Source: Oakland Tribune
Contact:  Sun, 28 Jun 1998
Author: Associated Press
Editor note: This article appeared on the same page with two other tobacco
articles:  "Tobacco Subsidies and Ethically Challenged 'Doctors'" and
"Investing in Tobacco Just Being American"

GOVERNMENT EXPLAINS TOBACCO-GROWING RIGHTS

The federal government grants people the right to grow tobacco in specified
amounts, known as quotas and allotments. The Depression era program was
estab-lished to restrict annual production and stabilize prices.

The program is supported largely by a fee farmers pay per pound. There are
penalties for non-participation or exceeding one's quota.

Quotas are the allowed poundage that can be raised by growers of burley, an
aromatic tobacco cured on the stalk. Allotinents measure the pounds and
acreage apportioned to growers of the other main variety of U.S. tobacco,
flue-cured.

These two varieties go into American blend cigarettes along with lesser
aniounts of other leaf.

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Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)