Tobacco Farmers Transitioned to … Tobacco

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 05/30/2011

Some Ontario tobacco farmers who received an estimated $50 million in federal money to stop growing the crop are still involved in the business three years later, according to a story by Hank Daniszewski for the Simcoe Reformer, quoting a health watchdog. Ottawa-based Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada (PSFC) said that while the $286 million Tobacco Transition Program, announced in 2008, had been put forward as a program aimed at winding down the tobacco production industry in Canada, it had the hidden objective of ensuring the improved viability of remaining and future tobacco producers. PSFC said it had documents suggesting that more than $50 million went to about 200 tobacco producers still involved in the industry. Farmers who took the buyout for their quota were not allowed to be licensed by the new system that was brought in to replace quotas and under which tobacco is grown under contract with manufacturers. But there was nothing to stop these farmers striking deals with licensees, who could be friends or relatives, and, since these farmers had tobacco-growing experience, it was always likely that this would happen. Enditem