World No Tobacco Day 2023
Grow food, not tobacco
World No Tobacco Day 2023 - Grow food, not tobacco.
Tobacco growing harms our health, the health of farmers and the planet’s health. The tobacco industry interferes with attempts to substitute tobacco growing, contributing to the global food crisis.
This campaign encourages governments to end tobacco growing subsidies and use the savings to support farmers to switch to more sustainable crops that improve food security and nutrition.
Campaign objectives
- Mobilize governments to end subsidies on tobacco growing and use of savings for crop substitution programmes that support farmers to switch and improve food security and nutrition.
- Raise awareness in tobacco farming communities about the benefits of moving away from tobacco and growing sustainable crops;
- Support efforts to combat desertification and environmental degradation by decreasing tobacco farming;
- Expose industry efforts to obstruct sustainable livelihoods work.
The key measure of campaign success would be the number of governments that pledge to end subsidies on tobacco growing.
World No Tobacco Day 2023: grow food, not tobacco
Key messages
Tobacco is grown in over 124 countries, taking up land that could be used to grow crops that feed millions of people, driving down food insecurity.
Tobacco is not a highly profitable crop for farmers or governments, despite the tobacco industry exaggerating its economic importance.
Shifting from tobacco to nutritious food crops has the potential to feed millions of families and improve the livelihoods of farming communities globally.
Governments should support tobacco farmers to switch to alternative crops by ending tobacco growing subsidies and reallocating resources to support alternatives to tobacco growing.
