Organic Tobacco Growing in America and Other Earth-Friendly Farming

When a small company dedicated to doing things differently decided some twenty years ago to make as natural a tobacco product as possible, they turned to America’s tobacco farmers and proposed an unheard of proposition: How about growing organic tobacco? Today, demand for organic tobacco leaf is doubling each year. But when it was first proposed, there were more than a few skeptics. Now, many are looking at the growing practices and sustainable farming techniques developed by this small group of pioneers. Here’s the colorful history behind this new old way of farming. 'Organic Tobacco Growing in America' is a quintessential American story of applying vision and values to innovation. More than just a practical guide on how and why to embrace organic growing, this is a story that stretches from its American Indian-inspired beginnings in the windswept high desert of northern New Mexico to the fabled tobacco roads of the southeast. Along the way, meet the growers who learned how organic farming of not just tobacco, but vegetables and other produce as well, is returning the principles of nature back to the family farm. This is a story about the rebirth of a lifestyle-a way of life that once was and now is meant to be again-for a world that yearns for sustainable, earth-friendly farming. Mike Little has been working with tobacco nearly his entire life. Today he is the 'master blender' and senior vice president of operations for Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company (SFNTC). Fielding Daniel also has been working in and around the golden leaf for many years. He is director of leaf for SFNTC and, like Mike, is based in Oxford, North Carolina. Mark Smith, a writer and vice president of communications for SFNTC, has been working with tobacco for the better part of three decades. He is based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Jim Haskins, with his company, AgriBusiness Communications Group, based in Carrboro, North Carolina, has been writing about tobacco growers for more than ten years for SFNTC. He has produced numerous videos, including 'How to Grow Organic Tobacco-the Santa Fe Way.' 3