This year 2023 and with the WHO’s international anti-smoking congress to be held this year in Panama City approaching in November, the World Health Organization coordinated the “We need food not smoking” campaign against tobacco cultivation advocating the replacement of tobacco grown with agricultural food and produced its report “Grow food, not tobacco” urging farmers to do the same. The WHO says 3.2 million hectares of land are used to grow tobacco in 124 countries, even those where people are starving of hunger.
In the past, the World Health Organisation has opposed tobacco growing in Latin America and Asia, now turning its attention to tobacco growing in Africa. According to its findings, 349 million people in 79 countries around the world face acute food insecurity, with 30 of these countries located on the African continent. Brazil, China and India produce 55% of the world’s tobacco yield, followed by Indonesia, Malawi, Mozambique, Turkey, Tanzania, the United States and Zimbabwe. The WHO’s director for health promotion told reporters, however, that tobacco’s economic importance was a myth that needed to be dispelled.
Referring to tobacco and its cultivation, the joint secretary of the Federation of Agrarian Unions of All India said in response to the WHO’s derogations to replace tobacco crops with other types of cultivation, that
“Climate change and extreme taxation are pushing tobacco growers’ livelihoods to the brink. Farmers’ profits have cumulatively shrunk by more than 75 billion rupees (US$906.41 million) since 2013-14, due to crop substitution. Over 100 million kg of tobacco production are affected due to severe climatic events. The WHO’s recommendation to grow alternative crops on semi-arid lands, where even a current-resistant crop such as tobacco faces challenges due to climate change, is unscientific.”
Joint secretary of the Federation of Agrarian Unions of All India
The secretary-general of the same organization in India stated that
“The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), an international treaty to which India is a party, poses a threat to the livelihoods of tobacco growers as it has not provided viable alternatives for tobacco-producing countries. We fail to understand why the WHO is trying to influence the global supply chain for agricultural crops. One wonders if there is an agenda that the WHO is pushing on behalf of vested interests. They should persevere in their public health work and raise awareness on health-related issues and understand that tobacco is also a legal crop and product around the world. Even in the WHO FCTC, it is recommended that tobacco consumption be controlled without harming livelihoods.”
Secretary-general of FAIFA
The President of this organization of India stated regarding the WHO that
“Historically, the WHO was formed and funded by nation states. However, in recent times, the organization has also started receiving funding from non-state actors, such as private trusts that have ties to private companies. This vested interests agenda disrupts the livelihoods of global farmers and there is no in-depth study of successful alternative crops in similar agroclimatic regions. Therefore, it is imperative for the global farming community to unite and organize a protest against the WHO.”
President of FAIFA
Finally, the president of the International Confederation of Tobacco Growers ITG, seeking the inclusion of tobacco growers and their opinion in the formulation of decisions concerning them, stated that
“It is time to stand up together and ask for the support of governments against the demonization of our sector. For more than 15 years, tobacco growers have been subjected to flawed arguments that place tobacco growing as the main enemy of all the Sustainable Development Goals. The facts are completely ignored. The reality is that no viable alternatives to tobacco cultivation have been found and the implementation of Article 17 of the WHO FCTC (economically viable alternatives to tobacco growing) has not yielded tangible results. This is due to the exclusion of the main players in this debate – tobacco growers. We will never achieve a sustainable transition, where farmers’ livelihoods are guaranteed, if we do not look at the issue from all relevant angles.”
President of the International Tobacco Growers Association, ITGA
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