Back home in our community, we put families first and farms second. That's why our tobacco growers chose to participate in this broad-based organization gathered here today. Our farmers are serious about limiting youth access to tobacco products. That common thread links us to these health organizations.

None of us want America's youth to use tobacco products. All of support strong educational efforts to help young people stop using tobacco products.  And all of us believe that -- whether in the past, present, or future -- it is wrong to direct tobacco advertising at young people.  We want that practice stopped.

We all agree upon these core principles to protect America's children from tobacco.  But this broad-based group also agrees that tobacco farmers cannot raise their children without a tobacco program.

For our farmers, public health is more than vaccinations and blood pressure checks. It is also the well being and quality of life within our small, rural communities. And the economic life blood in those communities is the tobacco program. Without it, our farmers will not have the money to buy health insurance. They cannot pay medical bills, and they cannot make mortgage payments.

My friends in these health organizations know that this program actually limits U.S. production of tobacco, and that it holds leaf tobacco prices at a higher level than what manufacturers would normally pay.

Our Kentucky tobacco growers also understand the program's importance.  That's why they recently gave percent approval rating by referendum votes to continue the program.

These, then, are the reasons that we tobacco farmers have joined the efforts of these distinguished health groups, and why they support our rural communities.

In the near future, we tobacco farmers also encourage this same group to endorse a comprehensive tobacco settlement that not only keeps tobacco products away from children but that also keeps our family farms sustainable.