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Some aren't making any money, but they see no other way to earn a living
Jump to full article: Florida Times-Union, 2005-04-17
Author: TERRY DICKSON, The Times-Union
Intro: For some farmers, it is just as hard to quit growing tobacco as it is to quit smoking it.
Three generations of Mixons have managed neither in spite of the loss of the federally mandated buyout of the price support and supply control program.
"We're so far in, we've got to stay,'' said 78-year-old Jack Mixon, who used a sharpened peg to poke a hole and transplant his first tobacco 70 years ago. That's about the age of the government-regulated tobacco allotment program that kept farmers hooked with good prices. Now the prices are lower as farmers contract directly with tobacco companies.
Mixon, his son, Donald, 57, and grandson, Phillip, 27, are partners in Mixon Farms in the Waresboro community. Between them they will grow 700,000 pounds under contract.
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