Writing the President

Source from:  tobaccofarmer.com by Rocky Womack  05/10/2004

Growers urge fellow tobacco producers, quotaholders and agribusinessmen to flood congressional leaders with letters. With no buyout passed as of early February 2004, tobacco growers in Virginia decided to take matters into their own hands. They are urging other growers, quotaholders and agribusinessmen to flood President Bush's office and their congressional leaders with letters expressing why they need a tobacco quota buyout. "If you've written a letter, write another letter," urges Ray Emerson Jr., a tobacco grower in Pittsylvania County, Va. Emerson is one of many growers and quotaholders who have joined forces with other Virginia organizations to ask all flue-cured and burley growers, quotaholders and agribusinessmen to keep the letter-writing campaign going. CAMPAIGN GOAL The purpose of this letter-writing campaign is "to try to get the buyout on the radar screen of the congressional leadership," says Don Anderson, executive director of the Virginia Tobacco Growers Association. "This is an attempt to urge the president to become involved, because we saw what happened in the Medicare debate. The White House was very instrumental in getting that passed. It's very obvious to us that if the White House politically wants something to happen, they can help it to happen." The growers association, along with the Concerned Friends for Tobacco, the Virginia Farm Bureau, and the Virginia Agricultural Growers Association, has asked similar organizations in other states to tell their members that they must write and fax as many letters as possible to the president and to congressional leaders. Of course, Emerson says, he realizes that other state organizations and congressional leaders have urged similar letter-writing campaigns in the past, but they must continue their efforts. Virginia Congressman Virgil Goode says the buyout issue must be kept in the forefront of the minds of the president and congressional leaders. Goode adds that the preferred method of sending letters to the president and congressional leadership is to fax them first, send e-mail second, and send mail to them through the postal service last. Mail delivery at the Capitol has been slowed or delayed since the mail-toxin concerns arose in February. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT Emerson says that people who live in cities and towns dependent on flue-cured and burley tobacco production should also join the letter-writing campaign, because their future in business depends on the stability of farmers and the income of quotaholders, who both will probably end up circulating the buyout money back into the communities where they live. C.D. Bryant III, a Pittsylvania County tobacco grower and executive director of the Concerned Friends for Tobacco, says growers and quotaholders are looking for a fair and equitable buyout of quota. If that comes with some type of reasonable regulation by the Food and Drug Administration, then that is acceptable if that's what it takes for the buyout to gain the support of the president and congressional leaders. He is counting on the president's support, and in his letter to Bush expressed as much. "The 2000 presidential election ignited tremendous support for the Bush campaign," Bryant wrote. The pain and harm that the Clinton Administration administered on our livelihood has been irreparable. I feel that this one issue [the buyout] can create voter fallout within the strong Republican communities if not addressed. This type of fallout could reach all levels in the election that will take place on Nov. 4, 2004." BEING COMPETITIVE Emerson knows firsthand what a buyout can do for him. In order for him to compete on the world market, he needs to take leasing costs out of his equation. Emerson rents 95 percent of his tobacco pounds. His upfront costs skyrocket before he even sets a transplant in the ground. "We've got to get the lease cost out of tobacco to be competitive on the world market," Emerson says, "but we can't be competitive with the rising cost of production. There are a lot of growers at the age of retirement right now. They're holding on for the buyout. If we could get the buyout and these people who have worked hard all their lives could retire with dignity and if some of the growers who wanted to get out could get out with dignity, there would be enough tobacco for the younger growers to stay in and have a substantial size crop and be able to make a profit growing a larger amount of tobacco." Dropping prices on the market too drastically after a buyout isn't the answer either, he says. "If we take the total cost of quota out of the price structure and drop the total price by 50 cents, then we're still in the same boat," Emerson says. "The [tobacco] companies and the growers have got to reach a compromise to increase some net profit per pound in growing tobacco, and yet try to lower our prices to compete on the world market." Emerson believes the ideal price average after a buyout would be $1.55 to $1.60 per pound. If no buyout occurs in 2004, he says, then something must be done to help growers become more competitive on the world market and still earn a profit. Modification of the current program might be one answer, but would modification make enough of a difference to help growers be competitive again? "There's so much competition for the quota now, there's really no negotiating room," Emerson says. "If we lower the price of tobacco, you still won't see the price of quota drop that much with these quota levels. If you drop the price of tobacco and the quota shoots back up, then the grower has some leverage. Right now at this level, we have no leverage at all in trying to negotiate a lower quota rent price." 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