TRADING BUTTS FOR BERRIES.

• Position: Tobacco buyout program - Brief Article

Maryland is the nation's first state to begin a tobacco buyout program for farmers. The state is using $5.9 million of its tobacco settlement funds this year to pay farmers to grow alternative crops such as grapes or raspberries and enroll their land in a farmland preservation program as part of the state's overall growth management and land use program. Grapes are estimated to bring a comparable profit to tobacco, but it will take...