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Of the many bills introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives dealing with tobacco buy-outs, Farm Bureau has come out in support of one – H.B. 245.

This proposal, according to David White, OFBF director of commodity relations, encompasses most of what OFBF’s tobacco advisory committee called for during a committee meeting held last summer.

In a letter to Congress, OFBF Executive Vice President Jack Fisher asked for passage of H.B. 245, which was introduced by Rep. Ernie Fletcher, R-KY. Fisher said the proposal would replace the existing federal price support and quota programs for tobacco with price support and quota programs designed to assist producers. The bill also would compensate quota holders for the loss of tobacco quota asset value and would provide assistance for active tobacco producers, including those who forego obtaining a tobacco production license.

According to statistics from the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Office of Tobacco Programs, Ohio’s basic quota has been reduced by more than 61 percent from 1998 to 2000. As a result, Ohio has lost 575 tobacco farms.

For 2003, the U. S. Department of Agriculture has announced another reduction in basic quota for burley tobacco, which will further reduce not only the pounds of tobacco that can be legally produced and marketed by growers, but also further reduce the incomes of tobacco farm families.

"While it is true that Ohio’s tobacco production represents less than 1 percent of the state’s total in farm cash receipts, among the state’s top nine tobacco producing counties (Brown, Adams, Gallia, Highland, Clermont, Scioto, Lawrence, Pike and Jackson), farm income derived from burley tobacco production represents an average of 14.21 percent – or about one in seven – of all farm cash receipts earned each year within the region," Fisher said in his letter to Ohio’s congressional delegation. "Therefore, burley tobacco remains critically important to the state’s smaller family farms. … To these citizens, counties, communities and economies located in the 22-county region of southern Ohio where tobacco is produced, tobacco income is anything but incidental."

OFBF supports legislation regarding a tobacco buy-out that:

• Compensates quota owners $8 per pound for what they owned July 1, 2002.
• Pays growers $4 per pound based on the average of what they marketed in 2001 and 2002.
• Makes equal payments during the 2003 to 2007 crop years.
• Keeps tobacco production in traditional growing areas.
• Reserves some pounds for new grower permits.

Further action on H.B. 245 is expected this summer.