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Updated: 9.15.04

Testimony: Matthew L. Myers at U.S. House Agriculture Committee Hearing on Tobacco Quota Buyout (7.24.03) Statement: Tobacco Quota-Buyout Legislation Falls Short of Providing Help Growers Say They Need (7.30.03)

or several years, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and other public health organizations have been working with tobacco growers and organizations to address both the economic crisis facing tobacco farmers and communities and the public health crisis caused by tobacco use.

The Campaign supports the recommendations contained in the May 2001 final report unanimously adopted by the President's Commission on Improving Economic Opportunity in Communities Dependent on Tobacco Production While Protecting Public Health. The Commission was co-chaired by Matthew L. Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and Rod Kuegel, at that time the President of the Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association.

Tobacco-Quota Buyout Resources Report of the President’s Tobacco Commission Special Report: False Friends - The U.S. Cigarette Companies' Betrayal of American Tobacco Farmers Campaign Press Releases and Statements Grower-Related Facts and Charts Grower-Related Internet Resources

Since then, public health and grower groups have been working together to implement the Commission's recommendations through federal legislation that would:

• Provide tobacco growers and quota holders with fair and equitable compensation for their quota funded through a user fee on the tobacco companies or other source of new revenue. The current quota system would be replaced with production permits to be held only by active growers.

• Replace the current tobacco program with a new system of licensing that controls supply, maintains price, protects family farmers and gives farmers and their communities both short-term and long-term stability.

• Provide economic development assistance to tobacco communities.

• Provide the U.S. Food and Drug Administration with effective authority over manufactured tobacco products comparable to the authority it has over other consumer products, while retaining the Department of Agriculture's role over tobacco growing.