Tobacco Farms Shrinking Their Output

Source from:  By Brandon Larrabee, The Times-Union 7/4/2008 07/07/2008

THE CAUSE It has more to do with the rising costs of production than the indoor smoking ban. THE RESULT Advocates are now pushing the state to properly fund anti-smoking programs. ATLANTA - Lamar DeLoach used to be the biggest tobacco farmer in America. He cultivated 1,000 acres of tobacco a decade ago at his farm in Candler, Evans and Bulloch counties. Now, he's down to 100 acres of tobacco. More and more, DeLoach is moving toward crops like peanuts - a trend the former president of the Tobacco Growers Association of Georgia said is prevalent. "That, here again, is more due to economics than it is smoking bans or prices or whatever," DeLoach said. "If the economics were still there, I'd still be growing a large amount of tobacco." But Georgia farmers' move away from tobacco production to other crops - documented by a steady decrease in acreage over the last several years - has little to do with the 3-year-old law prohibiting smoking in public places, say experts and cigarette opponents. The lack of collateral damage to farmers is all the reason to more vigorously wage a war against smoking, supporters of tougher measures argue. The state's spending on programs aimed at preventing smoking or encouraging smokers to quit is a sliver of what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends, even as 10,000 Georgians die from smoking every year and the state spends an estimated $1.8 billion annually on tobacco-related health-care costs. Three years of smoking ban It has been just three years since anti-smoking groups celebrated their landmark victory in Georgia politics: Gov. Sonny Perdue's reluctant signing of Senate Bill 90, a measure banning indoor smoking in most public places except bars and restaurants that do not serve minors and small businesses with fewer than 10 employees. Since the bill went into effect July 1, 2005, Sen. Don Thomas said he's heard nothing but praise from his constituents. "They really enjoy the freedom from second-hand smoke," said Thomas, R-Dalton, who worked tirelessly to pass the smoking ban. "I don't see anybody really that's unhappy with it. ... I've even had patients or acquaintances come up to me and say they were smokers, and they thank me for that legislation because it encouraged them to quit smoking, and now they're nonsmokers." Though some smokers chafe at having to step into the cold or rain to light up outside some restaurants, anti-smoking advocates would just as soon make them do so at every public, enclosed space in the state. Even some businesses not forced to comply with the state ban do so anyway, said Eric Bailey, grass-roots advocacy manager for the American Cancer Society. But he said that could change quickly. "In the long term, I think that the unintended consequence of not going back and improving upon [the ban] is that trends only last so long," he said. "And, eventually, if you don't have a law in place that mandates 100 percent smoke-free air, there will be new establishments that come up and decide that the trend is kind of old, and they're going to be a smoking establishment. And once again, public health will be threatened." Anti-smoking funds at issue Anti-smoking advocates are also frustrated that the state is spending a minute portion of the funding they believe should be set aside for smoking prevention and cessation programs. The CDC recommends that Georgia spend $116.5 million each year on those programs, compared to the $248.0 million it received in tobacco tax revenue in the 2005-06 spending year and the $143.2 million it received as the latest installment of a decade-old legal settlement with cigarette companies. In the fiscal year that ended June 30, the state spent $2.2 million on those programs, according to a report by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Even under a smaller CDC recommendation in place at the time, Georgia was scheduled to spend just 5.3 percent of that figure and ranked 48th among the 50 states and Washington, D.C. "That is really unacceptable," Bailey said. The lack of funding is part of what prompted Rep. Mark Butler, R-Carrollton, to propose a measure in the last legislative session to set up the Tobacco Prevention Master Settlement Agreement Oversight Committee, a panel of lawmakers, public-health advocates and medical experts to review the spending on the legal payments and suggest changes. "You would think that we would keep on a lot more stern track when it came to cessation spending on different programs, to help people quit smoking or to provide information for programs to help people quit smoking, and also for use on health-care concerns," he said. The measure passed both the House and Senate by overwhelming margins, but Perdue vetoed the bill, saying Georgians had plenty of opportunities to protest if they didn't like the way the settlement funds were being used. "It is my view that the Advisory Committee duplicates the duties of the executive and the legislative branches in representing the voices of Georgians. ... I am confident that my administration and the General Assembly remain open to input from all Georgians on this issue," Perdue wrote in the veto message. On the farm Meanwhile, few seem to think that tobacco farmers are hurt much by the state's efforts, however robust, to keep people from lighting up. Many farmers initially benefited from the legal settlement that also provided a transitional fund to help them ease into other crops, and then a buyout of tobacco quotas approved by Congress. And, Thomas said, there are always options for tobacco farmers. "Their farmland should really be put to productive use for something that is healthy rather than something that kills people," he said. That's happening, DeLoach said, but not because of changes in the law. Rather, it's because energy and fertilizer prices are beginning to make tobacco less profitable when compared to food products, whose value is soaring. "Tobacco is not as attractive as it used to be in Georgia because of commodity prices in general," DeLoach said. The decline has been steep over the last decade. In 1998, Georgia farmers harvested tobacco on an estimated 41,000 acres, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This year, they are expected to harvest about 16,000 acres. A slight uptick in 2006 and 2007 has been erased, dropping the acreage back down to 2005 levels. And so DeLoach and others in Georgia will continue to plow their fields for different crops - an option farmers in other states might not have. "We have the ability to grow everything from vegetables to commodities to tobacco to fruits and nuts and berries and that kind of stuff," DeLoach said. "So our flexibility is a lot different than a guy in the Midwest part of our country or the desert in California or in south Florida." Enditem