A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Twenty years ago today, the quota system that guaranteed tobacco prices for U.S. farmers ended. Since then, tobacco farms in Kentucky have all but disappeared. Here's Lily Burris with member station WKMS.
LILY BURRIS, BYLINE: Dale Seay grew up on a tobacco farm in rural western Kentucky, where he learned the trade from his dad. But after more than 50 harvests, the 68-year-old decided to pull the plug on the crop.
DALE SEAY: We've made a hard decision this year to not grow tobacco. It was strictly - well, probably one of the hardest things I've ever done, you know, but it was a - had to be a financial decision.
BURRIS: Seay also grows corn and soybeans on his farm outside of Hopkinsville, but he says his farm saw diminishing returns from what was once Kentucky's top cash crop. It's become too expensive with the cost of land, labor and seeds.
SEAY: We're fighting a lot of issues out here in the tobacco industry, from weather to prices to - you name it.
BURRIS: Generations of farmers have grown the crop, even as health risks of tobacco have been known since the 1960s. Then in 1998, a settlement between tobacco companies and states over the health care cost of treating smokers raised the cost of cigarettes. It also restricted advertising and marketing of tobacco. Tobacco use has been decreasing in the years since, and Seay says things are different now.
SEAY: The day as we knew it growing up is over for the tobacco plant itself.
BURRIS: The biggest decline in tobacco growing came after the quota program stopped in 2004, says Will Snell. He's an agricultural economist at the University of Kentucky.
WILL SNELL: We weren't competitive on a world basis. Our prices got too high in the program.
BURRIS: Snell says tobacco was no longer the cash crop it had been in Kentucky since the 1930s when most farms grew some tobacco.
SNELL: It put people through college. It bought a lot of cars and tractors and trucks over the years.
BURRIS: The crop is still being grown on Scott Lowe's farm outside of Murray, where workers are cutting stalks of dark-fire tobacco. It's the variety used for snuff, chew and cigars. Lowe says dark-fire tobacco has allowed him to keep the traditional crop around.
SCOTT LOWE: Well, it is still the bread and butter for our family, many families throughout this region right here.
BURRIS: He also has cattle and grows soybean and corn on his farm but considers tobacco the staple crop for his operation.
LOWE: Not only do I love growing tobacco and am passionate for it and know the impact it's had on our family, along with families throughout the county, we wouldn't be doing it if we didn't make some money.
BURRIS: Lowe still sees a future for tobacco, even as the crop has been declining for 20 years throughout Kentucky.
For NPR News, I'm Lily Burris in Calloway County, Kentucky.
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