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Poisoned by war, Lebanon reaps meagre harvest 

In the field bordering the remnants of his home, Amin Akel Saad points to skeletal tobacco plants pushing up out of land burnt by Israeli bombs.

"Look at this field, Israeli planes dropped 30 bombs on it," said the elderly man. "Seventy years of work destroyed." . . .

Cultivated by generation after generation, tobacco provides a living to some 16,000 families in Lebanon, mainly in the country's south.

The state tobacco company, which maintains a monopoly, "buys 5,200 tonnes a year, at eight dollars per kilo," says Nahla Slim, the firm's communications officer.

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