Anyone looking through historic photos of farms in North Carolina will most likely notice the prevalence of children working in the fields and factories to cultivate and produce one of America’s favorite vices — tobacco. One might be surprised, however, to learn that minors still play a large role in the crop’s production to this day, as indicated by a report from the North Carolina News Service.
According to the report, a recent audit commissioned by Reynolds American of their contractor farms found that 40 percent of the farms surveyed employ minors in violation of Federal child labor laws. A portion of those farms also had minors performing hazardous work on-site, says Footprint BenchStrength, which conducted the audit for Reynolds American.
A planned protest outside of the tobacco company’s shareholding meeting today in Winston-Salem was orchestrated by organizers with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee to draw attention to the issue. The FLOC’s Justin Flores says this problem goes beyond family farms and the tobacco industry. “It’s not just tobacco […] these folks that are working in tobacco are also harvesting your sweet potatoes, strawberries, cucumbers.”
For their part, Reynolds American notes that the company doesn’t directly employ farm workers and has no direct control over how workers are hired, what they’re paid or the working conditions on a given farm.
Xpress recently wrote about the changing landscape of tobacco production in North Carolina in the wake of the Tobacco Buyout and end of the Federal quota system in 2004 (See “Smoke & mirrors,” February 25, 2016, Xpress). Once a staple crop for many family farms, tobacco cultivation across North Carolina has moved to larger industrial operations centralized around regional markets over the past decade.
Despite declining numbers of conventional tobacco users across the U.S. and more free market competition across the world, tobacco remains one of the Tar Heel State’s most lucrative crops. North Carolina remains the top producer and exporter of tobacco among the United States, generating an estimated $11 billion-plus in direct value for tobacco producers and manufacturers in 2013.
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