Tough Times for Tobacco Farmers

Source from:  By Joe Warmington SIMCOE 05/30/2006

Even tobacco farmers take time out for a cigarette break during the busy spring planting season. "They haven't yet defined whether my tractor constitutes a workplace," Chris VanPaassen jokes. Just give them time. If there is a way for the anti-smoking crusaders -- and the governments they control -- to fine a tobacco grower for smoking on his own land, they will find it. It's pretty humbling to be a tobacco farmer these days -- an unfairly labelled pariah who just happens to help provide billions to governments while barely surviving himself. But there they are, law-abiding farmers growing the filler for this year's cigarette stock, trying to feed their families. For now, at least. Who knows for how much longer. "It's the only job I have ever had," VanPaassen says. "I have been doing it my whole life." Nobody likes to see his life's work go up in smoke -- something happening to a lot of people in this region known for great tobacco. VanPaassen's dad, Peter, farmed this land for decades and still helps out at 83. The younger VanPaassen doubts whether he's going to be able to pass it along to his children -- all non-smokers who have other career ambitions. Times are changing. "We in this region are down to (the harvesting) of 55 million pounds," he says. "The largest crop we had was 250 million." In fact, tobacco farming around Simcoe, Delhi and Tillsonburg was king. The King is dead, or at least on life support. "The whole economy in Norfolk County is based on tobacco," VanPaassen says. "There was $60 million less into this area's economy from last year. Talk to any economist and they will tell you that is going to hurt." Empty storefronts illustrate that hurt -- a direct result of there being 700 tobacco farmers now, compared to a high of 4,000. It's heartbreaking for VanPaassen, vice-chairman of the Ontario Flue-cured Tobacco Growers Marketing Board. He sees his colleagues having difficulty making ends meet. "And this is a legal product we grow," he says. "We are honest, hard-working farmers. Governments across this country collect $10 billion a year off tobacco." In addition, he points out, "the cigarette companies are still making a profit while the tobacco farmers are not." To add insult to injury, farmers spent $100,000 recently to get their tobacco drying kilns up to environmental standards. "Everything we do is regulated by government policy," VanPaassen says. "In some Third World nations that grow tobacco they seem to be able to cut down their rainforests and use child labour and have no rules. We can't compete with that." Cheaper tobacco, in cost and in quality, has had a huge impact on the industry. The writing is on the wall and tobacco growers know it. And since all of Canada's other special interest groups seem to get taxpayers' assistance, soon it will have to be their turn. It's only right. They are not exactly a drain on the system -- having provided billions to government coffers. Maybe it's time for some of that to go back to help the forgotten victims of the anti-smoking age and help them turn the page. "We need an exit plan," VanPaassen says. "We have tabled a proposal." He said both the McGuinty and Harper governments are supportive. The message is simple. "If government policy dictates they don't want us here, then government policy should dictate some compensation to the growers for their investment in the tobacco industry." Elusive 'magic crop' He has a point. But people often ask, 'Why don't they just grow something else?' Easier said than done. "If you find the magic crop, you would be a millionaire," teased Linda Lietaer of the marketing board. "We have been working on it," VanPaassen said. "We have tried peanuts and vegetables but so far we have not found one." The problem is the land itself. "If you look through history before tobacco this was a dust bowl," he said. "The sandy soil is not good for a lot of other crops." Even if it was, a new crop would "disrupt some other agriculture sector." And there is another problem. "A lot of this equipment has no other use," VanPaassen says. "The investment we have made is in tobacco." So you can see there will have to be discussions about what to do about another dying Canadian industry. But for now tobacco farmers are in the middle of planting season. In the spring, tobacco farmers look to the future and wonder what kind of crop this year will bring. But they all know winter is coming and perhaps the end of a long, dusty tobacco road. However, before the industry is extinguished, and since the ban has yet to hit the fields, it's time for another smoke. Enditem