General Variation Smoky Oak

[Snusdog]

Tobacco companies do have some say, and pretty strict guidelines for vendors. Farmers aren't considered vendors because farmers sell to suppliers and tobacco companies buy from the suppliers. There is some communication between farmers and tobacco companies, but mainly just about good practices. And the farmers can't always do what's best for the tobacco companies 100% of the time. So some of the chemical properties are out of their control and others are out of anyone's but God's control. Ex. I said wet tobacco in the field as it's being cut and spiked will increase TSNA's. If it's going to rain for 5 days straight days somewhere and the farmer needs to harvest right now, he's not going to leave it in the field and pay his migrant workers for 5 days to sit and wait and do nothing. They're gonna cut it. It's what's best for the farmer, not what's best for the tobacco quality. But that's why tobacco companies do get to cherry pick a little bit, but you gotta do the analysis to figure out what's best and that's very expensive and time consuming. American Snuff, in my opinion, doesn't care at all, they buy whatever they can get that's US grown and cheap (probably usually the stuff we reject). Other companies do a bunch of chemical analysis to make sure they're getting not just good looking tobacco, but tobacco with safe chemical properties as well. IE. what type of tobacco and where the tobacco comes from, and soil types and climate difference and legal fertilizer/pesticide types used, and different countries have different ways of curing, etc etc. It's pretty overwhelming.

Very enlightening- thanks for the insights about what goes on behind the curtain. Really fascinating stuff