Market Farming

["Liz Pike" <liz AT laughingbrookfarm.com>]

> Liz are you certified USDA Organic yet ????

No, but if I do grow the tobacco, it will be worth the aggravation & expense
to comply to the new regs for a single, large crop.

>You can't
> blame anyone but yourself (of course people try).

Exactly what my dad kept repeating.  He had no one to blame but himself.

> And, of course, the tobacco industry becomes the pariah, a criminal
element,
> against which everything is possible.

And the govt's piggy bank.

> Do you
> have any idea what is in regular smokes ??  <snip> Others sounded like
part of a vast and >insidious plot to sap smokers of their vital bodily
fluids -

Not to mention what happens to the poor harvesters.  god the stuff that used
to cling to my shorts.  On days after they'd sprayed a field, between the
snake chaps, coveralls and face masks, I looked like a spaceman going in to
scout, yet no one communicated the dangers to the migrant workers who wore
no protection, not even rubber gloves!!!!  And usually, at least one would
be sitting in thekir transport vehicle, with respiratory problems.  I kept
extra gloves in my truck and gave whatfor to the farmer's responsible, and
reported violators on more than one occasion.

Made me wonder just how many health problems were caused by the chems, not
the tobacco.

Liz Pike
Laughing Brook Farm
Westfield NC