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Antismoking advocates have a message for America's beleaguered tobacco farmers: Don't blame us for all your economic troubles. In a report to be issued today, three antismoking groups say the farmers' hardships stem primarily from big cigarette companies' decisions to build more factories overseas and to buy greater quantities of less-expensive, foreign-grown tobacco leaf. The study, produced by the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society and the Campaign for TobaccoFree Kids, is, in part, an effort to weaken the potent political alliance between Big Tobacco and farmers, which for years has helped blunt congressional antismoking efforts. "Manufacturers use the farmers as their cover every time there is a proposal to take action that will reduce tobacco use," said Matthew Myers, executive vice president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. But this "report shows that fighting public-health measures won't save American tobacco farmers." Smoking rates in the U.S. have been declining gradually for years because of heightened health concerns and price rises -- the result of tax increases and the massive legal settlement between the tobacco industry and state governments. But the antismoking groups say drops in domestic consumption can't completely explain the declining fortunes of the country's tobacco farmers. Instead, their report points to the increased use of imported tobacco in U.S.-made cigarettes and details the efforts of cigarette companies and tobacco dealers to help foreign farmers grow better, cheaper tobacco. The antismoking groups also describe the multinational cigarette companies' decision in the 1990s to increase overseas manufacturing to supply foreign markets, especially in Eastern Europe and Russia. The foreign-made cigarettes generally contain less U.S.-grown tobacco than cigarettes made in the U.S., the groups say. Tobacco companies took issue with the antismoking groups' arguments. "The report is totally disingenuous," said Mark Smith, a spokesman for British American Tobacco PLC's Brown & Williamson unit. "Given their prohibitionist beliefs, if these antismoking organizations have their way, there will be no tobacco farmers left in the United States." The groups are just "trying to drive a wedge between growers and manufacturers," he said. Michael E. Pfeil, a spokesman for Philip Morris Cos., the nation's largest cigarette maker, said the company's use of foreign tobacco has remained "relatively constant" for years, at about 25% of the tobacco used in U.S.-made cigarettes. He pointed out that the tobacco industry has agreed to pay $5.1 billion over 12 years into a trust fund to help tobacco farmers and their communities as they adjust to the lower demand for tobacco. Competition from lower-cost growers abroad, especially in Brazil and Zimbabwe, has hurt tobacco-leaf exports from the U.S. But despite the concerns cited by the antismoking groups, imports of foreign tobacco have begun edging downward recently, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The proportion of foreign tobacco in U.S. cigarettes is also expected to decrease slightly, the agency says. Faced with heightened competition, some American tobacco farmers are calling on the government to require labels specifying foreign tobacco content in U.S.made cigarettes and to adopt stricter regulations governing the use of pesticides and other chemicals on imported tobacco. Copyright (c) 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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© 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc
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