Remove all restrictions and excise taxes on tobacco and return it to a free market commodity.
. . . Yeah, right.
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Posted on 09/16/2002 10:12:51 PM PDT by chance33_98
Weary farmers ready for buyout
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Michael Collins Post Washington bureau
WASHINGTON — Tobacco fed Mark Litzinger when he was a boy on his parents' farm. It feeds him now that he's grown and has a farm and family of his own.
Litzinger knows as well as anyone the story of tobacco's rich past and its questionable future.
But if the federal government is willing to buy him out, he's willing to accept the offer.
"I think this is going to be a onetime offer for us to get some money,'' Litzinger said.
"I think we should take it,'' he said.
Just a few years ago, tobacco farmers across the state dismissed talk of a buyout as something cooked up by people who had no concept of what the crop has meant to Kentucky families and communities.
But today the prospect of a buyout has gained wide acceptance among Kentucky farmers, even those who once outright rejected the idea.
Huge cuts in the tobacco quota, problems in hiring adequate farm labor and a drought that resulted in a poor-quality crop have made the prospect of a buyout more appealing.
"The overwhelming majority of farmers want a buyout,'' said Gary Huddleston, spokesman for the Kentucky Farm Bureau Federation. "They attach an enormous amount of significance to the buyout issue.''
Like Litzinger, most of the tobacco growers in Mason County are ready to take a buyout, said Bill J. Peterson, the county's agriculture extension agent.
"There has been so much uncertainty within the tobacco pro<147,1,1>gram in the last five years in particular,'' Peterson said. "They just haven't been able to plan ahead or make progress in it.
"The quotas have been cut so much that those who are tied to the farm and made a living off of it have had a hard time getting enough pounds together to make it economically viable for them to go and produce.''
Litzinger, 38, has a 2,000-acre corn, tobacco, soybean and cattle farm in Germantown on the Mason-Bracken County line.
A few years ago, he would never have considered taking a buyout.
But since 1998, the government has cut his tobacco quota in half — from 20,000 to 9,000 pounds — and sliced his income in the process.
"I don't see it going back to the level it was,'' he said.
Given those circumstances, a buyout sounds like a good idea, Litzinger said.
Some farmers who take a buyout would stop growing tobacco altogether. Others would continue raising the crop but would do so either without a federal tobacco program or under one that is vastly different from the quota system currently in place.
One proposal pushed by U.S. Rep. Ernie Fletcher, R-Ky., of Lexington, would pay quota holders $8 per pound and growers $4 per pound. An extra $2 per pound would be paid to farmers who agree to stop growing tobacco permanently.
But Fletcher's legislation may run into trouble in Congress, in part because it would keep in place a federal price-support program.
The program would be restructured so that farmers who want to grow tobacco would have to apply for permits. No one could grow tobacco without a permit, which would keep quota holders from selling or leasing out their allotment.
But many senators don't believe that is a true buyout and would be reluctant to support it, said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., of Louisville.
Another problem is how to pay for a buyout. Imposing a fee on tobacco companies or raising the federal cigarette tax are options, but a tax increase would be a hard sell in Congress, McConnell said.
"The challenge that lies ahead of course is how do you structure a buyout in such a way that you have some chance of legislative success,'' McConnell said.
He doesn't expect Congress to act on a buyout plan this year.
McConnell's opponent in the November election, Democrat Lois Combs Weinberg, said she would support a buyout as long as it gives farmers who want to continue growing the crop the option of doing so.
A buyout also must include a "safety net'' of insurance and loans so that upfront money will be available to farmers for equipment and planting, Weinberg said. She suggested paying for the program by placing a fee on tobacco companies.
Litzinger said he might try to keep on growing tobacco even if the government offers a buyout and he accepts. But a lot of the farmers he knows see a buyout as a chance to leave the tobacco business for good.
"They're old men,'' he said. "They need to take a buyout. They'd better grab it.''
Remove all restrictions and excise taxes on tobacco and return it to a free market commodity.
. . . Yeah, right.
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They got it by the quota system in use,where only certain people can grow it,and even they can only grow so much. This amounts to a government mandated monopoly with price supports. They have been getting this for generations because the permit to grow tobacco passes on to the heirs of the farm.
Therein lies the problem, Joe. Unlike smokem dopem tobacco doesn't grow just anywhere and the work and care it takes to properly cure and process tobacco into a satisfying usable form is prohibitive to the average individual. They won't have to make it illegal to grow your own.
Looks to me like the gummint has yet a new angle to control and tax tobacco. Capone, Nitty & Kennedy Investment Corp. highly recommends shares in Black Market Tobacco Inc..
Let me see if I understand what you are saying...
The government limits how much tobacco I can grow (and even then, they slash the acreage on a regular basis), then MANDATES that I sell it in a fixed market, completely devoid of market forces, and you consider that to be a GOOD thing for farmers??? And that is "getting money from the government for generations??" And you think that farmers WANT to be in that system??
I am sure that RJ Reynolds and Phillip Morris are quite happy with the system, but NONE of the tobacco farmers that I know have EVER had a positive thing to say about the wretched program.
I'm sorry, but I just don't get it. Maybe you could explain to me how this is such a great thing for farmers.
I already have,and you must agree with me,or you wouldn't still be growing tobacco. Nobody is forcing you to do this,and you COULD grow another crop instead. Since you don't,this tells me you are making money growing tobacco.
I see that.
Obviously, the commies have won again. I'm sure the UN is thrilled.
Another American industry bites the dust and America becomes dependent on foriegn products--most likely soon to be smuggled.
In addition, more farm land is lost--soon to be claimed as some bioreserve that Americans dare not tread on without asking the UN first.
Politicians can all rot in hell as far as I'm concerned.
Who says we won the cold war? WE LOST!!!
I am an advocate of free markets. Tobacco has been grown around here for more than three hundred years, and if it were up to me, the farmers here would still be able to grow the best tobacco in the world for three hundred MORE years.
Making 'some' money, and being SEVERELY limited by the government is NOT the same thing as "getting money from the government for generations." If you were a factory worker, it would be like telling you that you can only work 25 hours per week, and oh yeah, you can only make whatever wage we decide. I can't see how this is a good thing.
Or, do you believe that ALL money is earned only at the pleasure of the government?? Somehow, the government SEVERELY limiting my ability to farm does NOT mean (to me, anyway) that I am 'getting money from the government.'
Now, if tobacco farmers were part of the farm subsidy bill, which pays farmers NOT to grow crops or to raise livestock, then your point would be well taken. However, this is not the case, and tobacco farmers are limited in their choices, and NOT compensated for those limitations.
I guess you would be happier if I bought a few dairy cows, and then jumped on the public dole, like many hollywood 'farmers??'
You have a point, Tiger, but you watch the wording on it. They will use that to make sure that even those individuals that WANT to grow for their own use can't.
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