Farmers mount global action vs tobacco ban

MANILA, Philippines - Key representatives of tobacco farmer organizations from around the world met in Lexington, Kentucky recently and accused the World Health Organization (WHO) of complete indifference towards millions of farmers’ and their families’ livelihoods in some of the poorest parts of the world.

Eighty percent of the world’s traded tobacco production was represented at this year’s International Tobacco Growers Association (ITGA) Annual General Meeting, where farmers discussed the devastating impact that new guidelines for the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) could bring if adopted in Uruguay in November, it was learned. 

Guidelines for articles 9, 10, 17 and 18 of the FCTC would ban the use of ingredients used in tobacco products and reduce the tobacco planted area worldwide. According to ITGA, which represents 30 million tobacco farmers these measures will have disastrous social and economic consequences without making any difference to peoples’ health.

The Philippine tobacco sector was represented by the Phil Tobacco Growers Association (PTGA) in the Kentucky world tobacco confab.

The fate of these controversial guidelines will be decided on mid November this year during the Fourth Conference of the Parties meeting in Uruguay.

In a statement, ITGA said that in spite of ringing the alarm bells, the ITGA’s request for “a seat at the table” has been rejected by the WHO, who has allegedly considered farmers as”interferences.”

“We are the people most affected by these guidelines”, says Antonio Abrunhosa, CEO of the ITGA. “Yet people with very limited understanding of how tobacco is grown are deciding on our fate at the throw of dice, without even consulting us.”

To add salt to the wound, ITGA claimed that the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA), “a well funded group of NGOs, whose sole purpose is to develop and implement the FCTC,” recently labeled tobacco farmers’ pleas as ‘misleading information.’

Abrunhosa added that in a document published on its (FCA) website, it argues that the guidelines do not ban Burley tobacco, but “ignores the fact that without such ingredient, demand for Burley would virtually disappear, leaving no economically viable alternative crop for its growers.”

He also dismissed FCA’s claim that ingredients make cigarettes more ‘attractive’ saying “it ignores the fact that half the world’s smokers already prefer cigarettes with less ingredients”.

“We have no issue with the WHO regulating tobacco consumption,” the ITGA CEO said. “But they should listen to those who understand the crop and not just those who hate it.”

In recent weeks a petition opposing the WHO proposals has been launched by the ITGA and circulated to tobacco farmers around the world. So far the petition has generated more than 200,000 signatures from 25 tobacco growing countries.

It was learned that on Nov. 8, one week before the Uruguay meeting, tobacco farmers will present their governments with their signed petitions, calling on them to, “Stop the Conference of the Parties of the FCTC from destroying tobacco farmers’ livelihoods and to reject the draft guidelines for articles 9 and 10 and the recommendations for articles 17 and 18.”

The Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC) is the first treaty negotiated under the auspices of the WHO.

Article 9 of the FCTC aims to regulate the contents of tobacco products, i.e., the testing and measuring of tobacco contents and emissions. Article 10 of the FCTC aims at regulating tobacco product disclosures, i.e. disclosure of contents and emissions of tobacco products. 

A working group, led by Canada, Norway and the European Union, developed detailed guidelines on Articles 9 and 10 for countries to follow when implementing national legislation. The latest version of the draft guidelines recommends a ban on use of ingredients in tobacco products.

Articles 17 and 18 of the FCTC address economically sustainable alternatives to tobacco growing.

The latest recommendations will be discussed at the 4th Conference of the Parties and state that “Parties should, in cooperation with relevant national, regional and international organizations, not invest in the production and/or promotion of tobacco production [and] also gradually reduce the area planted to tobacco.” 

Signatories to the FCTC will discuss and vote the guidelines on articles 9 and 10 and debate articles 17 and 18 at the 4th Conference of the Parties meeting in Uruguay in November 2010.