With a growing global food crisis driven mainly by conflict, climate change, and the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the ripple effects of the Russia/Ukraine war driving rising food, fuel and fertilizer prices, the need to grow more food has become ever more urgent.
But tobacco growing stands in the way of food security, with around 4 million hectares of land across the globe converted for tobacco growing each year.
“Currently, tobacco is grown in over 125 countries as a cash crop, over an estimated area of 4 million hectares (ha), which is an area larger than the country of Rwanda. The harmful effects of the cultivation on the environment are particularly apparent in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC),” the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a November 7, 2022 release announcing the 2023 global campaign for World No Tobacco Day.
The global health body is, thus, focusing on growing sustainable food crops instead of tobacco for this year’s World No Tobacco Day themed “We need food, not tobacco”.
Tobacco growing is bad for public health, the health of farmers and the planet’s health, WHO said. For instance, a tobacco farmer who plants, cultivates and harvests tobacco may absorb as much nicotine as found in 50 cigarettes in a single day.
Whereas the tobacco industry often claims to be an advocate for the livelihood of tobacco farmers, WHO said this is a far cry from the truth.
“The intensive handling of insecticides and toxic chemicals during the cultivation of tobacco contributes to many farmers and their families suffering from ill health. Further, unfair contractual arrangements with tobacco companies keep farmers impoverished, and the child labour that is often woven into tobacco cultivation interferes with the right to education and is a violation of human rights,” it said.
It said nine of the 10 largest tobacco cultivators are low- and middle-income countries, and four of these are defined as low-income food-deficit countries.
Tobacco farming also has adverse impact on the environment. A resource-intensive venture that requires heavy use of pesticides and fertilizers, tobacco growing leads to depletion of water sources, soil erosion, contamination of the air and water systems, and contributes to deforestation of 200,000 hectares of land a year, WHO said.
“Compared with other agricultural activities such as maize growing and even livestock grazing, tobacco farming has a far more destructive impact on ecosystems as tobacco farmlands are more prone to desertification,” the world health body said.
“Any profits to be gained from tobacco as a cash crop may not offset the damage done to sustainable food production in low- and middle-income countries,” it said.
Furthermore, WHO in a 2022 report said the tobacco industry costs the world more than 8 million human lives, 600 million trees, 200,000 hectares of land, 22 billion tonnes of water and 84 million tonnes of CO2 annually.
The report, “Tobacco: Poisoning our planet”, said the industry’s carbon footprint from production, processing and transporting tobacco is equivalent to one-fifth of the CO2 produced by the commercial airline industry each year, further contributing to global warming.
“Tobacco products are the most littered item on the planet, containing over 7000 toxic chemicals, which leech into our environment when discarded. Roughly 4.5 trillion cigarette filters pollute our oceans, rivers, city sidewalks, parks, soil and beaches every year,” said Dr Ruediger Krech, Director of Health Promotion at WHO.
Products like cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes also add to the build-up of plastic pollution. Cigarette filters contain microplastics and make up the second-highest form of plastic pollution worldwide.
Cleaning up littered tobacco products also comes at a huge cost to taxpayers instead of the industry creating the problem. It costs China roughly $2.6 billion annually, India about $766 million, Brazil and Germany over $200 million, according to WHO estimates.
“The 2023 global campaign aims to raise awareness about alternative crop production and marketing opportunities for tobacco farmers and encourage them to grow sustainable, nutritious crops. It will also aim to expose the tobacco industry’s efforts to interfere with attempts to substitute tobacco growing with sustainable crops, thereby contributing to the global food crisis,” WHO said.
This is why the 2023 World No Tobacco Day campaign is seeking to mobilize governments to end subsidies on tobacco growing and use the savings for crop substitution programmes that support farmers to switch and improve food security and nutrition; raise awareness in tobacco farming communities about the benefits of moving away from tobacco and growing sustainable crops; support efforts to combat desertification and environmental degradation by decreasing tobacco farming; and expose industry efforts to obstruct sustainable livelihoods work.
The 2023 World No Tobacco Day will also serve as an opportunity to mobilize governments and policymakers to support farmers to switch to sustainable crops through creating market ecosystems for alternative crops and encourage at least 10,000 farmers globally to commit to shifting away from tobacco growing. These alternative crops will feed the farmers’ families and millions more on a global scale, help them break free of the vicious debt-ridden cycle of tobacco growing, and support a healthier environment overall.
In Kenya, WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have been collaborating on an alternative livelihood project, working with farmers to use the collective purchasing system within the United Nations to create an enabling and supportive crop production and marketing ecosystem that incentivizes farmers to move away from tobacco farming.
“Over the last few months, we have seen long-time tobacco farmers planting alternative crops like high-iron beans in fields where tobacco once grew – a tremendous achievement in the world of tobacco control. The former tobacco farmers report better health, education gains for their children and increased wages,” Dr Vinayak M Prasad, Unit Head, No Tobacco (TFI) at WHO, said in a 2022 report.
