Burley: Kentucky Tobacco in a New Century (Kentucky Remembered)

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Description

Once iconic American symbols, tobacco farms are progressively disappearing. It is difficult for many of us to lament the loss of a crop that has come to symbolize addiction, disease, and corporate deception; yet, in Kentucky, the plant has played the most important role in economic development and prosperity. Burley tobacco―a light, air-cured variety used in cigarette production―has long been the Commonwealth’s largest cash crop and the most important aspect of regional identity, at the side of bourbon, bluegrass music, and Thoroughbred horses.

In Burley: Kentucky Tobacco in a New Century, Ann K. Ferrell investigates the abruptly transforming process of raising and selling tobacco by chronicling her conversations with the farmers who know the crop best. She demonstrates that despite the fact that the 2004 “buyout” ending the federal tobacco program is frequently appeared to be the most significant change that growers have had to negotiate, it is, in fact, only one new factor among many. Burley reveals the tangible and intangible challenges tobacco farmers face today, from the logistics of cultivation to the growing stigma against the crop.

Ferrell uses ethnography, archival research, and rhetorical analysis to tell the complex story of burley tobacco production in twenty-first-century Kentucky. Not only does she give a voice to the farmers who persevere in this embattled industry, but she also sheds light on their futures, contesting the widely held assumption that they are able to easily replace the crop by diversifying their operations with alternative crops. As tobacco fades from both the physical and economic landscapes, this nuanced volume documents and explores the culture and practices of burley production today.

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