Introduction

The opening statement of a 2011 pamphlet produced by the state-owned tobacco monopoly Régie Libanaise des Tabacs et Tombacs (hereafter called the Régie) reads, “The tobacco crop has become a symbol of resilience, resistance and people's attachment to the Nation's land [author's translation] (2011a, 1).” This statement seeks to characterize tobacco farming as a heroic struggle against Israeli occupation, a role it did play in the border villages of southern Lebanon for more than two decades. It masks, however, the continuous manipulation of tobacco farmers by national political elites, the fundamental economic irrationality of the tobacco industry in Lebanon and the shortcomings of development policies in Lebanon's rural areas. Moreover, the positive image invoked by the statement feeds into and reinforces the lobby by international tobacco companies against tobacco-control policies in Lebanon.

This chapter presents a more balanced view of tobacco farming in Lebanon by drawing attention to the historical and current political economy of the industry and the perverse logic of a trade deal between the state-owned tobacco monopoly and other actors in the supply chain that perpetuates tobacco farming. It triangulates information and data collected from published sources, from in-depth and semi-structured interviews with key informants and from the Régie's own unpublished statistics. It also maps the tobacco supply chain and examines the regional dimensions of tobacco farming.