Eastern North Carolina Feeling Tobacco's Woes

Source from:  WBTW News By TASHA OXENDINE 05/13/2004

At age 5 Jimmy Powers started in the family's tobacco farming business by handing tobacco on a stick. Today at age 47 he is carrying on that legacy of three generations. But as powers fertilizes his 2004 crop he's questions whether the family business will survive. Powers says "its definitely unstable and future of tobacco right now is real cloudy. In 1997 we were at our peak well for us and then we started getting big cuts and it kept on since then and its sort of a spiral down right now." In 1997 Powers' family grew 70 acres of tobacco, now that quota has been cut to 35 acres and he's not alone.. Robeson County produces the third highest amount of flue cured tobacco in North Carolina. In the past seven years farmers here have gone from growing more 14,000 acres of tobacco to just over 7,000 acres. Giles Floyd at the farm service agency offers financial assistance to farmers through government programs, but even though the golden leaf greets you at the door, cigarettes aren't allowed here. The old astray is as much of a memory of a different time as the amount of money farmers used to bring in from tobacco. Floyd says "farmers are having a hard time making ends meet but there really doesn't seem to be a crop yet that's going to take the place of tobacco." Three years ago Powers looked beyond his tobacco field to his newest crop. His wife, Mitzi, and her family now operate a strawberry business. Mitzi Powers says "I love people. You don't get out anymore and see people at auctions or nothing so this is my way to see people." She says the first year was tough, but with a little marketing things are picking up. Powers say "They've had trouble finding us. People are finding us now they're coming we're doing pretty good. The first year it was real hot during winter so we had berries everywhere and no customers so its better this year." That's also the hope of many farmers who continue to farm tobacco. Tobacco quota cuts haven't only taken a toll on the amount of tobacco that is being grown in the Eastern Carolinas. Its also driven a lot of farmers out of business. In 1997 there were 835 tobacco growers in Robeson County. This year that number has dropped to 432. Enditem