Tobacco.org

Scottsville legislator goes to bat for burley  

A southcentral Kentucky lawmaker hopes that Kentucky burley is given its due when future trade agreements are negotiated between the United States and foreign countries.

"There is some discussion of excluding tobacco from the agreements," said state Rep. Wilson Stone, D-Scottsville.

On Tuesday, Stone filed a nonbinding House resolution that says Kentucky farmers need to have the same access to trade as other agriculture commodities. The measure is expected to be voted on soon. Sen. Paul Hornback, R-Shelbyville, filed the same resolution in the state Senate, signaling bipartisan support for the issue.

Stone said there have been rumors that President Barack Obama's administration wants to take tobacco out of the equation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, a regional trade agreement between the U.S., Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Those negotiations are expected to finish this summer.

"It's not so much a price issue, because world markets determine that, but one of access," Stone said. "If you take tobacco out of those agreements, it will dearly hurt Kentucky and Kentucky's farmers,"

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RUZVIDZO: The leaf couldn’t be more golden! 

Reports that Zimbabwe's tobacco could be in higher demand internationally bring good news to consolidate the growth that the sector has begun to enjoy in the last few years. That production in Brazil and USA is subdued due to floods this year means that many buyers will look up to Zimbabwe to fill the gap. This naturally translates into higher prices as the forces of supply and demand come into play. We certainly hope that output is as high as anticipated.

Last year's average of US$3,36 for flue-cured tobacco is certainly set to be surpassed.

What a windfall! The golden leaf couldn't be more golden. The many growers that have decided to join this sector are certainly not regretting. The farmers should be smiling that their hard work will certainly be worth the while.

Brazil's production is believed to be down by 150 million while USA has had to revise its figures downwards by 50 million. Zimbabwe is expected to sell at least 150 million kg this year. The tobacco sector, fraught with many challenges that adversely affected production figures, should use this season as an opportunity to consolidate the growth experienced in the last two seasons. . . .

China, one of this country's biggest clients, will be seeking to buy more than the 40 million kg it imported last year. Given all the positives around tobacco new growers will need assistance in terms of financial discipline if they intend to stay in the sector for a long time.

Reports of impulse buying and farmers being cheated of their hard-earned cash would be a sad way of seeing their sweat going down the drain.

We applaud the Zimbabwe Farmers' Union for taking the initiative to encourage farmers to use plastic money which would come in handy at a time when cash sources are constricted. For now we will stand on TIMB

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All licensed tobacco auction floors in Harare 

TOBACCO growers will sell their crop at auction floors in Harare only this year because all firms that applied for licences to operate in other provinces failed to meet stipulated standards. Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board chairperson, Mrs Monica Chinamasa, yesterday said companies out of Harare could not meet the requirements although some had already put up structures.

She said the decentralisation of tobacco auction floors had now entered the second phase.

She said the first phase of decentralisation was done by TIMB, which decentralised its offices to provinces to enable farmers to book and register nearer to their farms.

"It is a long process, which cannot be completed in a single season.

"This season some companies in Karoi and Mvurwi applied for licences but could not meet the standards required to operate auction floors," she said.

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Govt happy with tobacco auction floors’ preps 

Government is satisfied with the state of preparedness of auction floors ahead of the start of the 2012 tobacco-selling season on Wednesday next week. Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Mr Seiso Moyo yesterday said he was impressed after touring four auction floors that were licensed to operate this season.

Four auction floors namely Tobacco Sales Floor Limited, Boka Tobacco Auction Floor, Millennium Tobacco Floors and Premier Tobacco Auction Floor will operate during the 2012 tobacco-selling season.

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Tobacco Capitalism: Growers, Migrant Workers, and the Changing Face of a Global Industry 

Tobacco Capitalism tells the story of the people who live and work on U.S. tobacco farms at a time when the global tobacco industry is undergoing profound changes. Against the backdrop of the antitobacco movement, the globalization and industrialization of agriculture, and intense debates over immigration, Peter Benson draws on years of field research to examine the moral and financial struggles of growers, the difficult conditions that affect Mexican migrant workers, and the complex politics of citizenship and economic decline in communities dependent on this most harmful commodity.

Benson tracks the development of tobacco farming since the plantation slavery period and the formation of a powerful tobacco industry presence in North Carolina. In recent decades, tobacco companies that sent farms into crisis by aggressively switching to cheaper foreign leaf have coached growers to blame the state, public health, and aggrieved racial minorities for financial hardship and feelings of vilification. Economic globalization has exacerbated social and racial tensions in North Carolina, but the corporations that benefit have rarely been considered a key cause of harm and instability, and have now adopted social-responsibility platforms to elide liability for smoking disease. Parsing the nuances of history, power, and politics in rural America, Benson explores the cultural and ethical ambiguities of tobacco farming and offers concrete recommendations for the tobacco-control movement in the United States and worldwide.

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• New book examines public health, cultural, off-shoring impact of U.S. tobacco industry  

What has been neglected is research on tobacco production in the United States, and specifically on the people who work and live in the rural, traditional tobacco-growing areas of North Carolina.

Benson’s new book, Tobacco Capitalism (Princeton University Press, 2011), examines the impact of the transformation of the tobacco industry on farmers, workers and the American public. It reveals public health threats, the impact of off-shoring, and the immigration issues related to tobacco production.

The book also examines the new public relations strategies of the tobacco industry and its recent corporate social responsibility “makeover”.

“There are whole groups of people — farmers and farm workers — in our society who dedicate themselves to growing a crop that is vilified,” says Benson, assistant professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences.

“But this book is not just about good people doing a bad thing. What I found was, in going to North Carolina and going to these farms, that the story becomes much more complex.”

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‘Tobacco exports to hit 140m kg’ 

Zimbabwean tobacco this year is likely to be sold at first grade rate worldwide, Tobacco Industry Marketing Board CEO Andrew Matibiri told Parliament yesterday.

Matibiri appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Lands, Water and Resettlement chaired by Chikomba Central MP, Moses Jiri, to give oral evidence on the tobacco marketing season opening next week.

“In as far as the worldwide situation is concerned, Zimbabwean tobacco is likely to be sold at a premium,” said Matibiri, adding that around 140 million kg of the “golden leaf” were likely to be exported this year.

“This is due to the fact that countries like Brazil were affected severely by floods four weeks ago and tobacco production will be down by 150 million kg,” he said.

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Ky. legislators urge president to include burley tobacco in Pacific trade agreement 

Legislators have drafted a bipartisan resolution urging the Obama Administration to include burley tobacco in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.

On Tuesday, Rep. Wilson Stone, a Democrat from Scottsville, and Sen. Paul Hornback, a Republican from Shelbyville, introduced their resolution about the agreement being negotiated by the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

Stone said farmers are worried the administration in Washington will "bow to the pressure of anti-tobacco advocates in Congress" by excluding tobacco.

Almost all of the burley tobacco grown in the United States is grown for export, Wilson said, and "Kentucky grows the highest quality of burley in the world."

Stone said he is concerned that opponents in Congress and the administration want to use the trade agreement as a way to "drive a nail in the coffin" of the tobacco industry.

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Zimbabwe expects 15% rise in tobacco output 

Zimbabwe's tobacco output is expected to increase by nearly 15 percent this year to reach 150,000 tonnes, an official said on Tuesday, predicting good returns for farmers.

"The target for this year is 150 million kilogrammes," Monica Chinamasa, chairwoman of the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board told lawmakers ahead of the start of the tobacco selling season next week.

The board's chief executive Andrew Matibiri said farmers would benefit from the slump in output in Brazil and the United States due to floods, with the market about 5-10 percent short of tobacco.

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• Kentucky Lawmakers Urge Inclusion of Tobacco in Pacific Trade Agreement 

Kentucky lawmakers are protesting a current trade agreement that they say would hurt tobacco.

The U.S. is currently negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, which includes countries like New Zealand, Peru and Vietnam. But the lawmakers say the proposal excludes tobacco protections.

At a news conference in Frankfort today, Democratic and Republican lawmakers urged President Barack Obama to add provisions for tobacco to the agreement.

Republican Agriculture Commissioner James Comer says including the crop will help Kentucky farmers.

“What we have to be able to do with tobacco is the same thing we’re doing with corn and beef cattle and horses in Kentucky,” Comer says. “We have to grow our export market. In order to do that we have to make sure tobacco is treated fairly along with every other crop in the United States in trade agreements.”

A letter supporting the inclusion of tobacco has been signed by all eight members of Kentucky’s federal delegation.

State Representative Wilson Stone has sponsored a resolution defending tobacco. He says the crop should be treated as an asset in negotiations over the trade agreement.

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Relief on way for tobacco growers  

Ontario tobacco growers caught with lingering financing problems in the collapse of buyers for their 2010 harvest contracts now can get some relief, allowing them to plant a crop this year.

Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett has written to Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Ted McMeekin about the problems experienced by 66 growers in his riding who suffered from the financial problems of Tillsonburg- based True Blend.

The company had contracted to buy all their 2010 harvest but could not pay after the first loads were delivered, and the contracts fell into default. Most of the affected growers are in Norfolk County.

There also were problems with a surety bond that was supposed to back the product that year. "These farmers were assured that True Blend was a stable company and that a surety bond was in place and would be immediately payable if the company could not fulfill its end of the contract," Barrett wrote.

Consequently, the growers became vulnerable to penalty in attempts to get backing from Agricorp to grow future crops, and assistance in the AgriStability program.

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Universal Corporation Announces Conference Call  

Universal Corporation (NYSE: UVV) will webcast its conference call on February 7, 2012, following the release of its results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2012 after market close on that date. The conference call will begin at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time and will be hosted by Karen M. L. Whelan, Vice President and Treasurer.

A live webcast of the conference call will be available online on a listen-only basis at www.universalcorp.com. A replay of the webcast conference call will be available at that site until May 7, 2012. A taped replay of the call will also be available from 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on February 7th until February 28, 2012, at (855) 859-2056. The telephone replay identification number is 49266424.

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Fear as tobacco company shuts offices  

Continental Tobacco Uganda Ltd offices in Arua have closed amid allegations that the company owes farmers at least Shs5 billion. According to Mr Caleb Kamure, a resident of Arua, “the money is payment for tobacco supplied by farmers in the two regions to the tobacco company from last year.”

He explained that last year, Continental offered high prices for tobacco as compared to its competitors, British American Tobacco and Leaf & Commodities (U) Ltd.

Duped? “This lured very many farmers into selling their tobacco to the Kenya-headquartered company. But after paying a very small amount of what they owed the farmers, the company failed to pay the balance,” Mr Kamure said.

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EDITORIAL: Avoid last season’s chaos at tobacco auction floors 

The 2012 tobacco selling season starts on February 15 with indications that a bigger crop volume will be auctioned at the sales floors this season. The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board, which is the regulatory authority, forecasts that over 150 million kg of flue-cured tobacco will be sold against 131 million kg sold last season. Indeed, an increase by over 20 million kg calls for celebration given that production had tumbled to less than 100 million kg a few years ago, largely because farmers were still settling at their new farms following the land reform. While we are excited about the growth in production, we remain cautious about the ability of the auction floors to handle the volume. The chaos that marked last season's selling period is still fresh in the memories of many people. . . .

Farmer organisations should also play a role in educating farmers on preparing for the auction floors, in terms of grading, baling, quality and pricing so that farmers do not always believe buyers are only there to rip them off.

Let us do everything possible that encourages tobacco production. Farmers and contractors do their part to grow the crop and likewise we would expect the buyers, TIMB and the auction floors to do everything possible to encourage the continued production of tobacco.

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• Can tobacco be used to cure cancer?  

In a Toronto laboratory, an experiment on mice is seeking to answer a question that could turn conventional wisdom on its head: Can tobacco cure cancer?

The plant best known for its negative health effects has been genetically engineered to create a drug comparable to Herceptin that could one day be used to treat highly aggressive breast cancers at a lower cost.

That development is part of a plant-based trend in pharmaceuticals. It is based on the belief that proteins can be made faster, cheaper and easier, allowing patients in remote parts of the world to gain access to medicines once unaffordable. And it's not just tobacco. Plants being tested as biological drugs sound like they belong not in the laboratory but in the vegetable section at the health-food store: carrots for Gaucher's disease, duckweed - those green flecks on top of ponds - to treat hepatitis C, and safflower to make insulin.

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