WHO Policies Anger Tobacco Farmers

Source from:  Korea Times 09/30/2010

A series of new policies of the World Health Organization (WHO) are angering some Asian farmers as the agency is set to ban the use of certain tobaccos widely grown in the world's most populous continent. They plan to gather in several major Asian cities on Wednesday in order to protest the WHO policies, which they say will end up scrapping millions of jobs from tobacco growers for no apparent purpose. The International Tobacco Growers Association (ITGA) came up with a press release Tuesday designed to support the farmers before new guidelines of the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control are presented for adoption at a WHO meeting this November. Should the new guidelines win the endorsement, the use of some tobaccos in cigarette production would be prohibited, causing substantially diminished demand for Burley and Oriental varieties of tobacco, which are widely produced in Asia. "These guidelines would devastate many farmers' livelihoods, forcing millions into a life of poverty and crippling the economies of many developing countries," ITGA head Antonio Abrunhosa said. "This defies logic and common sense. The WHO itself has said that all cigarettes are equally harmful, so why ban just one type of cigarette? Why put hard working farmers out of work for no good reason?" He complained farmers are deprived of the chance to represent their own interests in WHO's decision making processes. "Tobacco farmers will do whatever it takes to make sure their voice is heard even if it means taking to the streets to call on their governments to protect them from this absurd situation," he said. "We have no choice. We are talking about 30 million farmers and their families here, not to mention entire communities that depend on them in some of the poorest parts of the world." The Korea Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association (KTGCA), which has around 7,000 households under its wing, concurs. "Around a half of Korean tobacco farmers would be forced out of their jobs if the new guidelines gain the green light. We cannot accept it and filed complaints with the government earlier this month," KTGCA head Park Young-whan said. "We plan to go all-out to prevent the enactment of the new guidelines, which would not help the smokers or the farmers alike. WHO needs to rethink its policies." Enditem