World No Tobacco Day
On this year’s World No Tobacco Day, celebrated annually on May 31, the World Health Organization is calling on governments to end tobacco subsidies and instead support food security and nutrition.Tobacco subsidies can exacerbate food insecurity in low- and middle-income countries because farmers are more incentivized to grow tobacco than food. Tobacco plants and the use of pesticides and fertilizers required to grow them also degrade the soil, making it harder to grow other crops. In addition to threatening food security, tobacco farming is associated with other health issues, including nicotine poisoning and chronic lung disease from handling tobacco leaves and inhaling tobacco smoke during the curing process.
However, despite the clear health risks of growing tobacco, it can be hard for tobacco farmers to switch to other crops because of market distortion and predatory lending and payment practices from tobacco companies. Ending subsidies and helping tobacco farmers switch to sustainable food crops can therefore accomplish multiple goals on health, environmental, and economic fronts.
To learn more about the harmful impacts of tobacco and how the world is coming together to address this problem, check out these related resources from the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator’s online repository: