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‘Tobacco is mislabelled ‘green gold’

 

US public health think-tanks, Vital Strategies and American Cancer Society, have launched an atlas which shows tobacco-caused diseases kill seven million people globally and 5 700 in Malawi annually. During the World Conference on Health in Cape Town, South Africa last week, our staff writer JAMES CHAVULA engaged Vital Strategies chief executive officer José Luis Castro on the falling allure of the so-called ‘green gold’ amid a rising anti-tobacco lobby.

Q: How do you feel when you hear that tobacco is ‘green gold’ for Malawi and other African countries?

A: It’s sad that some countries call tobacco ‘green gold’.  You know it kills people and it does not really make the economy better. In fact, tobacco makes people sick and it will be a cost on the economy and eventually they will die. So, to say that it’s a green gold, is a mislabel.

Castro: It’s sad that some countries call tobacco ‘green gold’

Q: How can an economy like Malawi’s migrate from tobacco, which we know has dark consequences, to better alternatives?

A: I believe in an agricultural economy there are other crops that are healthier that are foods, that are needed by the population to survive and those crops are equally profitable and they can help countries like Malawi in transitioning from tobacco as the only cash crop.

 

Q: From the newly- launched Tobacco Atlas, we see a trend where countries with high tobacco production bear the burden of environmental degradation and public health crises associated with tobacco. How can these countries lessen this ruinous impact of tobacco?

A: The Atlas provides the necessary message and information with data on the realities of what has been happening in the world on tobacco and I think this should be used by policymakers to enact policies to stop environmental degradation. The farmers should be educated about alternatives and those alternatives should be healthier for the population and should be better for the environment.

 

Q: In Malawi, we have grown up hearing that tobacco employs a lot of people and it cannot be substituted just like that. What do you make of this notion?

A: I think that is an argument that has been used to slow progress towards a tobacco-free generation, but the fact is you don’t need tobacco to live. If the farmers are educated and provided with the necessary support on other crops they can benefit far much better than from tobacco—just like those countries that do not grow tobacco.

 

A: Crop diversification is one of the strategies used by the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to win countries’ commitments on tobacco control, but proponents of the anti-tobacco lobby are also working hard to advocate the same. Don’t you think they are a step ahead of the anti-tobacco advocates?

A: I believe what the organisation like Foundation for A Smoke-Free World are trying to do is to maintain the status quo. They are not bringing in any change that will affect the tobacco control campaign, you know. So, don’t believe the claims that they are providing solutions to the farmers. WHO mentions African countries like Kenya, Algeria, Zimbabwe, and Ghana, among others, that have ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and are moving to other sources of generating revenue.  Health experts argue that Malawi has tried of late to produce legumes through a number of farmers and it has proved to bring more revenue than tobacco.

 

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