Re: Organic tobacco
jhaskett@asrr.arsusda.gov
Wed, 11 Oct 1995 11:23:02 -0400 (EDT)
The answer to why anyone would want to produce organic tobacco
seems simple. Tobacco is an addictive drug enjoyed by a large
number of people. Drug addicts and tobacco addicts in particular
are notable in wanting and fetishing drugs of high quality.
One has only to go into a tobacconist shop and examine the large
number of "premium" tobacco products to see examples of this.
Commercial tobacco is widely regarded to be full of additives
to make it burn smoothly and quickly. Some smokers want
a tobacco free of these additives because it is thought to
be of higher quality, and in some instances stronger. There
are those who regard additive free tobacco as more "natural"
and therefore less dangerous. I think this is nonsense, but it
is probably part of the attraction for packaged additive free
tobacco. The reason why someone would want to produce it is
that there is a market specifically for it.
Unless I am mistaken, tobacco as a crop beneficial to small-scale family
agriculture has been defended by Wendell Berry.
Would I grow it? No. Do I understand why it is grown? Yes.
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Jonathan Haskett
jhaskett@asrr.arsusda.gov
"The fault dear Brutus lies not within our stars but in ourselves."