Two men riding an electric scooter smoke cigarette as they wait to cross a street in Beijing on May 12, 2023. On Monday, the WHO, the World Health Organization, asked governments in the Western Pacific region to stop subsidizing tobacco farming and support sustainable crops that could feed millions instead.
It's time to grow food, not tobacco, said Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO's acting regional director for Western Pacific.
If governments prioritize business over health, ecosystems will be lost, people will go hungry, and health will decline, she said.
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According to WHO's regional office in Manila, more than a million hectares of land in the Western Pacific region are used to grow tobacco, while millions of people still face food insecurity.
If we used the same 1 million hectares to grow nutritious food, would it be possible to produce more nutritious food? We could nourish millions of people, help children grow and develop, and support adults to reach their full potential, Jakab said.
Toxic tobacco dust and chemical pesticides have been exposed to tobacco farmers and their families through tobacco farming. The environment also suffers due to deforestation, contamination of water sources, and soil degradation, the UN health agency said in the latest report entitled Grow food, not tobacco. TOBacco kills more than 7 million people annually, according to the WHO.
The WHO said trees cut down for tobacco farming make up 5 percent of global deforestation.
More than 1 million child laborers worldwide are estimated to be working on tobacco farms and missing out on education, the WHO said.
Tobacco growing is a worldwide problem, WHO has said, which encourages the governments to shift from tobacco to economically viable alternative crops through appropriate policy support and intervention.