Is growing alternate crops not an option for Canadian farmers who want to exit tobacco farming?
If tobacco farmers, with average tobacco farm sizes of between 50 to 150 acres, switched to other crops, it would cause existing vegetable farmers, already struggling to make a living, to experience devastating price drops from an oversupplied market. A non-competing alternative does not yet exist. Research is being done on the viability of producing ethanol from corn for green energy, but the jury is still out. With large debt loads and little or no equity left, tobacco farmers have no access to the capital required for material and equipment required for conversion to other crops. In addition, more agricultural, economic and market research is needed to determine crops other than tobacco that are suited to the soil and climate of the tobacco belt.
