American Leaf - Tobacco's Last Harvest Documentary
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- Опубліковано 25 чер 2016
- Witness the last American tobacco harvest: The most comprehensive documentary about tobacco farming, tobacco curing, and tobacco harvesting ever produced offers a glimpse into America's past, the extinct tobacco auction system and the future of the tobacco industry.
This enigmatic subculture must not be forgotten, and is preserved here through images of farmers in the fields of North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, re-enactments at Jamestown colony, photographs of farm life from the United States Library of Congress, classic cigarette advertisements for Duke Tobacco Company products like Montclair Cigarettes or Red Velvet tobacco, old radio broadcasts sponsored by the American Tobacco Company and rare newsreel footage and vintage photographs from the American Civil War, WWII through the 1950s and 1960s, interviews with U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, VP of Leaf at Philip Morris USA, CEO of the American Heart Association, the world's leading agronomists from the University of Kentucky and celebrated historians.
Copyright 2006 - Barn Door Pictures, Kino-Eye Productions
Copyright 2020 - Sonny Boy Films
One thing is for certain, McConnell lined his own damn pockets quite nicely throughout the whole deal.
that giddy crackhead smile of accomplishment on his face as he proudly anounces the death of small farm growing of tobacco while corpo and politico America rakes in the long term financial gain. Actually disturbing how these people have no connection to the people and don't care what happens.
@@IsaacWolfOfficial we used to tar and feather people for less
I've never forgave him ever since
"Cocaine Mitch" & his Heroine Heroine wife..
Few years back they found a ship his wife's family owns chock full of Asian Heroine & Cocaine.
And Boehner.
My moms side of the family were tobacco farmers. They were in South Carolina not far from Myrtle beach. We would travel from 600 miles away and stay close to a month each summer. My uncle,his father and family mainly grew tobacco but also other crops. Those barns probably still smell like drying tobacco even today. This was the 70s early 80s. Nothing but memories now.
Thanks for watching. Your memories are worth more than you may realize. Please keep sharing!
Around loris?
Think so. Seems I remember Loris or Conway? Their last name was Collins
@@DXT61 yes im from loris and work in Conway as we speak. I’m not too familiar with last names of the older generations of the region because I got out of the agrarian lifestyle a few years ago (temporarily). Did you just stop coming down?
How about we grow it and dont let these companies put chemicals in it. Then maybe we can keep this industry alive. Till then I will grow my own.
I'm starting my first crop this year. I agree 100% with this statement
Starting my own grow now too. Let's bring it back!!
I'll be starting my first crop in about a year, any resources to read up on in that time? Seed suppliers you'd recommend? Tools for curing?
@@adamlight804. So you’re another idiot!
Thanks for watching. Got any tobacco plants in the ground this season? How's it going?
Born in Charlottesville VA, live in Buckingham Va now. Now this is work that nobody now would do. Love all there country voice. And when they say tobacca. I'm about 2 hours out from Danville . Like the video. And tobacco is not more addictive than tobacco. You don't go out robbing and stealing for dip cigarettes, snus, nasal snuff!!?!and also if wasn't suppose to be here it wouldn't grow naturally
As a proud and loving son of many generations of Sampson County NC farmers, I thank you for this documentary.
Thank you for watching.
18:52 I've been miss pronouncing North Carolina my whole life. Its actually pronounced Norkalina.
A bit like Neeohlans (New Orleans).
Ahh shoot I thought you knew!! Lol !
you ever been to Ballmer, Merlin(Baltimore, Maryland)
In east Tennessee it's pronounced Narth Kaliner
To be honest I miss it and I hate my kids never got a chance. My Dad won a blue ribbon at the state fair for TN90 backing the 80s. Which we raised burley tobacco not glue cured. People don't understand how much work. You have to treat every plant almost like a house plant. 😊
Hard work.😮
I grew up in Lizard Lick, North Carolina. It was a tobacco community. Just about every farm in the general area grew tobacco. As a kid we helped pick tobacco with the Mexican migrant workers. The store at the cross roads there is where all the farm owners would hang out telling stories smoking cigars or chewing tobacco. The store use to have tobacco ropes and bundles of tobacco hanging on the walls of the store. Growing up in those times was memorable. Now the fields have been sold out to developers or the government pays the farmers to not grow tobacco. There are farmers still growing it but it’s not every year.
This kinda stuff is pure gold to me... luv these documentaries
Thank you for watching!
what a great documentary, thanks for the upload. it seems like with the advent of vaporizers and strict regulations there's been a huge decline in smoking. in canada we just passed laws so all tobacco brands have to come in the same dull packages, no distinction between brands even filters and rolling paper has to be the same. i'm a ryo smoker of drum brand due to it having burley in it as well as being cured inside wooden barrels for flavour, maybe we'll see a rise in smokers who know their product and enjoy the history of "tobaccology"
“ Because I don’t ever wanna forget where I came from and how I grew up.”
22:26
Thanks for sharing this video. It is good to see the "real people" who relied on tobacco as their livelihood and how lives have been affected.
Don't worry friend, tobacco is such a fine product that is still loved world wide and most importantly. In North America, it's a sacred crop to the Indians of Canada and America and they have special tobacco rights. In my country of Canada, they dont pay taxes on tobacco. Tobacco isn't going anywhere. Chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco and cigars are really the future of tobacco, not cigarettes.
Thanks for watching and commenting. God bless.
Cass and Congress can stay the hell out of my life.
I grew up on a small family farm in kentucky. . my grandfather grew a plot of tobacco every year so we inherited a right to raise tobacco. Government controls came on and every tobacco plot what is measured by an official every year and if our plot had too many plants by regulation, the proper number of the plants were cut down and destroyed. Every farm had a "tobacco base" which was it's regulated size of allotment for raising that kind of tobacco. a government ordered limits on tobacco base increased year after year, meaning that each farmer was allowed yearly a little less tobacco to be raised and sold.
Our farm tobacco base was getting so small that continuing to raise tobacco was a lot of work -- all hard hand work --and took us out of that business. . Taking care of tobacco plants is not an easy job, and it continues from the first outcropping until harvest time and after. The tobacco care means the farmer must inspect all the leaves often and remove the worms that were chewing on the leaf. The soil around the plants had to be chopped and maintained also. Lots of hand work was required and when the tobacco was cut, farmer was in charge of storing it carefully usually in his own barn. Only when the plants were inspected, they could be sold. I was young enough to miss the worm work and the heavy lifting . I don't know if our farm sold our base , or simply stop raising tobacco.
I admit I don't know why the tobacco did not hurt the worms that chewed it.
@@CharlesHarpolek4vud because it's not poison! Nicotine is medicine. It's a powerful anti-parasitic, and they don't want people to know that!
Interesting program from 2006 to now 2023. I worked in the last year of tobacco in my town from 96,97s
This was a really nice documentary film. I definitely enjoyed it.
great doco. thanks
Thanks 🙏
Very interesting documentary. Brings back memonries of when I was a child visiting my grandparents in North Caroline. Used to love to help string tobacco.
Thank you for commenting. I am happy to hear you enjoyed watching.
i really enjoyed this video and the paasion of the tobacco farmers..thank you
Think u meant "paacion"...
Wow, that was a great documentary!
Thanks for that. I'm glad it still means something all these years later.
THANKS🇺🇸👍!!!!
Great documentary, watched it for the third time now😉
Thank you.
@@SonnyBoyFilms Wow, that would be awesome. Can't wait for it👍
Love the music too!
Yes, what was that outro? Love it!
"Indian War Whoop"
Hoyt Ming and His Pep Steppers
SME
On behalf of: Columbia/Legacy
ua-cam.com/video/q_9gOjT5qxY/v-deo.html
Sugar is more addictive and kills more people than tobacco but it’s subsidized by our taxes
Only kills who consume it, you won't die from watching someone eat candy even if you watched them all your life.
Another example of the United States government crushing a very profitable industry moving it overseas and killing millions of high paying middle class jobs. I was the last of generations of my family to grow tobacco, it was a good living. When tobacco was killed it hurt middle class NC and we have nowhere near recovered.
Thank you for entering the discussion. It's a tough line to walk, because the quota system had grown obsolete. But, clearly you know more directly about the long-term effects from the 2004 federal buyout, living in tobacco country. I am one generation removed in my family from "farming on halves" in Hertford County, so the news trickles in slowly unless I travel there for research. Corporations always win out in a capitalist system, but hopefully the final 10 yrs of higher subsidies before 2014 ending the program allowed for investment in other small business in these towns, or financing of college degrees for the children of the farmers who were forced into early retirement. Those would be positive results from decommissioning tobacco farm allotments. State leaders in tobacco country should be responsible for working to replace the personal incomes lost by small farmers who have retired. They should be expected to expand their job markets into new modes of commerce.
First they vilified smokers in the media.
I think smokers are treated worse than meth or heroin users.
Amen!
I’m confused! Govt is working to legalize weed yet demonize tobacco! Typically govt BS.
@@gailsack2635 its whatever is more profitable again thy care olny bout self interest
Cool doc
American spirit Tobacco. Support ur local farmer
I love tobacco
A really interesting film! I'm realatively new pipe smoker and found this to be very informative. I know the FDA is trying to wipe out the tobacco buisness but I sure hope they fail.
Considering that tobacco exports to East Asia are monstrously huge, I don’t think there’s any immediate cause for concern
@@biteme9486 Maybe the farmers are safe but I think the tobacconists and makers of pipe tobacco and cigars are in a tight spot. The FDA are about to slap them with a lot of fees and taxes and there is a looming threat regarding on-line sales of tobacco product. We´ll see what happens.
Would those regulations still apply even if they were selling their pipe tobacco in Indonesia?
I hope they just put a stop to big tobacco companies that kill small farming
@@themindfulpipe Pipes & cigars are a different class altogether; & while they still can cause cancer, esp. if often smoked & indoors as well, I'd bet your last dollar that they aren't nearly as lethal as cigibutts. We don't/shouldn't inhale cigars & pipe smoke. No need. Govt. always thinks in all-or-nothing mode. Very poor show.
Being a good old Kentucky boy, if you give me the words to the old songs I can sing and sound just like these old recordings. " dark in the mine" freaked out my NYC friends big time.
When i.was in the south one summer
I got to strip tobacco.
Oh I loved it...
I grew tobacco here in Fairbanks, Alaska a few years ago. Orinoco and a variety of Havana tobaccos. They did well. An older lady worked at the local laundromat who was from Kentucky. She grew up on a tobacco farm. I used to tell her I wanted to be a tobacco farmer and she would laugh. "Honey, that's a lot of hard work," she'd say. I have 40 acres SE of here and she'd ask? What are you gonna grow on that farm honey, and I'd say Tobacca. She'd laugh!
Good information for inspiring growers in all parts of the world. Thank you for sharing your tobacco farming experience.
Try using robot automation. If you can build the robots yourself, the cost of automation decreases significantly. Here in Brazil, the prices of tobacco leaves are around 3 USD per kilogram. I am thinking of cultivating approximately 40-45 thousand plants in 2.10 hectares of Burley, and using some automation for the harvest. I saw Farmbot robots to use, but I think it's difficult to scale the automation solution.
Thanks for watching. Keep us updated on your next crop!
Connecticut had the best “ Shade Grown Tobacco “ for cigar wrappers. Sad most of the shade grown tobacco fields are now gone and buildings have replaced them.
When they wrote the documents and treaties regarding human rights, they somehow skipped the right to grow whatever you want from the land you own or have permission to grow on. It should be a goddamn human right to utilize your land however you want.
Not if it is a hazard to everyone else, I don't think you would like me refining radium next door to you!
Are you going to pay for the damage that the sale of your cigarette tobacco created? Will you accept full responsibility for the care & treatment of your loved ones when they ultimately succumb to cancer, COPD, & the long list of other ailments brought on by inhaling tobacco smoke? If you say, Yes, then you should be held to your word. But you know damn well the system doesn't work like that. Everyone wants a piece of that pie.
You only rent your land from the government
@@slukky hey stupid people are gonna smoke drink screw and gamble. It’s very normal for a moron to preach what’s best for the world. What don’t you do what’s best for you and just shut the f up. All your kind has done by killing tobacco in the US is destroyed millions of good jobs and family farms and sent it over to the communist. World wide tobacco is stronger than ever. Now you morons are gonna destroy fossil fuels hope you like looking at mules ass.
@@Man-cv5ws I'll say & do what I think is right, Nick. Have a happy Thanksgiving.
Born 1945 ,grew up on the family’s tobacco farm . I believe the chemicals used on tobacco while growing is the first step to the health problems.
I'm in Australia same has happened here and it's even worse in the Dairy industry
here's one people might have a hard time believin - little towns in western Wisconsin had tobacco as a cash crop. I guess the tobacco grown there was highly sought after as a wrapper leaf for cigars. buddy of mine, God rest his soul, brought me up to his farm in Veroqua and showed me the drying barns in town where the farmers brought their product
Thanks, Marcus. I only touched on the 4 biggest producers, but tobacco was a staple crop in farming communities in almost every US state at one point. Wisconsin, Ohio, West Virginia, Georgia... wherever the Native Americans were before.
My grandad and great grandad had a tobacco farm in North Carolina.
actually hemp and tobacco were the #1 cash crops
I live in Connecticut's Tobacco Valley and up here in the summer (or at least when I was a kid in the early to mid '90s) the fields are split equally with 12-15 year olds, Mexicans, and Jamaicans.
How sad.
@@pamelarose2177If I'm being honest the Jamaicans all said it was great money and they only had to work in the summer up here and live for the rest of the year with the money they earned back home. All the Mexican guys were always smiling laughing and willing to help out anybody and everybody. It also showed me that I needed to do well in school or push for something so that I didn't have to do that kind of labor for the rest of my life.
I usually stick to cigars. I always have. I smoke only about 3 a week, sometimes less. It makes me feel like im enjoying something that is premium, that has a lot of effort put into it like observing a great painting. Tobacco doesn't deserve the hate it gets. It is the big tobacco companies that have been trying to ruin it. I doubt that the leaf itself has a high chance of causing cancer. It is everything that is put into the cigarettes that causes the cancer. Luckily with Cigars it seems the rate of cancer us sooooooo much lower. Why is that? Because it is just THE LEAF!! No additives. Shocker!!
That last line of text is so jacked up in my opinion.. it basically said.. “We’ve put over half the tobacco farmers out of business”.
Thanks for watching the whole doc!
Interesting…I’m not surprised to hear good ol’ Mitch’s voice in this doc. We are but kindred spirits in this mess called tobacco and America. I’m a word, we are Americans. I hope the letter I wrote him found him well during the Supreme Court nonsense.
I like the intro song. Indian war whoop
Correct. Sung by Hoyt Ming and his Pep Steppers.
I'm 70 years old, but I'd like to go down south and offer some free labor on a tobacco farm.
I can hear a British or Scottish accent in the North Carolinans. Southern dialect is derived from that.
Extra points.
❤️ the 🇺🇸
Phillip Morris does not contract with farmers or buy our tobacco any more . I had a contract with Phillip Morris and several years ago they quit signing contracts with farmers. I assume there is a company buying tobacco and then selling it to Phillip Morris.
The tobacco buyout was a joke and has left my farm about bankrupt. They promised to keep buying farmers tobacco but have not kept that promise. They now support other countries where they can have child and cheap slave labor.
I made plans to grow and sell tobacco to support my family and farm. Now I am lucky to put food on my table and I am behind on farm payments.
Universal Corporation (NYSE: UVV) supplies tobacco to companies that manufacture cigarettes.
@@unassistedsuicide2243 Yes they do but I don't have or never have been offered a contract with Universal .
Phillip Morris agreed to keep purchasing USA grown tobacco directly from farmers but have since quit contracting with farmers like agreed upon in the tobacco buyout. I believe that PM did this to keep from having to deal with farmers and farm labor. It keeps PM hands clean of any farm worker issues.
@@bigbonner3531 everyone is offering contracts now
Who did you vote for? Strong union laborer or every man for himself mentality? Leopards ate your face, after you voted for the leopards eating faces party…
Hear in PA everyone is dripping PM and switching to Growing 41 wrapper. PM are a bunch of over regulated control freaks!
Cannon Ball tobacco has been around for over 100 years.
Really Nice this plant is a American face
Can anyone tell me how to contact them
"More addictive than heroine"? I doubt about that.
18:17 didnt have to go far to find a…. What?
Wyatt (granddad): I remember when you got labor, all you wanted, for 50 cents an hour.
Christopher (grandson): You didn't have to go far to get it either, did you?
I chew Days Work plug tobacco, its 8$ to 10$ per plug depending where i buy. It was 3$ per plug 15yrs ago. Somethings gotta give!!!!
Pappy O'Daniel ,Yeah, not worth the 8- 10-12 bucks, you can make better chew than the store crap they sell. It's so darn easy. Go to fairtrade tobacco and check it out. I learned to make my own and its way better. wholeleaftobacco
Good Tobacco comes from the southern islands.
American Spirit brand!
Or a good Cigar.
Regular tobacco in most cigarettes is just dyed paper
We chawed Cannonball for 20 years. Grandma said smoke cigarettes because it`s more receptable.
No way tobacco is more addicting than heroin maybe cigarettes but not cigars and pipe tobacco
Yep. Natural tobacco is a WHOLE different thing.
47:00-47:16 An important lesson in life.
while true that it's good to have a positive outlook, i believe it's also important to realize this guy and his way of life got screwed over by politions and ceo's to get more money.
Shout out to the 🇲🇽ans that help pick it!
18:10 - 21:00
Thanks for watching!
45:15 45:25 45:45
I smoke everyday and my precious plants are the last 🚬
I wonder how the business is now
What’s the tobacco market looking like in the U.S. now?
Good question. It seems to have even less family farms than when I produced this film in 2006 and larger farmers continue to consolidate land to produce on contract to the large manufacturers. Not sure, but with the current climate of tobacco-use in the United States, I would also presume even more of the crop grown in America is shipped to foreign markets (Asia, South America) compared to 15 years ago. Maybe it's time for a re-boot on this story...
Here's some actual news on that front:
www.newsmax.com/us/cigarettes-coronavirus-sales/2020/07/28/id/979496/
Sonny Boy Films i know a lot of American tobacco is used for smokeless tobacco due to the harshness. Feel that’s really killing the American market.
Tim Pope I wouldn’t be surprised if a larger share of annual American tobacco output is now funneled to the smokeless or vape industry, but I wouldn't describe US-grown tobacco as ‘harsh.' American tobacco is still considered the finest in the world.
@@SonnyBoyFilms I read years ago that America was opening up the foreign markets (by force) to our tobacco and that these countries (Asia?) were quite concerned because US tobacco was so much more smooth smoking compared to their own tobaccos (processing?) that the incidents of tobacco-related deaths and diseases had skyrocketed. Apparently, Asian tobacco is so harsh that it limited the amount smoked by users.
Cigars and pipe tobacco are the only tobacco products worth smoking. I don’t do cigarettes.
Damn. That's an accent.
31:26
42:50
29:45 to 34:00
It's the damn farmas fault!!
You mean Pharmas, right? Not farmers?
Mitch McConnell forgot he came from dirt poor Kentucky.
He didn’t come from Kentucky he is from Sheffield, Alabama he moved to Kentucky when he was fourteen
He didn’t come from Kentucky he is from Sheffield, Alabama he moved to Kentucky when he was fourteen
😢 I thought it was my body and my choice? Government gets involved and everything gets turned upside down.
Trying again for 3rd year
...well?
@@SonnyBoyFilms did fantastic the past season...just out of 5 gal buckets had 6fters
About to start thus week seeds from harvest
Thanks! That's great news and info for others. People are always trading tips and stories here, if you have any more to share. And, you got your seeds for next year...
Years ago an old Indian guy said we taught you white guys about tobacco, we just didn't tell you how many to smoke 😂👍
The Indians told the white man to not overdo it, or it will cause problems.
OK....I know its English, but I'm having real trouble following what they say. Its an interesting video but desperately needs subtitles.
Where are you from, boss?
No subtitles 👎🏻
@30:20 or so she said she has all these packs of cigarettes from her loved ones...then PM gives some BS statement...@ 31:19 she said if it's bothering you quit. What an ignorant statement that she believes cancer wasn't caused by his smoking...SERIOUSLY LADY? How much did she get from PM to make those statements?
so why then are the worlds oldest recorded people all heavy smokers ?? stupidity is the real cancer !!!
Well, they came out and said smoking caused cancer after they did all of that nuclear testing in our country and there was radiation in every including milk. So idk, every thing kills you and we are all going to die.
Tobacco is not addictive.. All these chemicals that y'all put in it is what's addictive.Welcome to America.
When will we need a police certificate to use the commode? Smoking is anyone's choice. But saving tobacco farmers is outrageous. Let them grow something else or sell the land & live it up. (Sweet corn's a good option.) No one ever called the govt. to bail me out when I lost a job. Are we equal or what?
Wonder why you lost a gob
@@jamesonquinn6950
TROLL ALERT!
No profile. Too stupid to do that much. That, or a TrollBot. Pfft!
Stravo Lukos OK
Stravo Lukos you cant get the best of me 😂😂😂
Thank you for watching my documentary. I am sorry that you lost your job, and that is a fair correlation to make between you and these farmers who see their livelihoods being phased out.
However, this government buyout was not just a payment to people who lost crops or experienced a loss in business. It compensated families for dismantling a depression-era program which generated value for their estates. Several tobacco farmers that I spoke with were planning on using any modest buyout payments they received for their children's college or junior college enrollments. Best wishes for a speedy professional recovery. I am pulling for all Americans right now.
And today, Tobacco it's been replaced by the Marijuana industry. From one addiction to another. Therefore, if I'm going to pick my poison, I'll go with Pipe tobacco.
All cigarettes should be banned… but if they come after my premium hand rolled cigars I’m moving to Central America
That mentality is how we ended up where were at boot licker
Good documentary but jeez the music used is atrocious.
Tobacco > Fentanyl
ive been growing tobacco from seed found sealed in a clay pot in a native burial up near the great lakes. ancient breed of plant with big wide spade shaped leaves. west coast of canada.
Are you promoting tobacco or just sharing American history
That is a COMPLETE LIE!!..... tobacco is not more or as much addictive as heroin, not even close
In New Zealand it’s the government’s cash cow. Every year it the price goes up at once at the start of every year.
They use the premise of health and the pressure on the health system, but if the problem is so bad why is it not made illegal, because they cannot raise the tax dollars on anything else like they do tobacco.
50g of tobacco cost $20ish in 95 now it’s over $100.
None of the so called “health system tax” goes into the care of smokers hospitalisations or care at home..
$1.8 BILLION DOLLARS IN TAX REVENUE in NZ ALONE!!
What''s a shame is how under represented Kentucky was in this considering the 1st and 2nd largest tobacco markets where located in Kentucky. # 1 was in Louisville and # 2 was Maysville Ky. I live 30 miles from Maysville and can remember when everything in the surrounding counties was geared towards tobacco. People here would run charge accounts all year long and pay their debt when their tobacco checks came in. It was called King Burley for a reason. The federal government screwed the American tobacco farmer and no matter how Mitch McConnell tries to dress it up he screwed them the hardest.
Douglas, thank you for watching. I am truly sorry if I left out a portion of the story that you had in mind. I covered the 4 largest tobacco-producing states, and Kentucky is represented by Joe Elliot (RIP) from Owensboro, who speaks continuously throughout the film about air-curing and marketing in that part of the country. I also travelled to Washington DC to interview Kentucky Senator, Mitch McConnell. The experience of farming tobacco in the USA transcends state lines. It is a vast subject to cover in a one-hour documentary, even when confining it to just the American history of the crop. Your comment is much appreciated.
I'd like to work on a tobacco farm, don't think we have any in WV. Email me if you need an extra worker, done nothing but hard work all my life
He says they regulate cyanide other than tobacco? **cherries have entered the chat*
44:04