US: Tobacco Production Growing in Lee County

Source from:  The Sanford Herald 03/09/2016

Despite decreasing cigarette use nationally, Lee County is producing more tobacco now than it did a decade ago, according to a local specialist, and production may continue to grow as scientists discover new uses for the plant.

Zachary Taylor, the Lee County Cooperative Extension's agriculture and livestock extension agent, focused on tobacco, Lee County's top-grossing field crop, during a presentation on the state of local agriculture Monday at the Sanford Area Chamber of Commerce's public policy luncheon at The Flame Steakhouse.

"Over 60 percent of the tobacco grown in U.S. markets is exported and are going to Asia," Taylor said.

After the luncheon, he told The Herald that North Carolina grows the highest quality tobacco in the world.

As a result, Taylor said, fewer farmers are growing more pounds of tobacco to keep up with international demand despite diminishing use domestically.

According to Taylor, there were 104 tobacco farms in Lee County in 1997 growing more than 7.6 million pounds of tobacco on nearly 3,500 acres, and in 2002, Taylor said there was "a big drop in production" as 64 farms grew around 3.7 million pounds on 1,600 acres.

But in 2007, the industry began to grow again with 33 farms growing almost 5 million pounds. By 2012, 20 farms were producing more than 6 million pounds. This year, fewer than 15 farms were growing tobacco on less than 2,000 acres with production expected to be high.

As the wealth of foreign nations such as China grows, he said, citizens have more discretionary income to spend on premium, American cigarettes.

"They go 'This American tobacco, this tastes a little better. I'll spend more on these premium cigarettes,'" Taylor said.

But this year, the strength of the U.S. dollar and a market surplus may make selling the crop internationally less profitable, Taylor told the audience, adding that electronic cigarettes, to which many smokers have switched in recent years, have had a noticeable but negligible effect on the state's tobacco demand.

But according to Taylor, cigarettes aren't the only use for tobacco.

"Tobacco has an easy genome to work on in a lab," Taylor said. "It's easy to replicate."

As a result, scientists are looking to use bioengineered tobacco to develop a number of pharmaceuticals from flu vaccines, antibodies for HIV and AIDS patients and drugs which target diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.

The U.S. Department of Defense also can use tobacco to protect against chemical weapons like sarin gas, and it can be used to make Herpacin, a breast cancer treatment drug scheduled to reach the market in 2018 at $100 a dose. Some of the current drugs used for breast cancer treatment costs $1,000 a dose.

Taylor also explained that an acre of tobacco can produce three times as much ethanol as an acre of corn and three times as much oil as an acre of soybeans, which could increase its demand in the coming years.

But with current production, Lee County's agriculture industry is already generating a lot of revenue, Taylor said.

"We are diverse. We have a good selection in Lee County," he said. "We have a little bit of everything."

From sweet potatoes, poultry, Christmas trees and cotton to strawberries, tomatoes, nursery flowers and bell peppers, North Carolina grows many of the state's most popular crops.

All together, Taylor said, the jobs, products and businesses created by agriculture and agribusiness in Lee County allows $2.8 billion more to circulate in the local economy and creates 4,000 jobs.

The Chamber of Commerce's next public policy luncheon will be held at 11:45 a.m. on April 4 at The Flame Steakhouse on Carbonton Road. The topic for the luncheon has not yet been set. Enditem