Farmers, Congressmen Criticize President's Tobacco Stance

Source from:  Moultrie (GA) Observer By Lori Glenn 05/21/2004

In Colquitt County, the largest tobacco-growing county in Georgia, President Bush's recent thumbs up for the current quota program has some growers giving him the thumbs down. Restricted by a dwindling quota, leaf growers are desperate for a buyout to regain competitive strength against imports. Colquitt County tobacco grower Jimmy Redding is puzzled by Bush's words. "It doesn't make a lot of sense to anyone I've talked with about it," he said. "We've been trying to get something done about this for the past four years. They say, 'we're trying, we're trying, we're trying' and all of a sudden the president comes up and says that he thinks that the quota system is sufficient the way it is." Enditem