Knowledge is Power

With all the fuss about Cuban cigars, Nicaraguan-grown leaves, and Turkish tobacco, some US-born premium cigar aficionados might be wondering: Why can’t I just buy American?

Of course, Cuba and Nicaragua are parts of “America” (Central America), something that Canadians and Mexicans, too, get tired of mentioning to US residents who insist on using the word “American” to mean “from the US.” But, that little misnomer aside, the question is an interesting one. After all, with due respect to Cuba (where the modern art of the cigar was born), it’s not like the United States is deficient in designing novel ways to spend one’s leisure time. We are the country that brought you the Internet, paperback books, cheap can beer, feature filmmaking (at least if you follow the standard reckoning that posits D.W. Griffith’s 1915 melodrama Birth of a Nation as the first truly full-length movie), McDonalds, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, and Pong. Not to mention Star Wars, televised sport, YouTube, workout centers with TVs over all the treadmills, and comic strips. If it’s a technology for woolgathering and time-wasting, which the cigar is (gloriously so, for its fans), why isn’t the United States in the forefront here, too?

The question is especially acute since, as many premium cigar smokers will already know, the United States is actually an incredibly important source of some kinds of premium tobacco. Tobacco used in cigars comes in three kinds: the wrapper (which is just what it sounds like), the binder (which helps add stability to the cigar’s construction and holds it together), and the filler (which is where the taste comes in). New England tobacco isn’t known for its usability as a binder or filler, but it makes a heck of a wrapper. Connecticut Shade tobacco, one of the major types grown in this area, is in high demand among cigar companies as a wrapper.

The problem for a cigar made wholly of US tobaccos is that the plant itself is a finicky one–it grows best only under very precise conditions. For example, tobacco wants soil that is wet, but it doesn’t want to be rained on. Talk about impossible to please! The reason so many cigar smokers bow before Cuba is because Cuba’s Vuelta Abajo valley region is one of the only places in the world where these conditions can easily be met. In Vuleta Abajo, you have soil that is rained on extensively most months out of the year, but which gets little rain during the growing season. It’s nice moist soil without rain! The temperatures are utterly forgiving–warm but never baking–and the wind is gentle too. Try to name a place in the United States that meets these kinds of conditions, and you’ll appreciate more the roadblocks preventing a US-tobacco-only cigar. (The East Coast in the summer, for example, is fine for wrapper tobacco–it’s rainier than Vuelta Abajo, but then wrappers need a little more rain than do fillers–but the rain, and the fact that it’s cold half the year, make the area less of a safe bet for filler tobacco.)

That doesn’t mean filler isn’t grown anywhere in the United States. Pennsylvania and Ohio, among others, make the attempt every year. But this stuff just isn’t grown in conditions as good as those in Vuelta Abajo, or in other places that come near to replicating its perfect tobacco-growing conditions (parts of Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, and other places). And, sadly, you can taste the difference. For that reason, US filler doesn’t make as much money as does filler from other places, and it ends up going into dime-a-dozen domestic cigars–nothing that a premium cigar lover would bother with.

Since US tobacco growers can expect to command decent prices for wrapper tobacco and (sometimes) for binder tobacco (Broadleaf binders from New England are highly regarded), because our soil offers conditions a little bit closer to what these types of tobacco require, most growers choose to make these kinds of tobacco–rather than an inferior binder that will fetch a lower price. Aside from coming up with novel ways to use up leisure time, after all, US culture is also big on the idea of majoring on your strengths.

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These are interesting times in which to be a tobacco farmer. Less than five years ago, the federal government ended the price-support and subsidy system that had set the boundaries within which the entire economy of tobacco farming, for better and for worse, had operated for nearly fifty years. Now, with the number of smokers expected to decrease as a result of a recent increase in tobacco-product taxes, and tobacco companies adjusting their purchasing from growers accordingly–well, let’s just say that’s another reason why there’s never a dull moment for American tobacco farmers. And with global climate change likely to fundamentally change growing patterns–and a long, chaotic, unpredictable transition to those new patterns ahead of us (hopefully not too chaotic)–well, boring times aren’t likely to come in the foreseeable future.

Tobacco grows easily and yet, paradoxically, is a tough plant to grow. Of the three major kinds of cigar tobacco, for example, only two (binders and wrappers) grow well in the United States. Tobacco likes moist soil without a lot of rain (which is sort of like enjoying hamburgers, but preferring to avoid meat when possible); it absolutely needs warm temperatures (frost can kill it) but can easily get baked if left out on a too-hot day; it wants things between 68 and 73 degrees, with a certain fixed relative humidity. (That’s why you’ve got to be so careful in setting your humidor to just the right conditions.) Since, unlike tomatoes or corn, it’s not something you can just drag to the farmer’s market with you and get a decent price on by trading directly with the buyer, tobacco farmers have to think carefully about raising a large crop as efficiently as possible. If you have one plot and you grow great tomatoes, you can make a few bucks selling them to neighbors; the only likely buyer of your tobacco crop is a tobacco company of some kind, and it doesn’t make as much sense to go small. But these large fields also mean larger labor, storage, and materials costs. These are just the basic problems any US tobacco farmer has to deal with, no matter what the political, cultural or literal climate.

In addition, the whole field (no pun intended) has changed since 2004. In that year, subsidies first imposed by the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 were repealed. This law had set a price-support and quota system to manage the amount of tobacco grown in the United States (and make sure farmers could command a livable wage for growing it, given that the Great Depression had just wiped thousands of farmers out). It punished any tobacco buyers that chose to work with farms not participating in the system, and brought stability to an industry that had been through some chaotic times. It also, however, made it unprofitable for new farmers to enter the arena of tobacco growing, and it effectively cut certain states out of the tobacco game entirely.

In 2004, the government bought out all existing quotas from farmers who still owned them, with funds kicked in by tobacco companies. Many farmers then chose to retire (some of these folks were the children of those original Great Depression tobacco farmers and were just reaching retirement age themselves). This meant a big drop in tobacco acreage the following year. People publicly expressed fears (or hopes) that tobacco farming in the US would die entirely, and cigarette makers wondered if there’d be any US farmers left to buy from.

But the system began to sort itself out again. In 2007 reports surfaced that many farmers from traditionally non-tobacco-growing states had begun to make the stuff again, since they didn’t have to buy a quota from some farmer who already had one, or compete against price-supported farmers from other places. This meant the return of tobacco growing to the farms of southern Illinois, for example, from which it had been gone for decades. Overall acreage inched upward, until it was almost within 50,000 acres of 2004 figures. North Carolina, a historically tobacco-producing state, exemplified this trend; after an all-time low of 123,000 acres devoted to tobacco just after the buyout, it was up to 164,000 a few years later.

A happy ending? An uncertain future, more like. SCHIP-related increases in the tobacco tax, which kicked in April 1, 2009, raise the question of how long this upward trend in tobacco acreage will continue. Tobacco companies are already decreasing their orders from farmers, expecting decreases in revenue from smokers quitting (or at least cutting back). And long-term, no one is really sure what environmental changes will do to US farming and land use–except make things a lot less predictable for a very long time. What it means, in the short term, is simply that the climate is stranger, more extreme, and harder to predict. More sixty-five degree January days in Michigan, more May ice storms, and wilder, more violent hurricanes. With a plant as sensitive to extreme temperatures as tobacco–well, that’s not exactly good news. Let’s hope American tobacco farmers are ready for adjustments that will make the 2004 quota buyout look like the tiniest of hiccups.

CigarFox provides you the opportunity to build your own sampler of the finest cigars that include cigar brands like Montecristo, Romeo & Julieta, H Upmann, Macanudo, Cohiba, Partagas, Gurkha and many more. Choose from more than 1200 different cigars! Other cigar products include cigar humidors, cigar boxes, and cigar accessories like Zippo Lighters.

Most mothers live in a constant state of worry about the right nutrition for kids and how to go about achieving it. The problem does not lie with their lack of information but with the un-cooperative attitude of their children. Almost all kids seem to have problems with consuming the kind of nutritious food that aids mental and physical development. Struggles relating to food issues are ubiquitous and mothers are commonly found discussing strategies to overcome this barrier. How do you ensure that your child has a healthy eating habit and does not fall ill or suffer otherwise due to inadequate nutrition in his diet?

The frank answer is that you have to begin planning right from your child’s infancy so that she is naturally attracted to healthy food. Nutrition for kids is not something that you can change overnight after the realization dawns in that you have a problem on your hands with your kids’ eating pattern. However, with some perseverance, you will achieve your goal and your child will turn into an adventurous and keen eater. The best way to start, though, is from the initial stages when you breastfeed your child.

Breastfeeding ensures that your child has only the necessary amount of milk and does not drink even when she is satiated. This is one of the drawbacks of bottle-feeding wherein the parent encourages the child to drink the entire bottle and the child does so despite feeling full. If this habit of over-eating persists into adult life, your child may face problems of obesity and other weight related issues. So, stop the bottle and start breast-feeding your child whenever possible.

A great way to guarantee nutrition for kids is to have your kids share their mealtime with you. A small toddler feels grown-up and important by being included in this ritual. This will make her more receptive to new food items on the table. Observing the talk and the laughter that accompanies food will also heighten her sense of well-being and this feeling is extended to the food that goes with it.

Many a time, parents do not let children eat by themselves even if that is what the child wants. Mothers especially fear the resultant mess when the child feeds herself. This hurts the tender ego of your child who perceives it as a complete lack of control over her activities. Many kids refuse food thereafter as they want to express their sense of dissatisfaction in some way or the other. Losing your rigidity as a parent is very important here. You need to let your child experiment with her capabilities and eating food by herself is high on the priority list of to-dos for your child. By allowing your child to so, you are not only providing nutrition for kids but also helping them to become independent.

A reliable method of tempting your child to try new items on his platter is by presenting her with a wide array of interesting choices. Of course, lack of time may not always permit you to do so, but at least try this twice a week so that your child looks forward to the menu and forms a good impression of the whole eating experience.

Since most kids are averse to trying out vegetables and fruits in their diet, nutrition for kids means devising creative ways of getting them involved in the cooking process. You could even take them to the supermarket with you and let them select a vegetable or fruit of their choice. Planting your own garden is another way of provoking the curiosity of your child. You can encourage your child to tend certain vegetable plants as a pet project. Your child will naturally be interested in sampling out vegetables or fruits that come from his/her particular plant. Letting your child help with the cooking will also prompt him to take an active part in the proceedings and feel a direct interest in the food menu.

As kids have a tendency to get bored with repetitive food choices, exert your ingenuity and culinary skills by coming up with something totally novel once in a while. Your child will definitely appreciate your efforts and reciprocate with fervor by avidly trying out your menu. Combining vegetables with food items like pizza, soups, macaroni and cheese etc. is a good way of meeting up with the nutrition for kids’ requirement. Again, whipping up a healthy fruit salad frequently and storing fresh fruits can serve as a healthy replacement for your child’s desert needs.

Despite your diverse tactics, your child may disappoint you once in a while and refuse healthy food. Do not react with anger and frustration at these times and above all, never coerce your child into eating as this will infuse a negative feeling into the entire eating experience. The mature thing to do during such occasions is to just let go and present the same item at some future juncture when your child is more amenable to trying out new food items. This will help your nutrition for kids plan in the long run.

One of the best ways to create a healthy eating pattern for your child is to focus on family mealtimes. Make this time of the day as leisurely as possible and make the dining place a venue for discussing things that you enjoy or the good things that happened to each family member that day. You should always try and avoid arguments or other negative emotions from creeping into the family mealtime as this will directly impact the quality of your eating experience. Thus, if family mealtimes can be converted into ‘happy times’ for your family, your kids will pick up healthy eating patterns and your nutrition for kids plan will be a success.

However, when following or including these tips into your family plan, do remember that every child will have specific nutrition needs and a generalized nutrition for kids plan will not work. Also, kids’ appetites and tastes keep on changing every day, so you need to develop a flexible approach to your child’s eating habits and never impose a harsh diet regime for your child. Apart from this, you also need to focus on your own dietary intake. If you follow a healthy lifestyle and opt for healthy and nutritious food, your children will automatically follow your example. This will make it very easy for you to adopt a well-rounded diet plan for your child. So, before your start advising your child on correct eating habits, implement these into your own dietary schedule. By doing so, you will be blessed with kids who are healthy, well-developed and lead a relatively disease-free life. Isn’t that a parent’s dream come true?

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