Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 14, 1993 TAG: 9303150548
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD CARTWRIGHT AUSTIN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
FREE FARMERS FROM TOBACCO DEPENDENCY
TOBACCO and coal, twin pillars of the Southern Appalachian economy, are both eroding. They are likely to be pushed over in the next few years by acts of a Congress increasingly sensitive to human and environmental health.When they fall, the Appalachian community - America's home-grown Third World - will endure devastating blows. There are creative alternatives, but they require vision, political courage, and a willingness to invest in America.
First, tobacco.
After 25 years of smoking and 10 of abstinence, I was delighted when my doctor told me, "You don't need a chest X-ray. Your risk of lung cancer is back down with the general population." The small tobacco allotment assigned to my farm by the government is leased to my neighbor, who raises the tobacco allotted to his own farm plus a few leases, enough to support his mother on the homestead his family has lived on for generations.
Thanks to the distinctive allotment system that survives from the Great Depression, tobacco is the only major American crop still raised primarily on small farms - 127,000 of them in the Southeast. As a consequence, small farms remain the predominant pattern of landholding in the tobacco region from Virginia and the Carolinas, and west to Kentucky, Tennessee and northern Georgia. The income from most allotments is just a few thousand dollars: "Enough to pay the taxes on the place anyhow," my neighbors say.
Because the sale price of tobacco is stabilized by a government-purchase program, this income is dependable. A little tobacco, some cattle, and father or mother working in the mine, factory, store or school - these keep the old homeplace in the family.
The 2,500 pounds of tobacco raised on my farm's allotment probably feeds the addictions of several hundred people and some of them, less fortunate than I, will die from it. This is why those concerned for human health will prevail in their efforts to remove the government from the tobacco business.
Ironically, ending the federal tobacco program will do nothing for human health. Cigarette companies will simply buy their tobacco more cheaply from large producers, both domestic and foreign. Terminating the tobacco program will, however, collapse the economic underpinnings beneath tens of thousands of small farms, accelerate the consolidation of farmland into fewer hands, and drive families from rural homesteads.
On my farm we have begun to experiment with alternatives. We deliver raspberries to restaurants in small cities nearby; and we share peppers, range-fed chickens and grass-fed beef with folks who have become members of the farm to obtain meats and produce grown in wholesome conditions without artificial chemicals. Most of the foods Americans enjoy can be grown in this region.
The problem is marketing. Selling to supermarkets is cumbersome and unprofitable for the small farmer, because the chain stores want large volumes of highly standardized produce. Prices are uncertain. Independent processing plants for chickens exist no longer. The small farmer who departs from the crops traditional to the area has to develop his or her own markets. Most farmers lack the time and resources to do this.
There could be a renaissance of small farming in our region if the federal government phased ln a marketing program for quality regional meats, fruits and vegetables while phasing out tobacco. The government could offer assured prices for limited quantities of high-quality vegetables, fruits and meats - grown using sustainable practices that assure wholesomeness while protecting soils and the environment - and the government could assist in the distribution of these items.
Farmers could elect to raise several items, but the total protected crop on each farm would be capped at a fixed dollar amount. Extra production could be sold without price protection.
The tobacco warehouses now found in every town could be replaced by farm markets, small facilities to prepare fresh meats and produce for consumers, as well as canning and freezing facilities for seasonal surpluses. All supported produce would be given distinctive regional labels and marketed to grocery outlets within nearby metropolitan areas. Soft, flavorful tomatoes and fruits ripened on the vine could be rushed to market through such a system, bringing better taste to the consumer and better prices to the farmer.
This system would require initial investment of public capital and some subsidy, for perhaps a decade, until markets were well-established and farmers retrained. Then, as with the present tobacco program, costs could be covered through fees paid by farmers at the point of sale. In return for such public investment, consumers would receive more wholesome food and the small-farm economy would be revived. There might even be room for more families on the land.
When I quit smoking, I first thought it would be virtuous to gave up my tobacco allotment as well. That, however, would be walking away from my neighbors.
We are all guilty of polluting the earth and poisoning one another until we pull together to demand a just system that protects farmers, consumers and the land itself. It is time to reform American agriculture, so farming becomes an opportunity for those who choose it, while the rest of us enjoy wholesome, delicious food grown by neighbors who take care of the good Earth.
Tomorrow: Coal and the Southern Appalachians.
Richard Cartwright Austin, a Presbyterian minister who farms in Southwest Virginia, is environmental theologian with Appalachian Ministries Educational Resource Center.