Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler sits down each week with Southern Farm Network’s Rhonda Garrison to discuss “Today’s Topic.”
The Tobacco Growers Association of North Carolina is conducting a mail-in referendum asking active tobacco farmers to approve an assessment to support the association.
The General Assembly passed a bill last year authorizing the referendum. Ballots were mailed to growers in March, and the deadline for sending them back is June 19. They will be received and counted by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The referendum must be approved on two-thirds of the ballots in order to pass.
The assessment amount would be up to 15 cents per hundred pounds of flue-cured tobacco sold in North Carolina. If the referendum is approved, the association intends to collect only 10 cents per hundred pounds in the first year. The assessment would begin in the 2014 season. It would be in addition to existing assessments for export promotion and tobacco research.
Tobacco growers with questions should contact the Tobacco Growers Association.
Click on the audio player below to listen to Commissioner Troxler and Rhonda discuss this referendum and why the association wants to set up an assessment.
[Audio:http://info.ncagr.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Troxler_6-10.mp3|titles=Today’s Topic for June 10]
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