Tobacco Growers Demonstrate Burning Resentment

Source from:  Tobacco Reporte 11/24/2008

Thousands of tobacco growers and workers protested in Bruxelles on Wednesday by making a bonfire of tobacco leaves outside the European Council building, according to an euobserver.com report. Organizers of the protest had called a day of action to coincide with a meeting of EU agriculture ministers scheduled to discuss a Common Agricultural Policy 'health check'. About 10,000 farmers and workers from tobacco processing factories were said to have turned out in an attempt to convince the ministers and the EU Commission to prolong tobacco subsidies. As things stand, tobacco subsidies will be fully decoupled from production from 2010, but eight producer countries are asking for the deadline to be moved to 2013 to help alleviate the social impact that decoupling will cause. According to the euobserver report, tobacco growers and process workers from Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy and Poland flew their national flags, chanted and set off sirens the length of the boulevard that separates the Council of Ministers' building from the headquarters of the Commission. 'Without tobacco, there are no jobs - our countryside will become a desert,' read one large red and white home-made banner on sticks. Enditem