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papa

Lurker
Apr 24, 2013
40
0
Dallas Tx.
With tobacco production on the decline, some tobacco farmers in Virginia are testing their soil and planting what? CHICK PEAS. Hummus, comes from Chick Peas, and I must say is good, and is in big demand. CBS Morning Show just did a story, with a Virginia Tobacco Farmer. Very interesting.

 

fitzy

Lifer
Nov 13, 2012
2,937
27
NY
Hummus is conquring America.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323798104578453174022015956.html

 

murf

Can't Leave
Mar 1, 2013
446
1
I never could get into hummus that much. Now, I have a reason not to eat it!

 

wnghanglow

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 25, 2012
695
0
Although I'm sad that Virginia's will be more expensive and harder to get in the future, I am kinda excited that the price of hummus will drop a bit, I love that stuff. *bot nearly as much as I love Vapers though*

 

hfearly

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 11, 2012
822
2
Canada
The European Union has doing the same thing to tobacco farmers all across the European continent for years now. They actively discourage planting tobacco and encourage planting vegetables through monetary means (penalties and subsidization). Already, most regions that have been the main sources for Oriental tobaccos such as Smyrna, Basma, Latakia, or Yenidje, have transitioned into planting potatoes instead of already hard-to-come-by tobacco.
It's a genius 2-phase plan really: taxation already brings the prices to a breaking point. Now that you artificially kill production, and thus availability, prices will move even higher without the government being directly responsible.

 

chopsie

Starting to Get Obsessed
Nov 3, 2012
185
0
I hate to say it since I do love my tobacco, but it appears to me that the measures to eventually ban tobacco worldwide are being brought into place and it will most likely happen in the next 20-30 years.

 

oklansas

Can't Leave
Apr 16, 2013
441
0
DC
Your free-market at work!
Actually, the transition make quite a good bit of sense. Sabra, one of the hummus larger producers in North America, has a factory in Virginia. Currently, most of the chickpeas going into their production line are coming from the Pacific northwest. It makes sense for them to encourage more chickpea production since it has the dual benefit of reducing shipping costs AND mitigating their risk of a bad chickpea season by sourcing from different regions.
On the farmer side, and I hate to say it because I love my tobacco, is that tobacco is a shrinking market (esp. with the continuing decline in cigarette usage - which, as we all know, is the real driving force behind the economics of tobacco growing), while hummus consumption, and the need for domestic chickpea production, is growing in the U.S. everyday. Better to grow a crop with a growing market, than a crop for a shrinking one. Supply and demand at work!
On the other hand, most Virginia tobacco does not actually come from Virginia. Within the U.S., I believe, most domestic production of Va tobaccos is out of Kentucky. Additionally, while the number of acres of tobacco under cultivation in the U.S. might be dropping, places like Africa and China are increasing amount of tobacco growing every year.
Furthermore, since historic driver of the tobacco market in the U.S. has been cigarette production, I would hazard the guess that the loss in cultivation of tobacco is associated with the specific types of tobacco that are associated said production - namely, a specific strain of high-nicotine Burley. I would guess that production of other tobaccos, like the ones favored by pipe and cigar tobaccos is remaining steady - if not increasing to meet the demand of a growing market segments.
I highly doubt that this market correction in tobacco production is the signal of the extinction of tobacco as a consumer product, especially of premium products like pipe tobacco. It's true that you might see some tobaccos, such as certain orientals become more scarce, as long as their is sufficient consumer demand, they will continue to be produced. Anyway, IMO, what you see here is the death knells of the cigarette as the dominate form of tobacco usage in the United States - frankly, cigarettes are terrible in from the point of view of both the tobacco connoisseur and the health advocate. (full disclosure: I was a cigarette smoker, and yeah they are terrible.)
Moral of the story - don't morn the passing of pipe or cigar tobaccos - celebrate the end to cigarette dominance!

 

northernneil

Lifer
Jun 1, 2013
1,390
1
Those are some very good points oklansas, a much brighter looking future from your point of view :)

 
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