Tobacco a Big Part of the South

Tobacco, the word too many represents death and sickness.  It represents companies taking advantage of children.  This all may be true, but there is a different side to the story of Tobacco in America.  I never started smoking cigarettes, but I do enjoy a good cigar every so often, so I have a foot on both sides of this issue.

Years earlier I first encountered this mysterious plant growing in the sandhills of North Carolina. While driving you would pass a field every so often.  Here in Tennessee and Kentucky Tobacco surrounds us, whether people like it or not it is a big part of life in the south.


Having lived in the south for more than 35 years the agricultural side of Tobacco has never been very far from my everyday life.  I currently live less than a mile from a Tobacco field, passing them to work both here in Tennessee and years ago in North Carolina.  In Tennessee and Kentucky in the fall the sweet smell of fire-cured tobacco fills the air, as tobacco smokes in large barns as part of the curing process.

Tobacco is an economic engine a cash crop, that has provided a good living for southern farmers.  Local car dealers still stock up on inventory before the fall tobacco auctions.  Many a new truck is purchased after the crop comes in and is sold.   1 acre of fired curred Tobacco can bring between $3,000 to $5,000.  A 50-acre field up to $250,000.  This is some major cash.

The two major types of Tobacco grown for the market.  US Burley tobacco is an air-cured tobacco used primarily for cigarette and cigar production. Fire-cured tobacco, smoked in tobacco barns is used in some chewing tobacco, moist snuff, some cigarettes, and as a condiment in pipe tobacco blends.  It is a fall ritual smelling this smoke throughout the county on a crisp fall morning.

On a recent trip out to the country to take some pictures of Tobacco fields, I met a farmer who has grown this leafy product for more than 50 years.  He told me, farmers grow things that have a market, in other words, what people will pay for.  It is part of there heritage and a big part of southern history.  Sure big tobacco companies have mispresented and deceived Americans about tobacco for a lot of years.  This is not the fault of the farmer.  Now we all know the dangers and can use this product in moderation.  Heck, you can die from eating too much bacon.

In the past under the tobacco allotment system, the US Government controlled tobacco production.  It decided which farmers and how much tobacco could be grown. Which in turn controlled the price.  This system was ended in 2005 when farmers who held allotments were paid.  After this many tobacco farmers stop growing tobacco even though there were no restrictions on the amount of tobacco each farmer could grow.   Tobacco is still a lucrative crop for any farmer in the south, some say the market is stronger now than under the allotment system.

Since the end of the tobacco allotment system, many large farms now rely on Corn, Soybeans, and winter wheat.   Still, the small family farmer can make a living on tobacco and continue this part of the heritage of this great nation.