Posted on 04/02/2009 3:47:57 PM PDT by Drango
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — For more than a century, the Sharp family of eastern North Carolina has grown tobacco, nicknamed the "golden leaf" for reasons that went beyond the cured plant's rich color.
`snip
"There's nothing else we're doing that comes even close to yielding the profits that tobacco yields."
For generations, tobacco growers were a protected class, as lawmakers across the South defended the golden leaf as stridently as politicians from Michigan and New York do automakers and Wall Street. It remains a huge business: The tobacco crop in North Carolina alone, where farmers produce nearly half the value of the entire U.S. output, was worth $686 million last year.
But lawmakers don't look out for Big Tobacco as they once did. In 2004, Congress eliminated a tobacco quota and price support system that dated to the Depression. ~snip In Raleigh, where there were spittoons North Carolina General Assembly until the mid-1980s and a smoky haze in the halls until a few years ago, House members voted this week in favor of a limited ban on public smoking. ~snip
It's a blow felt in the sandy soil fields of eastern North Carolina that are just OK for sweet potatoes, cotton, soybeans, but fantastic for tobacco. Production dropped by 27 percent to roughly 645 million pounds in 2005, the year after the quota system came to an end, but has slowly recovered in the past few years, boosted by exports and new marketing tactics.
~snip
Growers are also looking to sell their crop overseas, and a group called the U.S. Tobacco Cooperative that buys tobacco from 3,500 growers in five Southeast states has a unit that exports American leaf to China.
~snip
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Damn we better start handing free smokes out to illegal immigrant children. Surely there must be a way to get nicotine into baby bottles.
He should have added teenage smoking to his list. But here on FR, smoking is celebrated and those who support teenagers are mocked as liberals. Sorry I don't buy it.
I smoke outside my home. In private. Politely. Where it is none of your damn business.
There is nothing worse on this Earth than the smug opinion of someone who believes they have the majority on their side.
But why would you want more money to go to the government? That doesn't make sense.....
Nope, two kids...grown ups now..and don't smoke.
Someone is. 90% of all smokers start as teenagers.
Adults don’t smoke. Teenagers smoke and then become adults after it’s way too late to quit.
No, it's defended.
Have you ever thought teenagers might make their own decision to smoke, use drugs, drink alcohol, drive to fast, quit school or whatever they damm well please and parents can't stop them?
Some even go hunting with Dad and shoot a deer.You probably hate guns too, as guns jump up and kill people. People like you wanting to control every-ones life make me puke. Live your life as you please and extend that privilege to all other people.
Your kind are responsible for the death of tens of millions.
Why you would advertise your willing association with such evil is beyond the comprehension of decent people everywhere.
Try not to hyperventilate....the smoking wars are over.
That's MY wallet that's being made smaller by this draconian tax.
On another note, teens get addicted to many substances or behaviors. One of the behaviour they get addicted to is minding other people's business. If the shoe fits, wear it!
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves." William Pitt in the House of Commons November 18, 1783
Bumping all your all’s comments!
You're a member of Free Republic for what reason, again?
I might have to adopt your method there Cripplecreek. I find myself wasting so much time working on the ones who are lying and saying they ain’t addicted just so’s I give them free cigarettes. You’re right bright there my friend.
P.S. I’m so glad you found your way to this thread. I need you and null and void here and we can have a field day!!
Freedom is freedom.
No ma'am, they are just beginning!
On the other hand I want my freakin reparations from the indians who addicted my teenage forefathers.
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