As move to make 21 legal age to buy tobacco gains steam, legislators and farmers debate impact on shrinking industry

A tobacco harvest in Kentucky (Photo by Greg Eans, Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, via The Associated Press)

As longtime legislative supporters of tobacco follow manufacturers' lead toward making 21 the legal age to buy tobacco products, in the hope of avoiding greater regulation, some other legislators and tobacco farmers are worrying about what the future holds, reports Max Blau of Stateline.

More than a dozen states have passed "T-21" laws to raise the age from 18, and now Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a top tobacco state, has introduced a bill to make 21 the legal age nationwide and leave enforcement with the states. The bills are supported by tobacco companies such as Altria Group, the No. 1 manufacturer, which recently bought 35 percent of Juul Labs, maker of the electronic cigarette by far the most popular, especially with teenagers. Their logic: Raising the legal age will reduce the pressure for rules limiting flavorings, advertising and so on.

The companies' "about-face has worried some activists, who fear industry lobbying efforts behind such laws are intended to gut stronger local tobacco regulations," Blau notes. "Southern farmers are left to figure out what comes next. Some tobacco farmers wary of T-21 think the legislation is the latest threat to one of the region’s legacy crops. . . . Agricultural experts worry that the public health initiative could force farmers to grow less tobacco or push them out of the business."

Tony Banks, a Virginia Farm Bureau commodity-marketing specialist, told Blau, “It’s another step in the direction of hastening declines in cigarette consumption. And it’s another cut to [tobacco farmers’] production and income.” Supporters of T-21 say it won't have much impact on farmers because tobacco trades in an international market, but Steve Pratt, manager of the Kentucky-based Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association, told Blau, “Obviously, anything that’s going to cause people to stop smoking is going to cause a decline in demand for burley tobacco,” Pratt said. “From that perspective, it’s definitely not going to help the tobacco farming industry.”

The industry has shrunk since the federal program of production quotas and price supports ended in 2004, and consolidated into larger farms. Pratt estimated the number of burley growers has plummeted from 175,000 to 3,000. And that has reduced the political influence of the crop that once had a powerful hold on Congress and state legislatures.