The Food and Drug Administration's scrutiny of tobacco products is just one of the forces that has made farmers more insecure about the traditionally profitable crop. Cigarette companies are pickier today about the tobacco they buy. Baled tobacco, picked a little at a time, brings a higher price than tobacco cut all at once in the field and thrown onto a burlap sheet. And the fear that the companies will begin requiring contracts with fiercely independent farmers is threatening the company-grower relationship, DeLoach said. So is a lawsuit by tobacco farmers, including DeLoach.
Tobacco is the fourth largest income producing row crop in Georgia.
More than 50 percent of Georgia produced tobacco is exported. Tobacco has the highest farm value per acre of all field crops produced in Georgia in 1998.