While the 20,100 acres is well below historical levels, it marks a turnaround from steep declines in production seen in the past decade. For details about the tobacco acreage and some reactions as to why planting is on the rise, read tomorrow's Times-Dispatch. Tobacco once was the state's top cash crop, but ranked fourth among field crops in 2006. The number of acres planted with tobacco rose slightly this year from last year, according to the Virginia Farm Service Agency.

Production has rebounded somewhat in the past two years as the remaining farmers adjust to the new system, though acreage is still below the pre-buyout level. tobacco in world markets, as well as a smaller number of farmers growing more leaf since a government-support program was eliminated two years ago, said Don Anderson, a Halifax County farmer. Cigarette companies also financed a 10-year, $10 billion buyout to compensate farmers for the value of lost production quotas, prompting some...

House and Senate, the federal tax on high-priced premium cigars could jump as much as 20,000 percent. Other types of tobacco products, like snuff, are also facing federal tax increases. Tom Jenkins, an El Humidor customer, said because he only smokes cigars on occasion, the proposed tax hike on cigars would not impact him greatly. Zwolinski thinks the proposed taxed would be more sensible if the tax ceiling on cigars was kept to less than $1 instead of $10. The federal government currently...

Anti-smoking ads revealing tobacco industry's deceptive practices have been aggressively quashed. People often judge these ads and now you know what the tobacco industry was doing trying to undermine them," Ibrahim said. Research has found ads that reveal the deceptive practices of the tobacco industry are the most effective media campaigns that reduce smoking rates, she said. However, these messages aren't always getting out there because of the money spent by the tobacco industry to...

For cigars, the proposed tax could increase from 5 cents per cigar to 53 percent of the manufacturer s cost, with the cap being $10 per cigar. The State . 07/26/2007 . Tax could snuff out small cigar stores Subscriber Services Search TheState.com Archives Web for Logout . Member Center . Sign in to Classifieds Jobs. But what would be fatal to some smaller cigar stores is a provision that applies the new tax rates to existing inventory on the day the new rate takes effect. In the hunt to...

As one might logically conclude, the article celebrates the fact that cigarette sales in North Carolina dropped by 18. Advertisement Here you see a classic example of schizoid socialism at work: The government becomes dependent upon revenue derived by selectively penalizing an industry that it is determined to kill. Does anyone honestly believe that all of those state tobacco tax dollars go toward the treatment of smoking-related illness? Of course not, so if the state actually succeeds in...

The 5 cent cigar has gone the way of the dodo bird, of course, but nothing could have prepared cigar lovers for the fact that Congress is now planning to raise cigar taxes to as high as $10 per cigar. Even if they have to pay a duty in bringing these cigars back, they will gladly do so since that duty will be far less than the $10 per cigar tax that they would otherwise have to pay. Not only will poor people not purchase cigars, but rich people will -- whenever they can -- opt to purchase...

The tobacco industry is offering up spit tobacco as a "safe alternative" to smoking. Promoting chew The tobacco industry knows smokers are concerned about the adverse health effects of smoking, and the public is increasingly intolerant of secondhand smoke. First, the tobacco industry is in the business of selling addiction. But thanks to the state Legislature, which appropriated $9 million to fund statewide tobacco prevention, Montanans have a fighting chance against the addiction that...

The idea is not to impart flavor to the cigar, but to keep the tobacco in a nearly sealed environment, concentrating the heat and the aging process. All of the tobacco used to make the cigar spends time in old oak barrels that once held Dominican rum. When they were opened, it smelled like heaven, said Blanco, and the tobacco "got real dark. Few cigars are made from tobacco aged in barrels, so the cigar men at Aurora S. think they have something special with their Aurora Corojo Oscuro...