Leaving an Old Leaf

Source from:  By Matt Zapotosky Post Staff Writer September 2, 2007 09/03/2007

With Tobacco on the Decline and Buyout Money Running Out, Farmers Struggle to Find Alternatives, From Agri-Tourism to Alpacas Even as Southern Maryland farmers stopped growing tobacco, the crop helped pay the bills. After years of declining usage, falling prices and increases in the cost of labor, tobacco had begun to lose its hold. So from 2000 to 2005, farmers were paid $1 per pound not to grow the plant that had served as a cornerstone of agricultural life in the region for generations. The money, which came after tobacco companies settled a massive lawsuit and agreed to compensate states for money they spent to treat smoking-related illnesses, was supposed to buy farmers time to figure out how to survive without their former livelihood. But time and funds are running out. In three years, the buyout program will end, leaving many growers who participated in it without any tobacco-related income. About 85 percent of the region's nearly 1,000 growers took the buyout. No single crop has emerged to take tobacco's place, and the Southern Maryland farmers who didn't retire have had to learn new skills. Days once dominated by harvesting the leafy plant have become days dominated by grapes, greenhouses and corn mazes. "There is no silver bullet," said Donna Sasscer, the agriculture and seafood manager for the St. Mary's County Department of Economic and Community Development. "There is no magic crop that takes the place of tobacco." In 2006, the Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission sent a survey to all 854 buyout participants in Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles, Prince George's and St. Mary's counties to see what new agricultural ventures they had started. The commission received 537 responses to the question "What do you currently grow/raise?" About 62 percent said they were raising grain and livestock. About 12 percent said they were growing alternative crops such as grapes, nursery plants or flowers, or they were in the business of agri-tourism. Hay, vegetables and cattle also were frequently listed. Mechanicsville farmer Joe Wood, who said he took the buyout within the first two years it was offered, could have marked nearly all of the above. The St. Mary's County man whose "entire life was tobacco" now runs a corn maze, greenhouse and produce store and grows apples, peaches, pumpkins and grapes on his 100-acre farm. It's a far cry from how the 64-year-old envisioned the latter part of his life: retired on his tobacco farm with his wife and collecting Social Security payments. "We had to come up with alternatives," he said. "We decided we wouldn't put our eggs all in one nest anymore." Wood estimated that his diversified farm brings in at least five times as much money as his tobacco farm did. The greenhouse itself can make about $120,000 a year, he said. That's not to say the transition to alternative agriculture has been easy, or that Wood is sure he'll be all right without tobacco. He is still working to pay back the roughly $400,000 he spent building and equipping the greenhouse. And the corn maze, now in its fifth year, has been stifled by two hurricanes, two droughts and the 2002 Washington-area sniper attacks that scared schools away from taking field trips there, he said. All the while, Wood has been forced to learn a new set of farming skills. "When we switched over, we knew absolutely nothing about the greenhouse. We didn't know whether we could grow an apple or not," he said. "You get into the technical part, and it's almost all Greek to me." For Charles County farmer Franklin Robinson Jr., 47, growing different crops after the buyout was only half the battle. His family, which had been dabbling in other ventures even before taking the buyout in 2001, decided to transition from tobacco to agri-tourism. Learning how to market the farm to attract visitors was just as difficult as having to plant hay, corn and soybeans, Robinson said. "It's not the money out here that it was in tobacco," he said, estimating that the buyout covered anywhere from 50 to 70 percent of initial losses. "It made a big difference in the income, that's for sure." Jim Moore, 45, transitioned into perhaps the venture most different from harvesting tobacco -- raising alpacas. He didn't begin growing tobacco until after 1998, too late to qualify for the buyout. Still, he thought his four acres of the plant would help pay the mortgage. "We're supplementing the farm with our incomes, hoping the alpacas will turn that around," he said. Alpaca fiber is used to make yarn. "We're slowly getting into different things to try to get the farm to pay for itself," Moore said. That means running a trucking and excavating business and raising more traditional animals, such as pigs and cows. And, Moore said, he hopes to turn his St. Mary's County farm into an agri-tourism hub to help preserve his rural lifestyle. But it's been slow going for the man who thought he could sustain himself on tobacco, just like his father and grandfather. His best sources for expertise on alpacas have been two books and another alpaca farmer nearby. "They were a little bit of a challenge," Moore said of the alpacas. "We never even knew about them." Getting out of tobacco might mean a struggle to learn new skills, but that is an unavoidable problem, said Buddy Hance, Maryland's deputy secretary of agriculture and a former tobacco farmer who was among the first to take the buyout. "You had the opportunity to at least capture some money there," he said. "We didn't see a long-term future in tobacco where we were." But Hance, who grows corn, soybeans and nursery plants, still thinks back to the days when tobacco filled the barn at the end of an arduous harvest. "Nobody honestly thought that it would go away," he said. "Tobacco was a great tradition for Southern Maryland, and sorry to see it go, but as they say, this is progress." Enditem