Talk Elections

What do people do with that land now? How do people living in the area vote?

I read a lot of it was used for growing timber, but the price of timber hasn't taken off like it was thought to, so a lot of it is just open forest now waiting for timber prices to rise.   

Mostly converted into Vape bushes, obviously.

There are two predominant areas of tobacco growing.  One in Eastern NC and Northcentral NC and adjacent parts of VA that tended to be larger operations and either still grow tobacco or have converted to other crops or livestock or if around Raleigh-Durham into housing.  The other areas is in the Central Appalachia mountains into Central KY that had small farms that probably haven't converted to much of anything if they don't grow tobacco anymore.

Since they're rural areas in the South, they vote R and some places were always ancestral R up in the mountains with East NC being the home of the Jessiecrats (Jesse Helms)  Many of the cities that were centers of cigarette production and corporate HQ are now quite D voting such as Richmond, Louisville and Winston-Salem.

There's still significant tobacco production in North Carolina.  American tobacco is still outrageously profitable, it's a $723 million industry in North Carolina - which roughly comes out to $4,500 per production acre.  Compare that to $600 for North Carolina corn.

Stats here (https://www.nass.usda.gov/Quick_Stats/Ag_Overview/stateOverview.php?state=NORTH%20CAROLINA). 

Low timber prices are in part due to a supply glut due to a bunch of people deciding timber lands would be a good investment. Often it was well-off Southern families who inherited a bunch of family agricultural land that nobody in the family wanted to manage after the grandparents died, and figured planting a bunch of trees, walking away and then getting a bunch of money years later was foolproof.

There was also consolidation in the lumber mill industry creating fewer buyers for lumber an greater bargaining power on their part as a result.

It's worth noting that a lot of the tobacco land in question is owned by what amount to absentee landlords - again, the descendants of well-off planter families who now live in places like Charlotte and Atlanta.

The profitability doesn't surprise me. I'm finishing up a week visiting the Low Country of SC and southern NC. In Myrtle Beach smoking is not permitted inside restaurants and bars, so at a live performance last night there was a steady number of patrons stepping outside to smoke. Inside they commented that if the performance was in N. Myrtle Beach they wouldn't have to go outside since smoking is allowed indoors there.