Some tobacco farmers say they have grown more wary of the companies they had been quick to support.
Now the industry is courting the farmers, who in the past have put a sympathetic public face on issues such as increasing cigarette taxes or regulating nicotine. In North Carolina recently, top industry executives met for four hours behind closed doors with about 100 growers and farm leaders from across the South. Carlton said the point of the meeting, where he served as moderator, was to explain to growers how the tobacco bill sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., would ruin the industry and to ask for help in defeating it. By various accounts, the farm groups in the audience were polite, listened attentively and asked questions. The growers agreed with the industry executives on some points.