Tobacco Farmers Growing Anxious

Source from:  Bowling Green Daily News 06/22/2009

Kentucky's tobacco industry will be able to conduct this growing season as usual, but farmers question what new FDA regulations and a possible Canadian ban on burley will mean for the future. "Contracts are being signed as we speak today," Tommy Bale said of the sales contracts farmers make with tobacco companies, meaning this season won't be impacted. Bale is not only a farmer, but also president of Bale Tobacco Marketing, with a tobacco weigh station in Glasgow with Phillip Morris International and elsewhere. Phillip Morris exports what it purchases in Glasgow to manufacturing plants outside the United States, including to Canada. "From the knowledge that I have, the (Canadian) regulation is overkill," Bale said. "It was good that it originally targeted cigars that had a candy flavor, but now it will eliminate any flavorings at all." That means that Kentucky burley - which is blended with flu cured tobacco - could be banned from the nation. The issue prompted Kentucky's Congressional delegation to write Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. trade representative Ron Kirk about the situation. "It would be difficult to influence the members of the Canadian parliament, but we think that if this legislation is successful it would be in violation of NAFTA," said U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Hopkinsville. Whitfield on Friday said that is why they have written Clinton and Kirk, saying the legislation "unfairly discriminates against U.S. tobacco growers and will destroy family-owned small businesses and jobs. … "If other nations were to follow Canada's lead in banning legitimate products made with burley tobacco, the market for American tobacco could become nonexistent outside the United States. And since 95 percent of burley tobacco is exported, our growers will be put out of business and their communities will be devastated." Warren County tobacco farmer Ronnie Hargett sells all of his 12 acres of tobacco to Universal Leaf, which exports all of the tobacco to Japan. If export markets dry up, he said, it could be devastating to farmers. Meanwhile, he's also watching to see how a new law giving FDA regulation power over tobacco will work. Bale said he doesn't think it means that FDA will be on the farm, telling farmers what to do. But if they are telling cigarette makers what they can and can't do, it could impact the relationship that companies have with farmers. "Tobacco is already highly regulated," Hargett said. "We as a tobacco producer are under such tight control … about pesticides and herbicides we can use, but we allow tobacco to come from foreign countries that have no regulations. I can't find the common sense in that." Whitfield agreed that farmers already have to cope with many different regulations, including those handed down by the Environmental Protection Agency. Whitfield, who fought against FDA intervention, questions if it will give the federal agency the power to ultimately ban certain flavored tobacco products and regulate nicotine levels. He also questions if the FDA has the manpower to handle its newfound duties. For now, it's the FDA's intention to significantly change advertising regulations and ban the use of such terminology as "light" that might imply a particular cigarette is not as harmful as another. Hargett said that seems insulting to a population that already has been bombarded with the messages of how harmful smoking is to your health. "It really does seem to be coming to where the government wants to have control over everything - the auto industry, banking, tobacco," Hargett said. "But it's not good for private industry or agriculture." Whitfield said Democrats have envisioned regulating tobacco under the FDA for years. With President Barack Obama being so popular, he said, they saw an opportunity to push it through. The window also was open for automobile industry intervention, health care reform and cap-and-trade legislation that would force companies to either "cap" or pay for carbons that they produce. "The difficulty we have is that we have people on the East coast and West coast that are really in a struggle with the Midwest, because those states don't have any coal-producing utilities in their boundaries. "The measure would cost Kentuckians about $500 million a year, because 90 percent of our electricity is produced from coal. "We are going through some major transformational issues right now that will have tremendous impact on our country." Enditem