How does tobacco growing impact advancement in demand reduction measures?

Tobacco consumption remains a dire global health issue and the tobacco industry continues to find nefarious ways of keeping demand and consumption high.In the background lies the challenging, and often neglected, issue of tobacco growing and supply.Tobacco growing has proven to be a problematic practice due to its detrimental environmental impact 1 , the deeply troubling health implications of growing and processing 2 , and the precarious economic livelihoods of most farming households [3][4][5] .What requires particular attention is the critical relationship between tobacco supply (e.g.growing, processing, and manufacturing) and demand reduction measures.Here, we provide a glimpse into the ways that tobacco growing affects the ability of governments to institute demand reduction measures in tobacco growing countries.Many governments and other stakeholders in tobacco growing countries believe that commercial tobacco cultivation, particularly among small family-run farms, presents a path to macro-and micro-economic prosperity.On a macrolevel, governments particularly value the export and foreign exchange potential and the perceived contribution to employment.Tobacco can generate significant exports and foreign exchange, but the reward calculus tends to be superficial, overlooking the costs to farming households and the environment.Tobacco cultivation does employ thousands of farmers in some countries, but governments (and especially industry) typically oversimplify the nature of this employment.First, in most countries where researchers have rigorously measured livelihoods, many -often most -farmers consistently lose money cultivating tobacco [4][5][6][7][8] .Second, tobacco is typically only part, and sometimes a small part, of a farmer's crop portfolio and research demonstrates that many other crops and/or off-farm economic activities generate greater household resources 9 .The labour demands of tobacco are also great, with widespread use of child labor 10 .Third, tobacco farming causes Green Tobacco Sickness, a form of acute nicotine poisoning, among many who handle the leaf 11 .Fourth, the chemical overuse and deforestation from growing and curing tobacco devastate ecosystems and thereby the long-term health and economic prosperity of entire communities 6,12 .Put simply, if farmers reallocated their labor, land and/ or precious capital to other activities, it is likely that overall employment would increase and farmers' livelihoods and communities would improve.The misguided beliefs about the economic potential of tobacco growing have prompted governments to enact policies that encourage tobacco growing.By encouraging greater production, these policies typically drive down the costs and prices of tobacco thereby increasing consumption and motivating powerful actors to undermine tobacco control efforts.For example, in the latest Seventh National Development Plan, 2017-21, Zambia's government included tobacco growing as a priority crop, stating that tobacco 'has great potential to contribute

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