Did Chris from Wis. just fall off the Turnup truck or what.  Farmers in this region have been looking for alternative crops(Yes, that includes Turnups, peppers, tomatos, potatos, cabbage, corn...ect.) for 20 years now, but nothing produces the income needed to support the small family farm like Tobacco.  The fruits that he mentioned would take years before a profit could be made, and you have to look at the average age of the Tobacco Farmer which is about 57 years old.  The problem with tobacco is that most Tobacco Companys purchase foreign grown leaf from S. America, and abroad.  The cost is cheaper since the labor is cheap.  It has been noted by the Tobacco companys that they need a certain percentage of US grown tobacco to make the taste bearable.  If your old enough to remember, second hand smoke used to bother no one until the tobacco companys started mixing so much foreign tobacco in. My final note is.   Tobacco is going to grown somewhere reguardless of what some people might think.  Since we are already the best at growing the crop, grow it here and revise the current system we have so we as farmers can survive.