Some Western N.C. Growers Feeling Cheated by Tobacco Buyout

Source from:  Associated PressASHEVILLE, N.C. 01/13/2006

Some North Carolina tobacco farmers claim they have been cheated out of thousands of dollars from the federal government's $10 billion tobacco buyout. "Burley and flue-cured growers got shorted," said Don Smart, a Haywood County farmer who started growing tobacco after graduating from college in 1974. "When all was said and done, we lost about 50 cents a pound." Growers expected to get $3 a pound for their leaf based on how much they grew in 2002, Smart said. Instead, the U.S. Department of Agriculture took an average of 2002, 2003 and 2004, with some allowances for short crops or disasters, he said. Smart estimates he has been shorted about $60,000, and he's considering whether to file a lawsuit against the USDA, which administered the buyout through its Farm Service Agency. Smart's attorney, Dan Caldwell, has already filed a suit on behalf of two Virginia growers. Steve Wescott, a Farm Service Agency spokesman in Washington, D.C., said the USDA does not comment on pending litigation. Undoubtedly, any buyout litigation will be extremely complicated. "The nutshell version (of the lawsuit) is the statute provides that tobacco farmers will be paid $3 per pound, based on their 2002 quota," Caldwell said. But Ted Feitshans, an agricultural attorney at N.C. State University, said the tobacco buyout legislation appears to limit any federal liability. "I've read the (lawsuit) pleadings, and while everybody has a constitutional right to dispute government determinations, those kind of lawsuits are an uphill battle," he said. Tobacco is a huge business in the western North Carolina's mountains. Before the 2004 buyout, about 4,000 farmers would sell their crop in two Asheville auction warehouses, typically generating $8 million to $10 million in sales. Tobacco from the 2005 growing season is still being bought and sold this year. About 380,000 quota holders and 181,000 producers participated in the buyout, which will pay out $951 million a year for 10 years. Tobacco companies and importers are footing the bill for the buyout, which eliminates price supports in place since the 1930s and allows companies to buy tobacco at a cheaper price. Warren Anders, who grows tobacco in Madison County and runs the Planters Tobacco Warehouse auction house in Asheville, said he also is exploring a lawsuit. "I know we got shorted," he said. "I think it cost me about $10,000. It's about fairness, and the money, too." Enditem