The Tobacco Crop that Nobody Wants

Source from:  Daniel Pearce SIMCOE REFORMER Wednesday May 14, 2008 05/15/2008

LaSalette farmer who's quitting tobacco can't find anyone interested in his thousands of plants. At the front of Allan Verkindt's farm south of here sits a greenhouse that tells the tale of woe faced by tobacco growers. It is carpeted from one end to the other with tiny tobacco plants - enough to cover 50 acres - their round, green leaves protruding above the soil. The problem is nobody wants them, not even Verkindt. It took a lot of thinking, and convincing from his wife, but the third generation tobacco grower recently decided not to transfer the crop to his fields. For the first time in 75 years, no tobacco will be grown on the family farm. "It took a day or two for it to sink in - you can't make it, the numbers don't crunch," said Verkindt. As the planting season in the Ontario sand plain starts this week, the uncertainty tobacco growers have faced every spring for the last 10 years has changed to a grim reality. With this year's crop size predicted to be less than one-seventh of what it was a decade ago, and with little sign of a government buyout on the horizon, farmers such as Verkindt have finally hit the wall. "I'm on the verge of losing it," Verkindt said of his farm. The story across the tobacco belt is the same, said Celia Stone, a "transitional consultant" who sat down with the Verkindts this spring and helped them come to terms with their situation. "I've had a lot of farmers who were going to grow now say they can't make the numbers work," said Stone, who is advising tobacco growers through a government-funded program. The situation turned, she said, after federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz announced in March there would be no government buyout for growers. Now, she said, farmers are facing a situation in which they can't afford to put in another crop and without government aid are in danger of not being able to make mortgage and debt payments. "For the first time, people are starting to think 'I can't stay on the farm.' Even if they find themselves another job, it's not going to cover their debt loads," she said. "In their hearts, they didn't believe (the announcement from Ritz) was coming. At the moment, they are very numb." A few kilometres west of LaSalette, Neil Van Elsacker tells a slightly different story. He is getting ready to transplant his seedlings to the field and is looking to the future with optimism. "I still think there will be demand for tobacco," said Van Elsacker, also a third generation grower. "I'm going to keep going as long as it's a legal product." The 39-year-old belongs to a group of farmers who welcomes the talk of a big change to come in tobacco growing - a move away from a supply-control system in which the crop is sold at an auction to one in which growers supply cigarette companies. It would mean fewer growers but bigger farms, with tobacco being sold at world prices. He said he envisions a comeback under such a system in which farmers regain part of the market lost to imported leaf. "If the system changes, things will change (for the better)," Van Elsacker said. "Tobacco is a hard cat to kill." Verkindt, meanwhile, has taken a job off the farm and works as a shipper-receiver in a nearby warehouse that stores watermelons. What about his greenhouse filled with seedlings? He said he found another farmer to take them, but the person had to back out after being refused a loan from the bank to plant another crop. It's another hurdle growers face. Because of the uncertainty facing the industry, banks won't lend tobacco farmers the money they need every spring to put another crop in the ground, said Verkindt's wife Margaret. Enditem