SindiTabaco Publishes Anniversary Paper

To celebrate its 77th anniversary, SindiTabaco launched the document “Controversial issue, counterpoint necessary.” In 54 pages, the document addresses the history of tobacco in Brazil and the most relevant numbers of the supply chain. Its larger objective, however, is to challenge themes that are not always duly contextualized and end up being treated as contradictions by society.

“The tobacco supply chain is one of the most organized and advanced in Brazilian agriculture, with initiatives that set an example to other sectors. Not rarely, however, it is left aside in terms of agribusiness. The launch of this document has the purpose to demystify and provide the necessary counterpoint to those who insist in refusing to state the obvious: Tobacco is agro!” Iro Schuenke, SindiTabaco president, said.

Questions like indebtedness, monoculture, deforestation, the use of pesticides, suicides, green tobacco sickness, child labor and slave labor are themes addressed by the paper, now beginning to circulate among the main stakeholders of the entity in printed format, but it is also available online at www.sinditabaco.com.br.

“Over the years, we have given visibility to the social and economic importance of the sector to hundreds of municipalities in South Brazil, and we have promoted a series of initiatives about agricultural practices that turn Brazilian tobacco into one of the most demanded in the world. In the meantime, we have suffered uninterrupted attacks on account of the finished product, which is legal and an adult choice. Not rarely, we witness anti-smoking activists attacking the production of tobacco, and the list of attacks has been gradually expanded over the years. From polluters to slavers are some of the biased written lines. It is about them we are talking,” said Schuenke.