Julie Brackett
Guest columnist

A few weeks ago, the U.S. Senate passed legislation that would provide much needed assistance to a group with a long history and strong culture in our state - tobacco farmers. The bill would revamp the current tobacco quota system, which dates back to the Great Depression, by giving financial assistance to both tobacco farmers and people who hold the rights to grow tobacco, as well as providing help if they wish to leave the fading business of tobacco farming. This "buyout bill" would lend a helping hand to a group hard hit during these tough economic times, times when more and more tobacco is being imported from overseas.

But the buyout bill, sponsored by our own Sen. Mitch McConnell, was passed alongside another tobacco-related bill - one that would give the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products. Currently, the federal government monitors the ingredients, manufacture, marketing and advertising of products like orange juice, cereal and pharmaceuticals, but not for tobacco products that have been proven, beyond doubt, to cause heart disease, stroke and other deadly diseases.

Next month, both the buyout and FDA provisions go to a joint House-Senate conference committee for final consideration. In the past, many in our state and other tobacco-growing states have fought attempts to give FDA oversight of tobacco products, claiming to do so for the sake of tobacco farmers even though FDA legislation only pertains to tobacco products - not the growing of tobacco.

Now we're faced with a new choice: Accept FDA regulation of tobacco and get a tobacco buyout with it, or lose both - possibly for years. It is highly unlikely that either of these provisions could become law unless it is passed alongside the other. One bill benefits tobacco farmers, and ultimately our state, while the other benefits every current and potential smoker in the country - especially our children.

The buyout bill in the Senate would help us here at home, and would be paid for by the tobacco manufacturers, not by taxpayers. Some (though not all) tobacco companies are opposed to a buyout and FDA oversight of tobacco products, claiming that their opposition is on behalf of the poor tobacco farmer. Yet these same companies are the ones that have been hurting the farmers most of all, by continuing to import cheap tobacco grown overseas and buying less here at home.

The fact is that both of these bills are good for growers and good for the nation's health - that is why grower groups and public health groups in Kentucky and nationwide have agreed for years on partnering these two bills.

Our state is one of just a few that grows tobacco. The buyout bill will, therefore, disproportionately benefit Kentucky. Why should other states go along with this proposal? For the same reason we should - they understand that this is a compromise that is worth making for everyone because together, these bills benefit our farmers and the nation's health. Support the FDA legislation in the Senate, and get a buyout. Fail to do so, and this buyout bill is likely one more lost opportunity for farmers in our state.

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Julie Brackett is senior director of advocacy for the American Heart Association in Louisville.