CASH CROP

Source from:  Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News, 2006-05-14 05/17/2006

After years of decline, tobacco farming is on the rise in Pennsylvania. And so are the prices being paid to state farmers. "The prices are better, a lot better," said Abner Glick, an Amish farmer who cultivates a five-acre plot of tobacco near Lititz in Lancaster County. Glick and other Pennsylvania farmers have started growing what is known as burley tobacco. The crop replaces the cheaper, Maryland-style tobacco they had been planting. Two years ago, farmers here would have had to pay a steep penalty to make the switch, and none did. Now, farmers can do what they want. At the end of 2004, the federal government ended a nearly 70-year-old system that restricted the planting of burley and flue-cured tobacco. The recent upsurge of tobacco in Pennsylvania doesn't surprise people who follow the industry. In Pennsylvania, the demand is leading existing tobacco farmers to switch to burley and bringing in new growers, said Pamela Haver. Haver is executive vice president of Trileaf Services in New Holland, Lancaster County. The company runs a receiving station where farmers bring their tobacco to sell to Philip Morris.