help and the government
responded. After so many years it
would be most difficult to get the
government out again. This is true
also in the dairy industry and for
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some other commodities. But the
big difference is the increasing
pressure that is being brought to
bare to stop the government from
supporting a crop that is con
sidered by an expanding number of
people to be unhealthy.
Tobacco is not a food or fiber
crop. People don’t eat it or wear it.
They simply smoke it or chew it or
dip it. And it could be said that it is
an unnecessary crop-that the land
might be put to better uses. Like
producing food for hungry people.
Eliminating government controls
in the tobaccco industry won’t
change that. As long as people
want tobacco there will be a
market and if it’s a profitable
market farmers will grow the
stuff. Look what’s happening with
marijuana another crop Jhat can
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The government may be
pressured into eliminating or at
least drastically reducing its in
volvement in the tobacco program.
That would save some tax dollars,
bring tremendous hardship on
thousands of subsistence level
tobacco growers and make some
people feel better about what the
government is doing toward a
bothersome problem. But that
effort would have little or no im
pact on the amount of tobacco
that’s used in this country.
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. * #