European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 8, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Decl Ninci demand for tobacco saturday february 8, 1986 the stars and stripes flu Page profits vanish in a puff of smoke associated press t he Broad Lea restaurant s recent closing was considered a dark Omen in Moultrie a Small south1 Georgia town where some of the world s Best Hue cured tobacco is grown. Like the defunct local restaurant most of the tobacco Farmers in surrounding Colquilt county Georgia s largest Broad Leaf producer also Are experiencing severe Cash flow problems these Days. They say a major reason for their plight is the National decline in cigarette smoking. Ill bet no More than a handful of Georgia s tobacco Farmers made even a Small profit this year despite the fact it was a Good growing year. And i know personally that a lot of them lost Money says Scott Brown a University of Georgia agriculture Extension service specialist. Not Only is the demand for tobacco steadily declining he adds but last year s Price was 10 cents a Pound below 1984. Nineteen eighty five was the first year in Ages that has happened observes Russell Carr 60, who has raised a crop of tobacco every year since 1946. Carr adds that he did t make any Money on his 20 acres of tobacco last year. Many tobacco Farmers say they think the growing Lack of demand for their product stems from the results of anti smoking campaigns and from increasing foreign Competition that has Hurt the Export business and has encouraged Domestic companies to import cheaper tobacco from South America and Africa. The tobacco Farmers Are in the worst shape i can remember says Bobby Miles tobacco specialist for the state. Their crop allotments have been Cut by half Over the past 10 years and 25 percent since 1983. Because of the reduced demand their allotments have been reduced in five of the last seven  at a remit he says Georgia s tobacco production fell from 164 million pounds in 1974 to 82 million pounds in 1985. Tobacco Farmers in other states Are in the same boat he adds. In North Carolina whose Farmers grow 60 percent of the tobacco in the United states merchants dependent on Farmers business Are feeling the effects of a poor crop too. Tobacco for the last 30 years Down Here has paid 90 percent of the debts. Without tobacco we might As Well quit -. Farming. We Don t make any Money off Grain says Clyde Reaves who operates a fertilizer company in mount Olive . Reaves and his fellow merchants in Wayne county North Carolina s ninth largest tobacco producing county Are bracing for Tough times ahead. They re the Farmers being a lot More careful with what they do have this year says Dewayne Parvin manager of a hardware store. Farmers usually refurbish their properties at the end of the year he says but they could t afford in in 1985. Brown says the situation is so dire in Georgia s Colquitt county that a Quarter of the county s some 200 tobacco Farmers Are facing the Prospect of foreclosure. The state s average Price for tobacco a Farmer Spears tobacco leave which Are Hung in Tedilo dry. This year was $1.71 a Pound he said. But the average production Cost per Pound including the stabilization fee was $1.65 a Pound. That left just six cents a Pound for profit and the Farmers need three or four times that much just to  Carr says he and Many other tobacco Farmers feel trapped. I Don t want to raise tobacco next year but i be got to. I be got better than $100,000 tied up in my barns and equipment and i be got to grow in Hope of protecting my  almost All of the High Quality tobacco produced in Colquitt county is used in the production of cigarettes. Carr says he is More concerned about the Ever increasing Competition from foreign growers than about the dwindling number of cigarette smokers in the United states. Asked if he smokes Carr shakes his head. No i quit Back in 1954. You could t get me to go Back to smoking for  hardly a year passes without Congress tinkering with the tobacco crop by changing the number of acres Farmers grow the prices they get or the Way government handles the surplus problem. Critics sometimes View tobacco As a pampered elite commodity that has enjoyed government support far in excess of its importance in the real world. But tobacco s roots Are deep and reach far Back in the american political psyche. Tobacco was a new world crop when colonists landed in Virginia and it helped trigger the american revolution. Tobacco even prompted a clause in the Constitution prohibiting a tax on exports a Factor that helps guide United states policy to this Day. The settlers in Jamestown found that they could get Rich pretty fast by growing tobacco and shipping it to England agriculture department historian Wayne d. Rasmussen says. But As so often happens they overdid the Market and in the Early 1620s there was a series of Laws passed on grading to try to Cut Down the Supply of tobacco going to  Rasmussen who sees a parallel with Many of today s farm problems says that Virginia s colonial lawmakers did t Stop there. They did such things As saying that All tobacco had to be inspected and that Only the top nine leaves could be picked from each Plant he says. Then they said that no More than 1,000 plants could be raised by any one tobacco worker trying to control  in England tobacco was so valuable that the government controlled sales by colonial growers saying that it could Only be shipped to England. Tobacco taxes and profits grew rapidly. It helped bring about the american revolution and was one of Tho things that helped bring about a clause in our Constitution which says that Congress May not Levy a tax on exports which is Why we fiddle around with embargoes and things like that when it comes to controlling exports Rasmussen says. Most of All there was a lot of Money in tobacco in the formative years of America and until Eli Whitney s invention allowed the ginning of Cotton was me leading . Agricultural Export. There still is a lot of Money in tobacco. In 1984, according to us a the farm value of tobacco was nearly $3.2 billion. By comparison the leading . Farm crop Corn was Worth an estimated $20.5 billion soybeans $11.4 billion baled Hay $10.7 billion wheat $8.7 billion and Cotton $3.97 billion. According to 1978 . Census figures. 203,000 farms in 21 states produced tobacco. About 60 percent were located in North Carolina and Kentucky the major tobacco states. The average farm grew less than five acres of tobacco and about 20 percent grew less than one acre. The United states is the world s leading exporter of tobacco despite stiff Competition in recent years. China is the leading producer accounting for an estimated 2.3 million metric tons this year out of a world total of 6.8 million tons. The . Crop is estimated at 692.616 tons or 1.53 billion pounds. The Federal government got into tobacco on a grand scale in the 1930s, with marketing quotas telling Farmers How much tobacco they could sell each year and providing Price support Loans. Price support Loans Are dispensed to producers through their cooperative marketing associations when tobacco Sale prices fall Short of the support rate. Later sometimes months or years the association May sell the tobacco for whatever it can get. If the sales exceed the Loans Farmers get the additional Money. Until a few years ago if the ultimate sales of unwanted acquisition stocks of tobacco by the associations fell Short of repaying the Loans the us a wrote off the losses. Beginning with the 1982 crop however. Congress ordered that the tobacco supports be operated As a no net Cost program with tobacco Farmers paying assessments to make up losses