The future of the state’s Tobacco Trust Fund, which provides financial compensation to North Carolina’s former tobacco farmers, remains in question. Budget proposals for the multi-million dollar program diverge widely between the state House and Senate. Senators have suggested continuing the distribution of funding dollars. State House members have suggested cutting funding all together. Small farmers and the organizations supporting them worry that losing this money could mean the demise of many enterprising agricultural projects.
Host Frank Stasio talks about the role of Tobacco Trust Fund money in the state’s economy with Linda Shaw, executive director of the Pittsboro-based Rural Advancement Foundation International USA and Andrew Brod, a senior research fellow at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
