The World Health Organization has urged governments to stop subsidizing deadly tobacco farming and support more sustainable crops that could alleviate hunger and starvation.
“Tobacco is responsible for 8 million deaths a year, yet
governments across the world spend millions supporting tobacco farms,” said Dr
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “By choosing to grow
food instead of tobacco, we prioritize health, preserve ecosystems, and
strengthen food security for all.”
More than 300 million people globally face acute food
insecurity while more than 3 million hectares of land across more than 120
countries are being used to grow deadly tobacco, even in countries where people
are starving! This priorities the economic
benefits of a few over the lives of many that are lost either through hunger
and starvation or lung and other tobacco related cancers.
A new WHO report, “Grow food, not tobacco”, highlights the detriments
of growing tobacco versus the benefits of growing sustainable food crops for
farmers, communities, economies, the environment, and the world at large. The
report also exposes the tobacco industry for trapping farmers in a vicious
cycle of debt, propagating tobacco growing by exaggerating its economic
benefits and lobbying through farming front groups. For more in depth knowledge of this and other
exploitative practice, I recommend “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” by John
Perkins.
Tobacco farming causes diseases to the farmers themselves. More
than 1 million child laborers are estimated to be working on tobacco farms,
missing their opportunity for an education.
In addition, countless others perish
from tobacco related disease. This
includes my own Mother, who perished from cigarette induced lung cancer when I
was pregnant and in my 20’s.
“Tobacco is not only a massive threat to food insecurity,
but health overall, including the health of tobacco farmers. Farmers are
exposed to chemical pesticides, tobacco smoke and as much nicotine as found in
50 cigarettes – leading to illnesses like chronic lung conditions and nicotine
poisoning,” according to Dr Ruediger Krech, Director of Health Promotion at
WHO.
Tobacco growing is a global problem. The focus has so
far been in Asia and South America, but the latest data show tobacco companies
are expanding to Africa. Since 2005, there has been a nearly 20% increase in
tobacco farming land across Africa.
It is time to proactively oppose the exploitation and death
promoted by tobacco! SAY NO TO TOBACCO!
