Wisconsin Farmers Testing Burley Tobacco

Source from:  August 21, 2006 STOUGHTON, Wis. channel3000.com 08/22/2006

Lifting Production, Price Controls Is Allowing Farmers To Grow More Varieties Farmer David Olson of Stoughton peered over his raspberry patch at a 16-acre plot of tobacco on his farm and saw a healthy crop ready for harvest in a few weeks. There could be bigger yields on the way thanks to expanded opportunities to farmers in Wisconsin from companies like Philip Morris. Olson and other local farmers have started tinkering with growing burley, the primary type of tobacco in cigarettes, along with the typical two types of Wisconsin tobaccos. Farmers nationwide have significantly cut back growing burley when Congress passed the $10 billion tobacco buyout in 2004. That ended the industry's Depression-era production and price controls and replaced them with a free-market system, allowing farmers like Olson to tinker with growing new tobacco. Tobacco has a long history in Wisconsin, and Edgerton was once known as the "Tobacco Capital of the World" and boasted more than 50 tobacco warehouses that lined the main streets. Enditem