Scarcnet News Summaries (Advocacy Institute)
In KY, Settlement Funds Should Go To Help Farmers
Length: pages
Abstract
An editorial in the LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER (Kentucky) urges the state to use the funds from the multi-state settlement to free "Kentucky's rural economy from its dependence on tobacco. Perhaps as much as $138 million a year over the next couple of decades will come to the state. Some of that needs to go directly into anti-smoking efforts. But it makes sense to also invest heavily in a solid plan for farm-based economic development. . . . As demand for tobacco declines, farmers and rural leaders must develop imaginative ways to process, package and market Kentucky's other crops and livestock to make them as valuable as the golden leaf. . . . Farmers, almost by nature, are conservative. Many in Kentucky have been afraid to even contemplate a future without tobacco. It will be interesting to see if rural Kentucky can summon the boldness to imagine a decent future for itself."
Source: Editorial, "Use Kentucky's Tobacco Settlement Money To Find New Directions For Family Farming," LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER (Kentucky), December 27, 1998.