Ontario tobacco belt

The Ontario tobacco belt is the tobacco-growing region located in Norfolk County and eastern Elgin County in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Being close to the north shore of Lake Erie, the region has moderate climate with sandy and silt-loam soils well-suited to a wide variety of crops.^[1] High-value horticultural crops are valuable here and can be grown with relative ease. About 90% of all tobacco grown in Canada is produced here.^[2] Members of Parliament elected to ridings in the Ontario tobacco belt have strong pro-tobacco policies in addition to other policies in the interest of their rural constituents.^[2]

Historically speaking, the Ontario tobacco belt is considered to be focused in the rural area immediately surrounding the towns of Delhi, Aylmer and Tillsonburg. Additional tobacco farms can be found in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and near Joliette, Quebec.^[2] United Empire Loyalists introduced this crop after fleeing from their tobacco farms following the American Revolution.^[2] However, the first official tobacco plot wasn't planted in Norfolk County until 1920.^[1] While Canadian tobacco farmers (especially those in the Ontario tobacco belt) see themselves as "innocent victims" of government tobacco regulations, most of them started farming after the Canadian government started its health scares.^[2] As the older farmers retire, their children will most likely seek different career paths.^[2] Tobacco farms would eventually be sold to their neighbors; this has a domino effect.^[2] This domino effect ultimately results in fewer farmers having more acreage creating a further sense of economic inequality in the area.^[2] The irony comes from the fact that farmers protest against the regulations that keep them in business.^[2]

Recent history

An overnight frost in the early fall of 1999 damaged the unharvested crops of one hundred local tobacco farms; Norfolk County, Brant County, and Oxford County were affected in the disaster.^[3] In 2002, politicians from the Ontario tobacco belt opposed several anti-smoking measures, causing a non-smoking group to give the Ontario government a failing grade at that time.^[4] The tobacco belt members of Provincial Parliament were responsible for scaling back a proposed tobacco tax from $10/carton to $5/carton.^[4] They failed to implement a public smoking ban (until the Smoke Free Ontario law was passed in 2006).^[4] On August 8, 2008, tobacco farmers in this region were given $300 million to buy out their entire tobacco quota.^[5] All of the money was raised from a $1,000,000,000 fine against Imperial Tobacco and Rothman's Benson & Hedges.^[5] After receiving the money, farmers that signed the buy-out are permitted to grow any crop except for tobacco; switching to raising livestock like cattle, poultry, or pigs is completely legal under this plan. While the deal will end generations of tobacco farming for most families, the deal would also promise that much needed food and ethanol could possibly be grown in its place. These new crops would serve to quench the increasing demand for renewable fuels and affordable groceries.

Only about one thousand farm families still produce tobacco in the entire belt.^[6] Motivation to cease tobacco farming has been also accelerated by health issues and high tobacco taxes.^[6] Farmers who never agreed to the tobacco buy-out may grow as much tobacco as their farmland allows through a special tobacco growing license that was created on the week of May 15, 2009.^[7] Relatives of the farmers (either blood relatives or relatives through marriage) who agreed to the buy-out can still grow tobacco on the original farmer's land with a tobacco growing license.^[7] However, this right does not extend to the farmer himself who can still manage the farm but not own it in his name.^[7] Farmers must also find a company that will buy his product; otherwise he cannot grow tobacco until next year.^[7] From the year 2010 onwards, fewer farmers will be growing exactly the same number of tobacco crops that were harvested in the fall of 2009.

However with the summer temperatures of 2009 having been the coldest since 1816,^[8] the number of successful tobacco and food crops were fewer and more expensive because of fears of an early frost that never quite surfaced in 2009. The same effect should be felt months after the severe winter storm that occurred in late 2009. Even though the Grand River land dispute (formerly known as the Caledonia land dispute) occurred with 100 miles (160 km) of the tobacco belt, there has been no attempts by the Native North American population to reclaim land in the tobacco belt.

Replacements for tobacco

Horticulture and animal farming

Compared to 1998, tobacco farming is down by 60% and falling.^[9] It is possible that this tobacco industry will never recover and disappear forever.^[9] By 2020, the Ontario tobacco belt will become the "Ontario horticultural center" because of its abundance of water, proximity to urban markets (e.g., Hamilton, Kitchener, London), and a sandy soil that favors horticulutural crops.^[2] As urbanization continues to claim the Niagara Peninsula, displaced farmers will come to the Ontario tobacco belt seeking acres of land to farm.^[2] Their expertise in growing non-tobacco crops will forever change the economy of communities like Tillsonburg and Delhi.^[2]

The skills that currently come with working as a tobacco laborer will easily transition over into new jobs in horticulture labor. Most of the jobs (that involve heavy labor) can easily be done by the current population of Jamaican and Mexican transient laborers who "reside" in the tobacco belt region from March to November. They won't require a Master's degree or a doctorate to continue their laborer role because they are prohibited by the labor programs to be placed in managerial and ownership roles (that require an advanced level of university education).

Tobacco farmers in this region have to deal with the same issues that haunt European tobacco farmers; farmers are told to grow different crops or go out of business.^[10] However, it is difficult to adjust to the changing supply and demand when most farmers are in heavy debt.^[10] The economic fallout from the Canadian economic recession also played in role in declining tobacco sales and farmers going deeper into debt. There are also good opportunities for wineries, peanut farms, poultry farms, and apiaries to fill the void that tobacco leaves behind economically.^[11] Most of these alternative crops are either grown or raised in Norfolk County; that is where the cash crush of a declining tobacco market is affecting the most amount of people.^[11]

Wind generators

Wind generators have been used extensively in the Port Rowan area and in the southwestern part of Norfolk County (particularly near Lake Erie).^[12] Port Rowan has seen some wind generators installed in the northern end of their community near their active adult community. Most of them are seen near the communities of Clear Creek, Jacksonburg, Houghton Centre, and Hemlock.^[12] Port Dover (on the easternmost part of the Ontario tobacco belt) has been declared to be the site of future wind generators.^[13] Building will complete on the wind generators by early 2013 by the latest.^[13]

By harvesting the local wind energy, it is assumed that electricity could be created closer to home without using fossil fuels and without polluting the atmosphere or the water that people need to live. However, one of the side effects has been the unexplained killing of the bald eagle species that is being rehabilitated in the area.^[14] The project may be considered unsustainable if the mysterious bird killings keep their present pace.^[14] However, wind energy supporters have agreed that fossil fuel-based power plants affect the birds much worse than the wind generators.^[15] The cost of the wind generator devices (approximately $4 million CAD per unit) has caused the short-term price of hydroelectric energy to increase as it became more expensive to deliver the needed energy due to complications with the electricity grid.^[16] The conventional Ontario electricity grid had become dependent on fossil fuels,^[17] transformers,^[18] and nuclear energy for decades before the wind turbines started appearing.^[17] However, these concerns are negated by wind energy proponents who say that the turbines could lead to electricity price reductions through lower natural gas prices (due to the reductions in natural gas demand).^[19]

The use of fossil fuels is becoming less frequent amongst both rural and urban people.^[20] Alternative fuels (like wind from the nearby Erie Shores Wind Farm and any local solar energy project that will emerge in the future) will eventually relegate the use of fossil fuels to the Middle East and to developing countries.^[20]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Waterfowl and Wetlands of Long Point Bay and Old Norfolk County". Long Point Biosphere. http://longpointbiosphere.com/Publications/Wetlands/execsum/use.htm. Retrieved 2010-11-22. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} "Farmers on Tobacco Road". International Development Research Centre. http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-28833-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html#. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
3. ^ "Frost Caused Damage in Tobacco Belt". CBC News. 1999-09-22. http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/1999/09/22/frost220999.html. Retrieved 2008-11-17. 
4. ^ ^{a b c} "Ontario Fails to Control Tobacco". Action on Smoking and Health. 2002-10-17. http://no-smoking.org/oct02/10-17-02-2.html. Retrieved 2008-11-16. 
5. ^ ^{a b} "Where the buy-out money came from". Canada.com (Ottawa Citizen). 2008-08-02. http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=3cee32c9-7819-4322-881f-19fc6a162b41. Retrieved 2008-11-02. 
6. ^ ^{a b} Perkel, Colin (2008-08-01). "Ontario tobacco buy-out". The Toronto Star. http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/471380. Retrieved 2008-08-27. 
7. ^ ^{a b c d} "Relatives of Bought-Out Farmers May Still Grow Tobacoo". Better Farming. http://www.betterfarming.com/online-news/feds-change-tobacco-license-eligibility-requirements-2148. Retrieved 2009-05-31. 
8. ^ "Ontario Weather Review - July 2009". Environment Canada. 2009-09-01. http://www.ec.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=en&n=714D9AAE-1&news=7DDF8AF2-FE36-439D-A474-4FD32F86C148. Retrieved 2011-10-27. 
9. ^ ^{a b} "Political Bites: Smoky politics". CBC News. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/politicalbytes/2008/08/tobacco_strategy.html. Retrieved 2008-08-27. 
10. ^ ^{a b} "Situation of tobacco farmers (from Europe's perspective)". Save Tobacco Growers. 2008-08-20. http://www.savetobaccogrowers.com/index.php?action=article&numero=22. Retrieved 2008-11-02. 
11. ^ ^{a b} "Government of Ontario (Canada) news". Government of Ontario (Canada). 2008-06-05. http://ogov.newswire.ca/ontario/GONE/2008/06/05/c7463.html?lmatch=&lang=_e.html. Retrieved 2008-11-02. ^{[dead link]}
12. ^ ^{a b} "Lakeshore Wind Turbines". http://www.norfolkcounty.ca/images/PDF/PlanningEcDev/Mapping/Wind%20Turbines.pdf. Retrieved 2010-04-11. 
13. ^ ^{a b} The Simcoe Reformer - January 19, 2011
14. ^ ^{a b} "Wind Concerns Ontario (Wordpress)". 2010-04-06. http://windconcernsontario.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/bald-eagle-killed-by-wind-turbine-in-norfolk-county-ontario/. Retrieved 2010-04-11. 
15. ^ Sovacool, B. K. (2009). "Contextualizing avian mortality: A preliminary appraisal of bird and bat fatalities from wind, fossil-fuel, and nuclear electricity". Energy Policy 37 (6): 2241–2248. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2009.02.011.  edit
16. ^ "Hydro prices going like rocket". Ottawa Citizen. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Hydro+prices+going+like+rocket/3428382/story.html. Retrieved 2011-11-12. 
17. ^ ^{a b} "Electricity in Ontario". University of Guelph. http://www.uoguelph.ca/~whulet/OGN/Vol1Issue1/Glen_Estill.htm. Retrieved 2011-11-12. 
18. ^ "The Electricity Sector". Ontario Energy Board. http://www.ontarioenergyboard.ca/OEB/Consumers/OEB+and+You/Ontario+Energy+Sector. Retrieved 2011-11-12. 
19. ^ Wiser, R., Bolinger, M. (2007). “Can deployment of renewable energy put downward pressure on natural gas prices?” Energy Policy, Volume 35, pp.295-306.
20. ^ ^{a b} "Saudia Arabia in the year 2037 - also deals with developed countries having alternative fuels". http://www.fortunecity.com/boozers/bridge/632/article39.html. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 

Coordinates: 42°47′18″N 80°26′02″W / 42.78822°N 80.433998°W / 42.78822; -80.433998