One thing they have in common is that they both play an important role in the income of the communities where they are grown. Per-acre profit for tobacco far exceeds that of other traditional commodities, a fact that must be considered when suggesting alternatives or proposing complementary crops to tobacco. Tobacco is not just important to the commonwealth as a whole. It also provides a primary source of income to specific counties in the state, indicating that any changes to the industry will have very site-specific implications. Both Halifax and Lunenburg counties attribute 10 percent of all household income within their respective borders to tobacco sales.
Some individual producers rely almost solely on tobacco as a source of income.
Thus, changes to the tobacco industry would have major economic impacts on producers in the two primary tobacco-growing regions of Virginia. However, tobacco-growing is more than an economic issue. For many farmers, tobacco has been produced by their families for generations. These farmers have taken pride in becoming more efficient producers of what they see as a high quality product that has competed well in the international marketplace. Tobacco production is both their economic livelihood and their way of life.