[Leica] a new one

[jls at runbox.com (Jeffery Smith)]

Until this thread, I didn't realize that tobacco production had died
down as much has it has. Several years ago, I read that the US tobacco
growers were simply going to export most of it to China (whose
inhabitants seem to have a genetic composition that allows them to smoke
heavily and still live to the ripe old age of 90).

Jeffery Smith
New Orleans, LA


-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+jls=runbox.com@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+jls=runbox.com@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Robert
Clark
Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2004 6:16 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] a new one

Not LUG related but tied to smoking......One thing that he fought 
furiously for was the federal tobacco program that maintained a certain 
level of production so as to keep prices up.  If you didn't adhere to 
the federal limits on production, you were not allowed to sell your 
crop.  Beginning back into post depression days, the government policy 
was to determine a quota for each farm that grew tobacco. The quota, in 
pounds, became a very valuable commodity among tobacco farmers and it 
was sold or leased based on the quota market.  With increasing tobacco 
production in other parts of the world, that quota system still exists 
but the feds reduce a farms quota each year to keep prices up.  Can you 
believe a system like this was supported by one of the most ardent 
conservatives who, in every other way, believed a free market was the 
way to do? Ole Jesse...not many contradictions with him but boy was this

one...and he kept getting re-elected time after time partially because 
he fought to preserve this system.  Having been raised in eastern NC on 
one of those quota based farms, I know what that meant economically to 
the region and the state but artificial production systems sheild 
producers from market forces.  My life in those years revolved around 
the "golden leaf" as it was and still is known to this day.  My father 
no longer farms tobacco but he owns quota that he leases to other 
growers and no one in my father's family have ever smoked although both 
of my mother's parents died of smoking related health issues...I can't 
believe this relic will continue but as with many governmental programs,

they continue to be a bargaining chip in the political process.

Just a little .02 from a guy with three agriculture degrees!

Robert Clark
Lancaster, PA

sdp35 wrote:

> Yes, Jesse was from The Old North State.  Loved by some, detested by 
> not quite as many.  But you always knew exactly where he stood on 
> anything...
>
> On Apr 11, 2004, at 2:11 PM, Jeffery Smith wrote:
>
>> Wasn't the very black-toothed Jessie Helms from NC? Not a great
poster
>> boy for tobacco interests.
>>
>> Jeffery Smith
>> New Orleans, LA
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: lug-bounces+jls=runbox.com@leica-users.org
>> [mailto:lug-bounces+jls=runbox.com@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
David
>> Mason
>> Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2004 9:11 AM
>> To: Leica Users Group
>> Subject: Re: [Leica] a new one
>>
>> Tina Manley wrote:
>>
>>>> I'm back after a week in Kentucky. There seem to be more die-hard
>>>> smokers in Kentucky (where lots of tobacco is grown) than even in
>>>
>> North
>>
>>>> Carolina (where all of the tobacco companies are based).
>>>
>>
>>
>> Actually there are no more tobacco companies in N.C. They are all
gone.
>> We still have loads of growers and one or two auction houses left(if
you
>>
>> have never seen a tobacco auction - you should!). Still, N.C. acts
like
>> a tobacco state despite the massive decline in tobacco business.
There
>> are no towns with smoking bans in N.C. and it is generally considered
a
>> 'public right' outside of the major cities.
>>
>> Here is a small anecdote - when I was in high school ('87) we had a
>> smoking section outside (years before there were ashtrays inside the
>> school halls). Keep in mind that my hometown was the number one
grower
>> of tobacco in the World in the 70s. At some point the school
>> administration decided to close the smoking section as it was getting
>> too popular - when they did we actually had some parents coming out
to
>> protest the action. The pressure grew so large that they opened it
back
>> up. I remember signs like "my son picks it, he should smoke it." I've
>> been told that it was successfully closed a few years later - but
that
>> is where I grew up!
>>
>> Being a non-smoker, the one positive I take from growing up in the
area
>> is my memory of the smell of cured tobacco during auction time. The
>> whole town smelled of it when all those farmers brought their crops
in
>> to sell. It is a sweet, rich smell that I LOVE - its too bad people
ruin
>>
>> that by burning it :)
>>
>> Dave
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>>
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>
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