The Heartland Institute, which has made its name by fighting anti-smoking laws, has just rolled out a campaign in support of California’s Proposition 23. Prop 23 is a ballot measure designed to nullify AB 32, California’s new law regulating greenhouse gas emissions, so it’s no surprise that out-of-state oil companies are investing heavily to campaign for it. So, why is a tobacco industry lobbying organization putting its muscle behind Prop 23?

Heartland and The Oil Industry

For those of you familiar with Heartland, there is a pretty strong logic to its affinity for Proposition 23: the organization has a solid history of promoting the denial of climate change science. In past years it received a good deal of funding from Exxon, but recently Exxon has tried to put some distance between them, by ceasing to fund the organization. However, it’s not clear that all the ties have been severed. According to exxonsecrets.org, in 2007 Heartland launched a website with the aim of shooting down the scientific consensus on global warming, which includes links to other think tanks that have received funding from Exxon (in a related note, last February the New York Times reported that Exxon is still funding similar climate-denying efforts in the U.K.)

Heartland and Proposition 23

I’m not interested in promoting Heartland’s websites so feel free to look them up for yourself. The new campaign features a press release that positions Prop 23 as a ballot measure that will protect jobs and “quality of life.” In contrast, a long (very long) list of California companies, community groups and trade organizations are opposing Prop 23, along with the green jobs coalition Appollo Alliance.

A pending provincial government lawsuit against the tobacco industry could turn out to be one of the biggest legal actions in Alberta’s history, potentially worth up to $10 billion in recovered health-care costs, a leading anti-smoking advocate says. “This is fantastic, another step forward,” said Les Hagen, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health.

“This industry has really been getting away with murder for decades and it’s time for them to be held accountable for an enormous impact on our quality of life.”

Justice Minister Alison Redford made the announcement Monday that Alberta would become the fourth Canadian province to initiate litigation against big tobacco. Ontario, British Columbia and New Brunswick have already filed statements of claim, seeking to have the industry help pay for decades of treatment of smoking-related illnesses.

“We are confident this action is the right thing to do. Some of the most costly illnesses to treat, such as cancer and heart disease, are caused by smoking,” Redford told MLAs during the first day of the legislature’s fall session. “The litigation we plan to commence will seek to share this burden with the manufacturers of this product.”

Redford said she hasn’t determined the value of Alberta’s claim, saying only that it would be “a substantial amount of money.”

But Hagen noted Ontario’s lawsuit, filed last year, is seeking $50 billion from tobacco companies — roughly the amount that province estimates it has spent on providing health care to smokers since the 1950s.

“Based on that, proportionally Alberta’s statement of claim should be at least $10 billion,” he said.

He suggested any settlement or judgment should include not just a monetary award, but also harsher restrictions on how tobacco products are sold and marketed.

“Health-care costs are an important part of this action but this is also about seeking justice,” Hagen said. “The tobacco industry must be held accountable for decades of deceptive marketing practices, including targeting youth, marketing to women, failing to disclose the health effects of smoking, promotion of so-called light cigarettes, and systematically fighting government efforts to reduce and prevent tobacco use.”

Ontario’s statement of claim alleges the industry has known since the 1950s that tobacco products were harmful and addictive. Such statements contain allegations that have not been proven in court.

Redford said Alberta’s lawsuit should be filed within a year, but it’s unclear how long the case could take or whether it will even see a courtroom.

British Columbia, after nearly a decade of legal wrangling, is set to proceed with a trial next year. Some experts believe a successful outcome for the province in that case could force the tobacco industry to the settlement table with other provinces.

Redford acknowledged such lawsuits can drag on for years. She said it was important to join the other provinces now to be “part of the discussion” around what kind of evidence would be used to move forward with the case.

“We believe it’s important for Alberta to begin this process now so that we’re able to file our statement of claim and work collectively and jointly with other provinces to set the litigation strategy,” she said.

Hagen said Alberta’s lawsuit action could create a “domino effect” of other provinces also going after big tobacco.

“At some point when this hits a critical mass or tipping point, the industry will probably come forward with some proposals which may or may not be acceptable to provinces.”

A spokesman for the country’s three leading tobacco companies or their lead lobby organization, the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers Council, could not be reached for comment. However, the industry has called provinces hypocritical for going after tobacco companies, when such governments profit from gambling and liquor sales.

The government estimates 3,000 Albertans die every year from tobacco-related illnesses.

On May 31 each year, the World Health Organization (WHO) celebrates World No Tobacco Day, highlighting the health risks associated with tobacco use and advocating for effective policies to reduce consumption. Tobacco use is the second cause of death globally (after hypertension) and is currently responsible for killing 1 in 10 adults worldwide. It is an epidemic, the WHO says, but a preventable one.

The theme for World No Tobacco Day 2010 is “Gender and Tobacco,” with an emphasis on marketing to women. WHO will use the day to draw particular attention to the harmful effects of tobacco marketing and smoking on women and girls. The main marketing message by the tobacco companies is that women and girls who smoke relate better socially,  are more tasteful, and are more attractive to men.

Women comprise about 20% of the world’s more than 1 billion smokers. However, the epidemic of tobacco use among women is increasing in some countries, including the Philippines.

Women are a major target of opportunity for the tobacco industry, which need to recruit new users since old users are dying prematurely from tobacco-related diseases.

Targeting adolescent girls

Especially troubling is the rising prevalence of tobacco use among girls. A new WHO report, “Women and Health: Today’s Evidence, Tomorrow’s Agenda,” points to evidence that tobacco advertising increasingly targets girls.

Data from 151 countries show that 7% of adolescent girls smoke cigarettes as opposed to 12% of adolescent boys.  In some countries, almost as many girls smoke as boys.

The Philippine data is higher than the global average. According to the latest WHO report, the smoking percentage of Filipinos in the age group 13-15 years is 22.7% with more boys smoking than girls who are, nevertheless, catching up.

It also represents a 6.8% increase from the previous WHO report. Despite the passage of the Tobacco Control Act of 2003, more young Filipinos are smoking today. Since 2007, separate bills have been pending with lawmakers to introduce the printing of graphic health warnings instead of text in cigarette packages.

This is in keeping with a global survey of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance that showed young people were more responsive to graphic warnings compared to text warnings.

Cabral ignores slow Congress

However,  Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral could no longer wait for the long-delayed action by Congress.

Last May 24, the Philippines joined countries that use picture-based warnings printed on the packages of tobacco products.

A Department of Health (DOH) administrative order mandated measures that would prohibit the promotion of tobacco use through packaging and labeling.

The administrative order will become effective 15 days from the publication of the order.

It may be challenged in court by the tobacco companies, led by the merged entity of Fortune Tobacco and Philip Morris Philippines Inc. that ontrol 92 % of Philippine cigarette trade. They insist that Congress must first pass the legislation before the DOH can impose its administrative order.

However, the DOH has stated that the Philippines is a signatory to an international agreement with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control that mandates signatories to come up with strategies to eliminate the ill-effects of tobacco use. Among the strategies is the use of graphic warnings on tobacco products.

This agreement was ratified by the Senate in 2005. Shortly after signing the administrative order, Secretary Cabral joined other concerned citizens in urging the country’s most likely next president, Benigno  Aquino III, to be a role model for young Filipinos by giving up smoking.

The depiction of new and more stringent pictorial warnings on tobacco products has been deferred by six months to December 1 from the scheduled date of June 1. A notification issued here earlier this week by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that while the new pictorial warnings had been deferred, the existing tobacco product packs would continue.

Prominent display

The new warnings will show pictures of cancerous mouths and occupy at least 40 per cent of the packet area. They will be displayed on the upper portion in a bid to dissuade people from using tobacco, which causes cancer, one of the top 10 killers in India.

The Ministry, under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Rules, 2008 (amended in 2008 and 2009), had notified the new pictorial health warnings on March 5.

The pictorial warnings are to be changed every year.

“The tobacco industry claims that the entire process of new pictures on packets is cost-intensive, which is just an excuse since they keep changing the packaging of their products for better marketing. Moreover, they were notified about it a long time back,” the Voluntary Health Association of India said in a statement issued here while accusing the government of buckling under the influence of the tobacco lobby.

“The present pictorial warnings are absolutely ineffective. But as part of our own research, the new warnings are very effective. Countries like Brazil change pictorial warnings every five months,” it added.

Reynolds American Inc. and a group representing migrant farmworkers butted heads yesterday — as expected — over who’s ultimately responsible for laborers’ work and living conditions.

The clash took place yesterday at Reynolds’ annual shareholder meeting. Groups wanting to protest Reynolds’ policies typically buy its shares to be able to speak at the meeting.

From the tone of the nearly two-hour meeting, it’s clear that neither group trusts the other’s agenda and veracity.

The Farm Labor Organizing Committee believes that it has to be more vocal and demanding to persuade Reynolds to use its clout to pressure its suppliers to improve conditions for the state’s 30,000 tobacco farmworkers.

Members inserted the issue every chance they got, particularly during the comment periods for the six shareholder proposals, which included the topics of “communicating truth” and “human rights protocols.” The four shareholder-protest proposals were defeated.

The group also held a protest rally outside One Park Vista that drew about 110 participants, two of whom carried a sign reading “Reynolds scum. Your time has come.”

Reynolds, meanwhile, has decades of experience in handling protests, which has led to regimented shareholder meetings and timed-to-the-second comment periods.

Susan Ivey, the chairwoman and chief executive of Reynolds, said repeatedly that it is not the company’s role to negotiate on behalf of nonReynolds workers. In February, the company’s board of directors announced a “Statement on Human Rights” — on its website — for how it and its operating companies conduct their businesses.

“It is important to note that there is an extensive foundation of U.S. laws and regulations that support human rights,” Ivey said. “We do not believe it is appropriate for our operating companies to assume the regulatory and enforcement role of the federal, state and local governments.”

Dolores Quesenberry, a spokeswoman with the N.C. Labor Department, said “while there are some bad actors out there, we find that most farmers in North Carolina adhere to the standards. We encourage workers to report specific problems to the bureau.

“As for Reynolds Tobacco, in our experience they have been very proactive when it comes to safety and health training.”

Several protesters and advocates labeled Reynolds’ human-rights commitment as hollow.

The Rev. Laura Spangler of Lloyd Presbyterian Church challenged Reynolds to take its recent pledge for more transparency about its tobacco products and extend it to its global supply chain.

“Why not tell all the truth as to where forced child labor is being used by Reynolds tobacco suppliers?” Spangler asked. Other advocates said that Reynolds should be more open about who are its North Carolina suppliers so that they can be reviewed for work and living conditions.

Ivey said that Reynolds is addressing the child-labor issues in what she called “Reynolds’ sphere of influence.”

David Howard, a Reynolds spokesman, said that the company considers its supplier list as proprietary. Quesenberry said that the department does not collect information on which tobacco farmers have business relationships with a particular company.

Judy Lambeth, the general counsel of Reynolds, said that the issues concerning migrant-farm labor are much larger than just what happens on tobacco farms.

“FLOC is specifically targeting Reynolds as both the cause and cure for farmworker problems,” Lambeth said. “But you know what? Reynolds is the wrong target.

“The correct target is establishment of an effective guest-worker program through comprehensive immigration reform.”

Lambeth said that Reynolds declines to enter into a multiparty agreement with the group and its suppliers because Reynolds would be asked to pay additional money “purportedly for the benefit of the workers.”

“But what we have learned from others’ experience in these multiparty agreements is that there is no guarantee that any additional money would reach or benefit workers. The main beneficiary of FLOC’s multiparty agreements appears to be FLOC.”

Crystallizing the chasm in communication was when the shareholder protesters, led by the Rev. Carl­ton Eversley, walked out of the meeting singing “Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around,” a Civil Rights-era spiritual.

Eversley serves as the president of the Ministers Conference of Winston-Salem and Vicinity.

The display led Ivey to call the meeting to an end before the shareholder votes were announced.

Baldemar Velasquez, the president of the group, said he believes the meeting was productive. He said he regretted the timing of the song and walkout.

“I would say we had a modest breakthrough,” Velasquez said. “They acknowledged we have a guest-worker problem, which basically acknowledges we have an undocumented-worker problem.

“We believe it is Reynolds’ role, and under its sphere of influence, to require its suppliers to treat the farmworkers with dignity and proper work and living conditions.”

Velasquez said that his group is encouraged by recent societal, regulatory and legislative changes that have affected the tobacco industry.

“We realize that those changes didn’t happen overnight, but by a constant chipping away at the issues,” he said. “We plan to continue to chip away so our goal will become the next real change.”

In other business, the board declared a quarterly cash dividend of 90 cents a share.

The dividend is payable July 1 to shareholders registered June 10.

Shareholders rejected a proposal requiring annual elections of board members. Of the 92.8 million shares voted by beneficial shareholders — largely institutional investors — 79.4 percent voted for the elimination of classified board proposal. That represented a decrease of 13.9 million votes for the proposal and increase of almost 9 million votes against from last year’s vote.

Of the 123.2 million shares voted by registered shareholders — such as British American Tobacco — less than 1 percent was in favor of the proposal.

By Richard Craver, Journal Reporter

Media commentators are questioning the motives and backing of a new lobby group for the country’s small retailers – suggesting it is backed by big tobacco companies and their PR companies.But the group says it is entirely funded from its members and rejects any suggestion it is backed by tobacco cash.

The Association of Community Retailers (ACR) announced itself last week – saying it aimed to promote the interests of small retailers. It followed that up with criticism of the Government’s sudden hike in tobacco prices last week.

Media blogger Keith Ng questioned why ACR shared the same postal address as Omeka Public Relations, whose managing director is Glenn Inwood.

Another of Inwood’s companies, Spin It Wide, distributes press releases from Imperial Tobacco, as well as Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research, among others.

Another media blogger, Rory MacKinnon, questioned how ACR’s list of 170 member retailers, who subscribe $50 each for an annual income of around $8500, could afford two part time coordinators.

But founding member Richard Green, who runs a tobacconist business in Palmerston North, told NZPA ACR grew out of the former Stay Displays coalition of retailers, a coalition that formed to fight a proposed ban on displaying tobacco products for sale.

ACR wanted to expand from that single issue, and would speak for retailers on a wider range of subjects affecting retailers, such as security, sale of alcohol and confectionary.

ACR was set up with the help of Inwood, who he had worked on the Stay Displays campaign.

Green said the sole funding so far came from its members. It had employed two part time coordinators but it had yet to figure out how they would be funded, as it was still early days.

“I would love to get funding from the tobacco industry,” he said.

And Inwood firmly maintained ACR received no funding from tobacco companies or himself but purely from members’ subscriptions.

“It’s running off the smell of an oily rag.”

He had known Green for a few years through the Stay Displays campaign and the two had discussed how ACR could operate. His company Omeka shared office space with ACR’s two workers.

The organisation was on a membership drive and if they attracted half of the country’s 7000 independent retailers, there would be enough funding to run the organisation, he said.

None of the Auckland shops listed as “members” on ACR’s website said they were in fact paying members. All but one said they had never even heard of the association.

The exception, Martin Ave Superette, said it had signed up to Stay Display’s campaign by email years ago, and had received a letter from ACR recently – but it ended up in the bin before it was read.

The owner said she had never paid anything to the campaign or the association.

- NZPA, NZ HERALD ONLINE

In April 1994, tobacco industry executives testified under oath on Capitol Hill that nicotine wasn’t addictive – and that cigarettes didn’t kill.
(Tobacco executives, top left, in 1994. Bottom, Goldman Sachs employees, today.)

That hearing was memorable, and a turning point for tobacco companies. It opened the spigot of litigation and legislation. Since then, the tobacco industry has paid out hundreds of billions of dollars in lawsuits and settlements. Now the federal government is regulating cigarettes under a law passed last year.

The Goldman Sachs executives testifying today before the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations could take a lesson from the tobacco industry’s experience. “Goldman Sachs is to Wall Street as Philip Morris is to tobacco,” said one former tobacco industry executive who was at the Congressional hearing sixteen years ago. At that time, Phillip Morris held an estimated 45 percent share of the U.S. cigarette market.

His advice to Goldman Sachs executives: “If these guys come across as arrogant or confrontational, it won’t be good for them.”

Fabrice Tourre said in his testimony today that “to the average person the utility of these products may not be obvious.” But viewers of his testimony may hear a different message – that the average person isn’t smart enough to understand what Wall Street does.

To the former tobacco executive, it doesn’t sound much different than the message some in the tobacco industry sent back in the 1990s. “What people heard from big tobacco was ‘if you’re stupid enough to believe us when we say cigarettes don’t kill, that’s your own problem.’”

Of course, cigarettes aren’t Collateralized Debt Obligations. Lung cancer is easier to understand than a CDO or derivative. It’s too early to know if public outrage, Congressional investigations, lawsuits and regulatory reform will change change the culture and incentives of Wall Street, but the road ahead for investment bankers could be bumpy.

Cbsnews

Susan Ivey, the top executive of Reynolds American Inc., likes to tout flexibility and resiliency as two core company strengths.

Reliance on those factors paid off again during the first quarter.

Reynolds reported yesterday an $82 million profit despite dealing with higher excise taxes, lower cigarette volume, increased marketing costs and heightened competition in cigarettes and smokeless tobacco.

“Both of our reportable operating segments continued to make significant progress, with further growth in operating income and total cigarette market share at R.J. Reynolds, and double-digit, moist-snuff volume gains at American Snuff Co.,” Ivey said.

Reynolds reported that its overall sales rose 3.4 percent to almost $2 billion.

Excluding health-care charges and settlement charges with three branches of Canadian government, the company had net income of $325 million, up 10.9 percent from a year ago.

Diluted earnings were 28 cents a share, up from 3 cents a year ago.

Excluding charges, diluted earnings were $1.11 a share, up 11 cents. The average forecast was $1.07 by analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research. Most analysts exclude charges.

The ten-fold profit increase over the first quarter of 2009 — when it took significant trademark-infringement charges — propelled Reynolds’ share price to a 52-week high of $56.23 during trading yesterday. It finished up 36 cents to $55.77.

One sign of Reynolds’ flexibility is its marketing push of Pall Mall as a lower-cost cigarette alternative during the recession.

Although Camel remains the brand face of Reynolds, its market share as the No. 3 brand — behind Marlboro and Newport — slipped in the past 12 months from 7.6 percent to 7.1 percent.

By comparison, Pall Mall’s market share as the No. 4 brand has surged from 2.9 percent to 6.5 percent. Combined, Camel and Pall Mall comprise half of Reynolds’ cigarette shipment volume.

“It is clear that Reynolds was able to adapt to the changing demand conditions, running leaner inventories and increasing sales, through skillful and well-targeted marketing,” said Stephen Pope, the chief global-market strategist with Cantor Fitzgerald Europe.

Judy Hong, an analyst with Goldman Sachs, said that Pall Mall’s 134 percent year-over-year surge in shipment volume to 4.4 billion cigarettes far surpassed her estimate of 80 percent.

However, she said that further Pall Mall market-share gains will be tougher to come by since it plans to moderate price discounts during the second quarter. “We remain cautious (whether) Pall Mall growth can be maintained as the brand begins to lap 100 percent-plus growth,” Hong said.

On the smokeless side, Grizzly lost 0.7 percentage points of market share in the moist-snuff category — to 24 percent — despite an 11.7 percent increase in shipment volume to 72.6 million cans.

Philip Morris USA has been aggressively pricing its Copenhagen and Skoal brands in recent months. As a result, Copenhagen regained the top market share during the quarter at 25.6 percent, while Skoal was third at 23.1 percent.

Ivey said that the company has started consolidating the trade-marketing groups of its Reynolds Tobacco and American Snuff Co. subsidiaries into Reynolds Tobacco, a process that is expected to be completed by Sept. 30. The Reynolds’ unit has about 1,800 jobs in the marketplace, and American Snuff has about 350.

The company said that “nearly all employees” with the American Snuff unit will be offered positions at Reynolds. “We’re planning to let employees know their individual circumstances by the end of July,” spokeswoman Maura Payne said.

The company reaffirmed its adjusted earnings guidance for fiscal 2010 in the range of $4.80 to $5, excluding charges.

Hong said that Reynolds’ reluctance to change its full-year outlook “suggest the competitive outlook remains challenging, especially given competitive product launches in both cigarettes and smokeless throughout the remainder of the year.

Diversification continues to be the key for area farmers and the future of agriculture in Mason County and the Buffalo Trace Region.
Traditional crops such as tobacco and corn now share more cropland with hay products and soybeans; the number of beef and dairy cattle continues to be strong; and the future of a viable market for locally grown vegetables continues to be an area of promise.

Once the dominant crop, Burley tobacco production in Mason County in 2008 was 1,960 pounds and expected to decrease for the 2010 season. But according to Mason County Extension Agent Tad Campbell, the news about tobacco production isn’t as dire as it may appear because no official word has been received about how many pounds will be contracted.

“As long as the opportunity is available to grow tobacco, it will be grown. We’ve always been able to produce quality tobacco,” Tad said.

And as the trend moves away from tobacco, production of cattle and forage, once viewed as a supplement to tobacco production, are now becoming the focus, he said.

Nontraditional areas of agriculture such as cattle are seeing a rise among local farmers, so much so that a Mason County Cattlemen’s Association has been formed and will be meeting every two months and will have a speaker on hand to discuss topics related to cattle on both a local level and beyond.

Tad provided data on the number of cattle, both dairy and beef in Mason County; in 2007/2008 there were 29,500 cattle and the number in 2009 increased to 35,000.

Tad said because of the increase, cattle are going to be the lead livestock for the county and the area, with a focus on cattle production and efficiency.

And while the increase in cattle has been positive for many farmers, those involved in dairy farming continue to move through peaks and valleys as the supply and demand of the market fluctuates.

Tad noted tobacco and dairy commodities are “taking a hit” right now, but in agriculture the trend can turn at any time and each commodity is still an important aspect of the overall agricultural base of the county. There are currently 23 dairy farms in Mason County.

“This is a time of stress for some our most popular areas,” Tad said of the dairy and tobacco producers. “As long as we can stay diverse, we can weather the storm.”

Diversity for farmers also comes in the production of corn and soybeans grown each year; currently Mason County has 11,000 to 12,000 acres dedicated to the two crops, which are rotated out each year. The rotation is beneficial to the quality of the soil, and yields a healthier crop. The corn to soybean ratio is 2 to 1.

Locally grown corn is used for grain purposes for livestock consumption and the grain is sold on the retail market, after the producing farmer has filled his/her own bins. The varieties of field corn grown to produce grain have a different taste than those grown for human consumption, Tad explained, adding consumers can purchase locally grown sweet corn at area farmers markets and produce auctions.

“Last year was a super yield with all the rain,” he said.

Approximately 7,000 to 8,000 acres of cropland are used for production of corn in the county; 3,000 to 4,000 acres are dedicated to soybean production, which is also used for feed purposes, after the oil has been extracted.

“Most of our beans are sold on the open market,” said Tad.

Currently 39,000 acres of Mason County cropland is dedicated to forage base for livestock consumption; the forage base is comprised of all hay products, including alfalfa hay. Approximately 10,500 acres of the 39,000 acres is dedicated strictly to alfalfa production.

“That’s one-third of the overall hay production,” Campbell said, noting alfalfa is the most valuable hay commodity. He also noted the 39,000 acres doesn’t constitute pasture in Mason County, which is also used for forage.

“Mason County forage production, especially in this side of the state, is one of the higher counties,” said Campbell.

The challenge for farmers is to look beyond what crops are traditional to the region and explore alternative commodities, which may lead to a niche market for producers, similar to what Burley tobacco once did for farmers in the region.

Currently, 100 acres of land has been dedicated to growing switchgrass, which is being explored by electric companies such as East Kentucky Power Cooperative as an alternative fuel source; the 100 acres are spread among 14 farms in the Buffalo Trace Region. Tad said switchgrass can also be used as forage for livestock. As a bio-fuel, establishing a viable need in the (power generation) market is still being explored, but should the concept prove favorable, farmers in the region are poised to be on the cutting edge of production.

“It’s still generating a lot of thought process from those interested and those that are doing it,” he said.

The development of a strong commercial/wholesale market for vegetables is also being explored for local growers, an area that has never been fully tapped before, and in fact, some of the products never produced in the region before. To make the concept a reality, Tad said growers would need to prove they can grow high quality and high quantity for commercial market aspect.

The possibility of grape production could also be an option, given the fact the region was once home to many vineyards for wine production until a blight wiped out the crops in the 1800s; production of such commodities as hops and barley is also a thought and Tad said he visited a hops production farm in Oregon last year to learn more about how to produce the crop.

And while not every commodity such as grapes, hops or barley may be a viable option for our area of the country, it’s looking at those types of “outside the box” ideas that are going to be essential when farmers are exploring ways to diversify their product, while keeping a focus on the market and where the opportunities are, Tad said.

“The key is to maintain a diverse thought process rather than keeping all our eggs in one basket,” Tad said. “It’s a constant thing to diversify and produce income on the farm.”

By MARLA TONCRAY, Maysville