From soil to store, tobacco farming is destroying our health and our planet

The tobacco products on our shelves don’t begin their lives on a factory floor – instead these products begin as tobacco plants, which must be farmed and harvested.

Tobacco farming is often promoted as a viable, economically sustaining way of life in low- and middle-income countries – enticing farmers to grow a crop that may generate cash, provide access to credit, and is somewhat resistant to market fluctuations like other crops.15 What often happens, however, is farmers are locked into contracts with transnational companies unable to negotiate fair terms, forced to sell their tobacco leaf to leaf-buying companies at low, set prices, and to absorb high labor costs.16 And since tobacco is a monocrop, which means that it’s the only crop grown on the same land year after year, the soil quality, use of pesticides and chemicals, and water pollution make it even more difficult for farmers to transition to a more sustainable and economical crop.17

Worldwide, approximately three million hectares of land, or just over seven million acres, are used to grow, harvest, and cure tobacco.18 All of that land – including forests – is cleared for tobacco farming, contributing to deforestation.19 And tobacco farming also pumps dangerous chemicals into the soil and degrades both land and water quality.20

These are just a few of the many destructive practices tobacco companies want to hide. Now it’s time to bring these environmental hazards to light.

Big Tobacco clears land through deforestation: tobacco farming phase I

Deforestation not only threatens the biodiversity of our natural environment, it also often leaves soil more vulnerable to erosion, which in turn can cause the plants left behind to be more susceptible to fire.21

Tobacco farming accounts for about five percent of the world’s total deforestation.22 Every year, approximately 200,000 hectares of land are cleared for tobacco agriculture and curing, which is equivalent to about two-thirds of Yosemite National Park.2324 And it is estimated that one tree is burned for every 300 cigarettes made.25

Although there are many ways to cure tobacco, the most common for cigarette tobacco is called flue curing, which uses heat from burning wood to dry the tobacco in a temperature-controlled barn.26

Deforestation destroys the forests that act like the Earth’s lungs and are a critical component to our global health. According to Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, “Some 1.6 billion people worldwide depend directly on forests for food, shelter, energy, medicines, and income. Forests provide clean air and fresh water and help to avert desertification. They are home to 80 percent of all known terrestrial species, and they regulate our climate, absorbing one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions.”27

Once deforestation occurs, much of the carbon stored by trees is released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, which contributes to climate change and causes environmental damage that ultimately affects us all.28 In fact, a recent University of Southern California study spanning a five-year period found that on days in which Californians experienced extreme climate change-induced heat waves and air pollution, deaths were 21 percent more likely to occur.29

But the harms from tobacco farming don’t stop with deforestation.

Deforestation leads to land and water degradation: tobacco farming phase II

Tobacco plants are extremely resource-intensive to grow, and once the land is cleared, these plants have far-reaching consequences, from soil degradation which decreases soil fertility, to chemical run-off, water waste, and greenhouse gas emissions.30

Tobacco growing requires the use of harsh pesticides and fertilizers that damage and degrade the soil.31 These chemicals then run off into surrounding lakes, rivers, and drinking water.32

Additionally, tobacco farming requires massive amounts of water. In fact, tobacco needs up to eight times more water than crops like tomatoes or potatoes.33 Each year, about 15 million Olympic-sized swimming pools are depleted for use in tobacco production – that’s about a gallon of water per cigarette.34

It’s critical to understand exactly who bears the brunt of the harms of tobacco farming – as it does not affect us all equally.

Although more than 120 countries produce tobacco worldwide on an estimated 3.2 million hectares (ha) of land, or over 7 million acres of total land, the majority of tobacco production takes place in the following four countries:35

1. China – 1,014,553ha
2. India – 431,146ha
3. Brazil – 357,230ha
4. Indonesia – 112,770ha

While tobacco cultivation in high-income countries has been declining since 2005 and global cultivation has decreased by more than 15 percent, production in low-income countries has increased by nearly 20 percent during the same time.36 The tobacco industry targets these lower-income countries because these countries have lower production and labor costs that allow them to grow their business.

Tobacco products often begin their lives as tobacco plants on small, family-owned farms. In fact, 90 percent of tobacco is grown in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) by “smallholders,” or family farms operating on less than 2.5 acres of land – which is roughly the size of two football fields.37

Tobacco production traps farmers in a cycle of poverty

The tobacco industry harms more than just consumers – they actively trap small family farms in a cycle of poverty to maximize Big Tobacco’s profits.38

Once farmers harvest their crops, the tobacco plants are sold on the “global leaf market,” which is dominated by just two large multinational corporations: Universal Leaf Tobacco and Alliance One International.39 These corporations then rake in billions of dollars in profit as they pass the product to manufacturers to produce and sell cigarettes.

In other words, there is a huge and unjust economic power imbalance between Big Tobacco and the farmers who actually grow the product.

The tobacco industry has become a highly consolidated, monopoly-like market, with large multinationals relying on contract farming as the primary way to ensure that farmers hold all the risk and little of the reward.40 While these contract farming systems might provide farmers with supplies upfront at no cost, farmers are then “contracted” to sell their tobacco leaf to a designated merchant at a set price with little ability to negotiate. The upfront supplies are often deducted at the time of the sale, leaving farmers with very little return on their effort and investment.4142

Thus, far too often, Big Tobacco locks farmers into a life-long cycle of poverty. In fact, a study of Zambian farmers found that most contract farmers were operating on a net loss.43

Even worse, these contracts often restrict farmers from growing anything else on their land, including vital crops like potatoes.4445

So, what happens when tobacco leaf is prioritized over food crops?

The compounding costs of tobacco farming: malnourishment and child labor

Big Tobacco’s farming practices drive malnourishment and other physical health harms, as well as devastating child labor practices and land degradation.46 And, at the heart of these destructive harms is Big Tobacco’s perpetuation of economic injustice in the name of their own profits.

Trapped by these exploitative contracts and the poverty they perpetuate, farmers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are forced by large multinational companies to prioritize growing tobacco over food crops – even in communities experiencing high levels of malnourishment and food insecurity.4748

We need look no further than Malawi, a top tobacco-producing country, as an example.49 Malawi’s economy has relied on tobacco production which contributes more than half of the country’s export value and is a main form of income for Malawians.50 Although overall crop farmers producing tobacco declined from 16 percent to 5 percent between 2004 to 2019, the country’s undernourishment rate is an astounding 27 percent.51 Malnutrition reduces an individual’s economic potential, and in turn, poverty increases the risk of food insecurity leading to the cycle of malnutrition.52

And Big Tobacco is a BIG part of the problem: In Malawi in 2008, every 2.5 acres devoted to tobacco produced a single ton of tobacco leaf, whereas the same amount of land growing potatoes produced 14.6 tons of nutritional food in the same year.53

Coercing farmers into prioritizing cultivation of tobacco leaf over sustainable food crops – which in turn creates a major barrier to developing a food system that serves the needs of local communities – is another in a long list of tactics that Big Tobacco employs to reinforce the cycle of poverty in order to ensure their own profits.

As yet another byproduct of Big Tobacco’s greed, it is also well documented that tobacco production relies on child labor around the world.

In fact, the United States Department of Agriculture reports that child labor is used to produce tobacco in 17 countries – one of the worst track records across all goods reported.54

Focusing back in on Malawi, a recent report showed that up to 63 percent of tobacco farming families rely on child labor.55 Because of the unjust conditions established by the tobacco industry, tobacco farming families are too often forced to make decisions to meet their immediate needs – and child labor can become a necessity, as families might need their children to contribute to their household incomes in order to survive.56

Child labor is detrimental to long-term economic growth in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).57 These unfair labor practices that Big Tobacco relies on and perpetuates too often rob children of their right to an education and deny them critical health and social opportunities, stunting their personal development.58

But the harms of tobacco farming aren’t limited to wreaking environmental despair and socioeconomic injustice. They extend to physical health consequences for tobacco farmers and their families, too.

Health harms for tobacco farmers and their families

Tobacco farmers, including child laborers and their families, are at risk of severe health harms that result from handling tobacco plants, insecticides and other toxic chemicals during tobacco cultivation.5960 A staggering 25 percent of tobacco farmers suffer from green tobacco sickness, also known as nicotine poisoning – a disease caused from the nicotine that is absorbed through the skin when tobacco leaves are handled.61 In addition, tobacco farmers are vulnerable to inhaling tiny airborne tobacco particles known as “tobacco dust” and other chemical pesticides.62

Consequently, a tobacco farmer who plants, cultivates, and harvests tobacco could absorb the same amount of nicotine that is found in 50 cigarettes.63 Farmers can also carry chemicals with them back home on their bodies, clothes or shoes, which can have damaging consequences for their families.64

These serious health harms are compounded for child laborers who work on tobacco farms. In addition to the familial and financial demands of working, these children may experience a variety of physical and psychological harms including long work hours, cuts and gashes from equipment, exposure to toxic chemicals, strain on their bodies from lifting and moving tobacco farming equipment, and extreme weather conditions.65

A Human Rights Watch report interviewed 141 child tobacco workers and found almost three-quarters of them experienced symptoms, including “nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, headaches, dizziness, skin rashes, difficulty breathing and irritation to their eyes and mouths,” while working to produce tobacco.66

How has Big Tobacco been able to get away with spurring massive amounts of damage that results from producing cigarettes and other tobacco products – let alone the myriad of other environmental and health harms that occur once tobacco products are consumed?

The answer: the tobacco industry has demonstrated time and again that they’re willing to lie in the name of maintaining profits at any cost, while repeatedly failing to take responsibility for their actions.

One of the key ways the tobacco industry lies today is through “greenwashing,” a practice whereby “disinformation [is] disseminated by an organization as to present an environmentally responsible image.”67 This is yet another example of Big Tobacco’s favorite tactic: manipulation and deceit.

The tobacco industry strives to give the impression that they are environmentally conscious without doing the actual work to greenify their business. Instead, Big Tobacco has doubled down on publicity-driven efforts – from beach clean-ups to partnerships with environmentally-focused nonprofit organizations – in order to create the illusion of being environmentally sound and responsible, without getting to the root of the problem: the cultivation, production, and disposal of their toxic tobacco products.68

If there’s one thing to take away from this, here it is: Whether you use tobacco products or not, there is no escaping the harm the tobacco industry poses to us all.

Not only is the tobacco industry responsible for producing and distributing products that are the leading cause of preventable death in the world, but it is also to blame for enormous damage to our natural environments – which comes at an astounding cost, especially to our world’s most vulnerable communities.6970

Yet, despite how much they attempt to shirk responsibility, the tobacco industry must be held accountable. That’s where we come in, together.

What can you do? 

Despite the tobacco industry’s attempts to thwart any efforts to curb tobacco farming, doing so is not only possible, but can pave the way to a more environmentally and economically sound – and equitable – future for everyone, everywhere. 

California is a state that proudly stands for equity and justice, and as such, we Californians have a responsibility to stand up for a more just future for our neighbors around the globe by ending the tobacco industry once and for all. Right now, you can help hold Big Tobacco accountable by: 

1. Making your voice heard by writing an email to local officials or sending a Tweet to raise visibility around the devastating harms of tobacco farming.
2. Joining a local coalition that’s fighting back against the tobacco industry right now.