When I was a child in south Florida, my father would take us for summer visits to his birthplace in Aurora, North Carolina. During those summer vacations, my uncle let me help the farm workers who were pulling tobacco, tying it on stick and racking it in barns to be flue cured. He took me out with him at night to check the temperature in the barn. He took me with him to the auction to seal his truck load of tobacco.
In addition to being tobacco farmers, my father and his three brothers were also life-long smokers. With the exception of my father, none of his brothers was able to give up his addiction to smoking. None of them reached the age of 60, sadly they all died of heart disease before their time. My father was able to quit smoking and lived until he was 77 years old, but he, too died an early death from lung cancer.
Today is indeed an historic moment for all parties involved. The seriousness of the tobacco epidemic and the need for strong policies and programs to discourage and prevent the use of tobacco has put the tobacco farmer in a difficult situation with difficult choices. The farmer has had virtually no real options to get out of the tobacco business. I commend the tobacco growers and tobacco growing groups who have gone out on a limb to work constructively with the health community to achieve common public health goals. Do not doubt for one second that their support for public health is sincere, and do not doubt for one second that our concern for their well being is sincere.
The American Heart Association has facilitated meaningful communications between the health community and representatives of tobacco-growing communities for several years. The AHA has been an active participant in the Southern Tobacco Communities Roundtable aimed at developing grower support for tobacco-control health efforts while working together to explore concerns, options and strategies for economic diversification that works.
These discussions have resulted in the production of a joint document: Core Principles Between the Public Health Community and the Tobacco Producers (Growers) Community. This document addresses a number of the AHA's public health and agriculture priorities. Relative to the growth of tobacco, the AHA's board-approved policy is as follows: "The AHA supports public policy measures to cease governmental financial support for their growth, promotion and marketing of tobacco, while supporting creation of programs to assist farmers and tobacco-growing regions in converting to other crops and economic alternatives to tobacco." We believe the Core Principles document meets this goal.
The American Heart Association is committed to working with tobacco farming communities and policy makers in developing and enacting legislation which promotes and protects the public health of this nation. At the same time, we want options and opportunities for tobacco farmers and their communities for rebuilding their economic infrastructures in a less tobacco-dependent environment.
There has been some debate within the health community regarding the tobacco control program. While our longstanding policy has been opposition to continuation of any financial support for the current program, we feel that a strong case can be made for maintaining some sort of price and production controls. Among the reasons for maintaining such controls are the following: