VERSAILLES, Ky. — New regulations on tobacco could hinder Kentucky’s industry, which has already been on the decline for decades.
Hampton “Hoppy” Henton owns a farm in Versailles that has been in his family for centuries. For most of his life, he grew tobacco on the property.
“And it was consistent, reliable, and regulated,” Henton said. “And so we raised tobacco and were quite dependent upon tobacco for a long time.”
And tobacco is still a substantial part of his farm, but there aren’t nearly as many farmers growing it anymore.
“The industry has morphed from lots of people raising a little bit of tobacco to a few people raising a lot of tobacco,” Henton said.
The Wall Street Journal reports the Biden Administration and the FDA are considering lowering the amount of nicotine in cigarettes to a level that is no longer addictive, and banning menthol cigarettes entirely.
Emails seeking comment from the agency were not returned this week, and it has until April 29 to detail its plans in response to a court petition.
“You can imagine that tobacco producers have been hit by a lot of issues the last few decades and it’s just like, here comes another one,” said Will Snell, an agriculture economist with the University of Kentucky.
Snell said a variety of factors are driving farmers out of the tobacco game, like competition from other countries, the shift to vaping products, and the health concerns surrounding cigarettes.
Most farmers are investing more in other crops now.
“But there’s still tobacco farmers out there that may be raising 50-100 acres of tobacco and have several hundred acres of grain and some tobacco,” Snell said.
Henton grows several crops on his farm, but he says tobacco still accounts for about a third of his overall revenue.
He doesn’t expect that to continue.
“My children, who are farming with me, have no expectation of raising tobacco. They don’t smoke and they don’t know anybody who does smoke,” Henton said. “And they’re really surprised that we continue to raise tobacco until in November-December, we get a check put in the bank and they go, ‘My God, no wonder we raise tobacco’.”
He also said the health problems from cigarettes leave tobacco farmers conflicted about what they do.
“But I think the issue that’s in front of all of us right now is how can we modify what we’re doing — or what we did 50 years ago and what my father did — how can we modify these crops to make them better or meet the new reality?” Henton said. “And that’s very difficult to do, but I don’t think it’s impossible.”
In order to comply with lower nicotine levels, University of Kentucky Extension tobacco specialist Bob Pearce said farmers would need to plant tobacco with a lower alkaloid level, which doesn’t yield as much and requires more management for pest control. Pearce also said consumers tend to judge the lower alkaloid tobacco to be of lesser quality.
Henton said if the FDA offers some sort of cost offset for farmers, it could make the potential changes easier to deal with. While he supports the idea of more regulations, he said if farmers aren’t offered something to make the rules more palatable, there will be pushback from the farming community.
In a statement, Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles said his office is reviewing the report.
“Tobacco products are still legal in America. In Kentucky, many farm families rely upon this crop to pay the bills,” Quarles said. “We hope the Biden Admin communicates clearly about potential rules and gets buy-in from the industry and other stakeholders before moving forward.”