PHA-Exchange> Small-Scale Tobacco Farmers Lose Out As Global Industry Prospers

[FCA Coordinator]

For Immediate Release

December 18, 2001

Contact: Ross Hammond

1-415-695-7492

NEW REPORT DETAILS ECONOMIC, SOCIAL & ENVIRONMENTAL COST OF TOBACCO FARMING

IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Washington, D.C. (December 18, 2001) - A new report released by the Campaign

for Tobacco Free Kids examines the economic, social and environmental costs

of tobacco farming. “Golden Leaf, Barren Harvest: The Costs of Tobacco

Farming” makes the case that the rapid growth of tobacco farming in the

developing world encouraged and facilitated by the tobacco industry has not

brought with it the promised economic benefits. Indeed, the Report finds

that the rapid spread of tobacco farming in developing countries has brought

with it a host of environmental, health and social problems. It has also

caused over production in the global tobacco market, that contributes to the

profitability of the manufacturers but undermines the economic well-being of

farmers as more and more farmers compete with each other to sell tobacco

leaf to the companies at lower and lower prices.

The Report draws primarily on tobacco industry sources. While a few

large-scale tobacco growers have prospered, the vast majority of tobacco

growers in the developing world barely eke out a living while toiling for

the companies. Many tobacco farmers are now stuck producing a crop that is

labor and input intensive and causes a myriad of health and environmental

dangers. The Report details the many serious economic and environmental

costs associated with tobacco cultivation that the tobacco companies have

tried to gloss over. These include:


ท Chronic indebtedness among tobacco farmers (usually to the companies

themselves).

ท The diversion of land previously used for growing food to grow tobacco.

ท New technologies employed by the companies which reduce the amount of

tobacco used per cigarette.

ท Manipulation by the tobacco companies of the grading system which has led

to lower prices for farmers.

ท Serious environmental destruction caused by tobacco farming, particularly

the massive deforestation caused by tobacco curing.

ท An increase in pesticide-related health problems for farmers and their

families.

The Report also details the tobacco industry’s efforts to manipulate the

plight of tobacco farmers for their own gain through the use of front groups

and their current efforts to undermine the global tobacco control treaty

currently being negotiated under the auspices of the World Health

Organization. As the Report shows, even with global demand for tobacco leaf

growing, the inescapable problems with tobacco farming make it a losing

investment for most countries and farmers.

The report is available on the web at:

http://tobaccofreekids.org/campaign/global/FCTCreport1.pdf.

Copies can also be obtained by writing to Monica Flores at

<mflores at TobaccoFreeKids.org>

*********************************************

Ross Hammond, Consultant

242 Edna Street

San Francisco, CA 94112

USA

Tel. 1-415-695-7492

Fax. 1-801-729-6580

USA

http://tobaccofreekids.org/campaign/global/



Small-Scale Tobacco Farmers Lose Out As Global Industry Prospers

The rapid spread of tobacco farming in impoverished countries over recent years has failed to live up to its economic promise and has worsened conditions for small-scale growers, according to a new report from a major United States anti-smoking organization.


Based primarily on tobacco industry sources, the report--released this week by Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids--concludes not only that tobacco farming has fallen short of expectations, but that it has also created environmental, health, and social problems in communities which have taken up the practice.

"While a few large-scale tobacco growers have prospered," according to the report, 'Golden Leaf, Barren Harvest: The Costs of Tobacco Farming,' "the vast majority of tobacco growers in the Global South barely eke out a living toiling for the companies."

In many cases, poor tobacco farmers fall into debt, often to the tobacco companies themselves, and suffer health problems due to the large amounts of pesticides required to grow a healthy crop.

In addition, surrounding areas often suffer serious environmental damage, primarily because the wood needed for curing tobacco is cut from nearby forests, contributing to "massive deforestation" over time, according to the report.

The report was released amid heightened international controversy over tobacco due to ongoing efforts by the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) to draft a Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) by the year 2003.

Anti-tobacco activists hope the FCTC, when completed, will include a global ban on the advertising and promotion of cigarettes, backed up with tough sanctions against tobacco companies which violate it.

The world's three largest tobacco companies--British American Tobacco (BAT), Philip Morris, and Japan Tobacco--oppose such a ban and argue that the industry can regulate itself. The companies have tried to gain allies among tobacco-producing countries in the FCTC negotiations by arguing that their economies could be hit hard by a tough Convention.

Some four million people a year currently die from tobacco-related diseases, a number that could jump to 10 million over the next three decades given current trends, particularly increased smoking in poor countries.

As the United States and other developed countries have tightened tobacco advertising rules over the past 30 years and smoking has declined in popularity, tobacco companies have increasingly looked to developing countries as markets of the future.

Major cigarette companies have spent billions of dollars in poorer countries building new factories, entering joint-venture agreements with private and government-owned tobacco companies, and buying formerly state-owned factories.

The top three companies now own or lease manufacturing facilities in over 50 countries and buy tobacco in dozens more. Companies have also provided credit and other inputs at bargain rates to encourage farmers to switch from food crops to tobacco.

As a result, global tobacco production has grown by almost 60 percent since the mid-1970s with the bulk of the increase coming from developing countries, particularly China, India, Brazil, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Vietnam.

This massive increase in production has resulted in a worldwide surplus and a sharp decline in prices that has proved ruinous to small farmers in poor countries, according to the report.

"Even with global demand for tobacco leaf growing," according to the report, "the inescapable problems with tobacco farming make it a losing investment for most countries and farmers."

The World Bank, which has also taken a dim view of both the economic and health effects of tobacco, stopped providing loans for tobacco production, processing or marketing, in 1992 and in 1997 joined the WHO in calling for tight tobacco controls.

Both WHO and the Bank are backing efforts to develop alternative crops for tobacco farmers in poor countries.

Source: Jim Lobe, 'Small-Scale Tobacco Farmers Lose Out As Global Industry Prospers', Friday December 28, OneWorld US

URL: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/oneworld/20011228/wl/small-scale_tobacco_farmers_lose_out_as_global_industry_prospers_1.html





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