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'Golden leaf' growers troubled by tobacco tax rise
ap ^ | 4/2/09 | EMERY P. DALESIO

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 ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events; US: North Carolina
KEYWORDS: nannystate; pufflist; sintaxes; smokers; taxincrease; tobacco
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To: Drango
Your friends are waiting for you over here --> D.U.
21 posted on 04/02/2009 4:19:21 PM PDT by unixfox (The 13th Amendment Abolished Slavery, The 16th Amendment Reinstated It !)
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To: autumnraine

Once the kiddies are good n addicted, I like to burn them with a cigarette as a brand just so I don’t waste time trying to addict the ones I already addicted.


22 posted on 04/02/2009 4:20:17 PM PDT by cripplecreek (The poor bastards have us surrounded.)
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To: OCC

How right you are. I’m growing my own tobacco. Easy to do. Curing is another story.


23 posted on 04/02/2009 4:20:34 PM PDT by hkp123
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To: Drango

Are you really a FReeper or did some elitist yuppy hijack your account?


24 posted on 04/02/2009 4:21:24 PM PDT by andyandval
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To: hkp123

Same here, I have fifty plants started. Curing OTOH...


25 posted on 04/02/2009 4:22:21 PM PDT by MaxMax (RINO=RAT!)
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To: andyandval

People sell anything on Ebay these days.


26 posted on 04/02/2009 4:23:02 PM PDT by MaxMax (RINO=RAT!)
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To: Drango
You must be a chick. Caught your kids smoking did you? Instead of taking responsibility you are blaming others. Yep, Your a chick.
27 posted on 04/02/2009 4:24:04 PM PDT by Free_in_Alabama (The average citizen is to lazy to steal from you, instead they are asking the government to do it)
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To: Free_in_Alabama
Music unto my ears.

Must be from those drama novels they sell at the grocery store.

28 posted on 04/02/2009 4:26:02 PM PDT by MaxMax (RINO=RAT!)
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To: MaxMax
Must be from those drama novels they sell at the grocery store.

LOL Bodice ripping passion.
29 posted on 04/02/2009 4:27:33 PM PDT by cripplecreek (The poor bastards have us surrounded.)
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To: MaxMax

The teens will not bother with cigarettes and skip right to the hard stuff. I used to be a teen, so I know.....ha ha ha


30 posted on 04/02/2009 4:28:56 PM PDT by ThunderStruck94
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To: Drango

I’m going outside to smoke a nice Greycliff cigar...in your honor.


31 posted on 04/02/2009 4:29:02 PM PDT by Osage Orange (Our constitution protects aliens, drunks and U.S. Senators. -Will Rogers)
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To: autumnraine
Anywho, this over a dollar a pack difference is at the very LEAST going to slow me down if I don’t go ahead and quit altogether.

Cigarettes are now $8+ per pack here in New Yorkistan.

I NEVER buy them here.

There are ways to circumvent these thieves.

But I never do it personally.

Honest, Governor Patterson, Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, and Mr. Tedisco/Murphy whoever the hell wins.

Honest.

32 posted on 04/02/2009 4:29:17 PM PDT by andyandval
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To: ThunderStruck94

I smoked pot years before I started smoking cigarettes.


33 posted on 04/02/2009 4:30:42 PM PDT by cripplecreek (The poor bastards have us surrounded.)
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To: Osage Orange

I’m all smiles that if not today, eventually, you’ll $0.40 pay more for that cigar. Bummer dude.

And of course less kids will take the habit up.


34 posted on 04/02/2009 4:31:46 PM PDT by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
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To: Drango
I don't believe addicting teenagers is a conservative value.

How about alcohol tax increases to save teenagers? I don't want them getting addicted to that either. How about junk food? That causes fatness and heart disease. How about sodas with caffeine and sugar? Also not good. How about swimming? People drown you know.
35 posted on 04/02/2009 4:35:15 PM PDT by ZX12R
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To: Drango

Somehow I don't think you've thought this through.

36 posted on 04/02/2009 4:35:52 PM PDT by MaxMax (RINO=RAT!)
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To: Drango

DU Chick - your at the wrong site. I know its hard for you but please try to get it right, your trying to go here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5371142

Later


37 posted on 04/02/2009 4:36:54 PM PDT by Free_in_Alabama (The average citizen is to lazy to steal from you, instead they are asking the government to do it)
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To: cripplecreek

If children smoked it would help pay for their own health care.


38 posted on 04/02/2009 4:37:47 PM PDT by MaxMax (RINO=RAT!)
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To: Drango
I don't believe addicting teenagers is a conservative value.

I gather the concept of personal responsibility is lost on you.

39 posted on 04/02/2009 4:37:49 PM PDT by lwd
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To: Drango
No one is addicting teenagers.

I have four grandkids and none of them smoke. Four kids and only one one smokes. My hubby and I both smoked for years. Hubby died in 2006, not caused by smoking.

I still smoke and so healthy at 79 the Dr.s hate me. You need a attitude adjustment and stop blaming smokers for addicting young people.

40 posted on 04/02/2009 4:39:41 PM PDT by BARLF
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