Farmers Urged to Keep Pressure Building for Tobacco Buyout

Source from:  By ESTES THOMPSON Associated Press Writer 06/14/2004

Tobacco farmers must keep the pressure on elected representatives and the White House to have any hope of winning a tobacco quota buyout from Congress, speakers told a flue-cured marketing cooperative Friday. Farmers have said a buyout of the quota - essentially a federal license to grow and sell tobacco under the current price support system - is needed so the price of American tobacco will drop and be competitive on the world market. A buyout totaling $9.6 billion for farmers, as well as nonfarmers who own quota allotments and rent them to others to cultivate, was attached to a tax bill last week in the U.S. House. Rep. Bob Etheridge, D-N.C., said progress toward passing a buyout has come a long way but the provision could die quickly unless normally conservative farmers continue making noise. He said the buyout could be considered next week. "There is no guarantee that this bill will pass the U.S. House of Representatives," Etheridge told the annual meeting of the Flue-Cured Tobacco Cooperative Stabilization Corp., a five-state organization that administers the price support system. Etheridge warned that a 30 percent cut in the quota is being forecast for the 2005 growing season, on top of cuts that already have reduced the amount of tobacco grown by more than half since 1997. A buyout is the only way to keep catastrophe from striking the farm community, the congressman said. Etheridge praised Democratic president candidate John Kerry for public support of a buyout and said it helped loosen President Bush's opposition to it. Etheridge also warned that a buyout bill must be linked to a law giving the federal Food and Drug Administration regulatory control over tobacco, or else the buyout likely will not pass the Senate. As he waited for a barbecue lunch after the meeting, Granville County farmer Don Watkins said he wants a buyout because it will allow him to grow more tobacco than he can under the quota system and sell it at lower prices. His son, Landon Watkins, said he views FDA regulation of tobacco as a plus, because it would tell customers their tobacco is clean. "People are going to smoke," Don Watkins said. "You may as well sell them the best, safest product you can." Democratic Senate candidate Erskine Bowles drew applause from some farmers as he urged them to stay committed to the buyout. He also said the farmers and their supporters must fight misconceptions about the buyout from people in other states. "A quota buyout is not just a matter of fairness; it is a matter of survival," he said. Bowles also said accepting FDA regulation may be the only way to get a buyout through Congress. A former White House chief of staff under President Clinton, Bowles said he is encouraged that the Bush administration has not given any signals it would veto a buyout. Though Bowles and his likely opponent, Republican U.S. Rep. Richard Burr, have sparred over the tobacco buyout, Bowles did not mention Burr at all during his speech. Burr, who is from Winston-Salem, the hometown of Reynolds Tobacco Co., has opposed FDA regulation in the past but now says he would accept it to get a buyout passed. Burr and Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole were both invited to address the farmers, but were not able to attend because they were at the President Reagan's funeral in Washington. The cooperative represents flue-cured tobacco growers in Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Enditem