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Article: Can Medicinal Herbs Cure What Ails South Carolina's Tobacco Growers?(Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
- Article date:
- September 12, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Sep. 12--St. John's Wort, a medicinal herb that eases stress, could help ease the economic stress of the state's job-poor rural counties.
A wide-ranging industry plan calls for South Carolina tobacco farmers to grow high-quality herbs for the burgeoning U.S. health products market. Domestic sales of medicinal herbs exceeded $4.2 billion last year
The idea is to help tobacco farmers make up for the huge cuts in flue-cured tobacco quotas since 1997.
"We're real excited about it," said Greg Hyman, president of the S.C. Tobacco Growers Association. "I've been pitching this idea for a year."
Some South Carolina farmers, like Tom Boucounis ...