Tobacco Companies

For Isaac Haggard, who has been raising tobacco since the days they hauled the leaf to market on horse-drawn wagons, the crop now growing on his small Casey County farm could very well be his last. It's not that Haggard, 69, has grown too old and joint-weary to fool with the physical labor needed to raise burley. To the contrary, he loves the crop and all the care and work that goes into it, and would like to keep tending it as long as he is able. It's just that with the latest tobacco buyout proposal making it closer to reality than any of the previous efforts, he knows this could be the last time tobacco is planted on his 27-acre farm along the Green River in Middleburg.

Dear Editor, What bothers me most about Bob Martin's recent editorial is that he makes many claims without giving his sources. Without knowing his sources, we cannot judge the merit of his claims. I have spent countless hours investigating the sources of information used by people who are skeptics of global warming. All too often, the sources are not credible. Often they are not even scientists, or they are people funded by oil companies. Or they have a history of supporting business against health concerns (such as supporting tobacco companies)

Last Thursday, the Lincoln County School Board spent more time on a landscaping issue than it did on the alarmingly prevalent use of "spit" tobacco at Lincoln County High School. Without question or comment, the board members approved a recommendation from the high school's site-based council that students who violate the district's tobacco policy be given an alternative to suspension from school. In an understatement, Eva Stone, the district's nurse practitioner, told the board, "We've had quite a few suspensions for tobacco-related offenses.

Editor's note: This is the fifth and final story in a five-part series on the transition area migrant Hispanic laborers are making from their lives in Mexico to their new lives in the United States. By HERB BROCK herb@amnews.com Boyle County farmer Jerry Rankin has employed an average of 10 migrant Hispanic laborers a year for the last decade. Two of his favorites were a brother and sister in their 20s from Veracruz, Mexico. "They were very hard workers and very good young people," said Rankin, owner of a tobacco and cattle farm on Perryville Road.

In a big white warehouse just south of the Centre College campus, there are 1 million pounds of tobacco waiting to be sold. It could be part of one of the best tobacco crops in decades, but one warehouse owner is concerned a flooded tobacco market could be bad news for farmers. Jerry Rankin, owner of Farmers Tobacco Warehouse in Danville, said the amount of tobacco on the open market this year is abnormally high ? he estimates as much as 25 million pounds of the crop is available for anyone to purchase.

After years of talk and false starts, the tobacco quota buyout was finally enacted by Congress on Monday. Government support of tobacco prices has officially ended and farmers will begin receiving buyout payments in the 2005 fiscal year and continue getting checks through 2014. This means farmers will be paid in 10 equal installments once a year, over the next 10 years. The buyout does include provisions that allow lump sum or accelerated payments which will be handled through a financial institution, though details have not yet been completely outlined.

A warehousing operation where hundreds of farmers from throughout the region bring their crop to sell to the country's largest tobacco companies is moving from Lebanon to Danville later this year. Ken Garcia, a spokesman for Philip Morris USA, confirmed that the receiving station is being planned for a building on South Danville Bypass for the 2011 buying season. Philip Morris USA, which makes cigarette brands like Marlboro and Virginia Slims, contracts with burley tobacco growers who bring their crop to the receiving station, one of three the company will operate in the state this year.

Editor's Note: This is first story in five-part series on Mexican and Hispanic laborers who have migrated to this area. It was the mid 1990s and area tobacco farmers were in the mood to both celebrate and commiserate with each other. On the one hand, tobacco production and prices were setting records. On the other hand, farmers were having a hard time finding hired help to give them a hand in producing the crop. "In 1997 and 1998, tobacco was hitting a peak, but the labor pool was hitting rock bottom," said Mike Carter, longtime agricultural extension agent for Garrard County.

LOUISVILLE - Adapting the state's agriculture economy to the post-tobacco buyout environment that begins taking shape next year with the end of the federal tobacco program will be a key topic of discussion during Kentucky Farm Bureau's 85th convention. More than 1,500 farm leaders, delegates and guests are expected for the annual meeting Wednesday through Saturday at the Galt House in downtown Louisville. Top political and business figures are on the convention's speakers list, including U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis and the chief executive officer of Southern Farm Bureau Insurance Co. J. Joseph Stroble.

Rick Johnson, owner of North Main Discount Tobacco in Winchester, is already seeing changes in his customers' habits. Some are stocking up on cigarettes while many are cutting back. Others are vowing to stop smoking altogether as local consumers and businesses brace for a round of federal and state tax increases on tobacco and alcohol, which are set to take effect Wednesday. While proponents look for the tax increases to discourage bad habits, improve public health and help government raise revenue, consumers are grumbling and local businesses are trying to asses the impact on sales.