The Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company sells cigarettes under the brand name American Spirit®, which appear to blatantly appeal to the public’s growing interest in all things green. The way American Spirit cigarettes are marketed is that they are “100% Additive-free Natural Tobacco” or “100% Organic Tobacco” cigarettes. These two cigarettes came out just about the same time the green movement started gaining some momentum. Have the makers of these “natural” and “organic” cigarettes taken advantage of the green movement that’s underway? Who allows the makers of American Spirit cigarettes to advertise its cigarettes as “natural” and “organic?” Why is the Santa Fe Tobacco Co. allowed to advertise its American Spirit cigarettes as “natural” and “organic?” Finally, does an organic tobacco cigarette or a 100% additive-free natural tobacco cigarette mean it’s a better, even a safer cigarette, for you than other cigarettes that aren’t natural or organic tobacco?
Let’s take the first question, first: has the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, makers of the cigarette branded American Spirit, taken advantage of the green movement that’s underway? To answer the question, you have to ask a couple of other questions: why would the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company label its cigarettes “natural” and “organic” in the first place; if there wasn’t a green movement afoot, would the Santa Fe Tobacco Company bothered with marketing a “natural tobacco” and “organic tobacco” cigarette, especially in the light the times were a-changing southward fast for tobacco companies in the U.S. when Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. introduced its new cigarettes?
In the mid 1990s there was an explosion of lawsuits against the big tobacco companies, and the writing on the wall was obvious to everyone that the tobacco companies were actually, finally, lock, stock and barrel marching off into the sunset to the toll of a death knell. Yet a little tobacco company out of Santa Fe, New Mexico was actually expanding its operations, so much so that it moved in 1996 to the very heart of where the big tobacco companies were scaling back its tobacco growing operations-North Carolina. How is it that while the big tobacco companies were on the ropes, about to go south for the count, arising within the dying tobacco industry was a tobacco company heading north and into greener pastures?
The Organic Food Production Act of 1990, requiring the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop national standards for organic products, is the same year the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. started its “earth-friendly growing programs.” The result? The following year Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. introduced its “100% Organic Tobacco” cigarette. So, while big tobacco companies were doing all they could in the 1990s to stem the tide of all of the negative attention it was getting, a little, relatively unknown, under-the-radar, tobacco company saw an opportunity: an opportunity to attach itself to the green, organic, movement quickly taking shape.
The rise of the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. didn’t go unnoticed, and in 2002 Reynolds American Inc., the parent company to the better-known R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., came calling. Since 2002, Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. has been an “independent operating unit of Reynolds American Inc.
Who allows Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company to advertise its cigarettes “natural” and “organic?” Tobacco is lumped in with foodstuffs you eat under the USDA. Therefore, tobacco follows the edicts pertaining to, and regulations of, the USDA.
Why is the Santa Fe NaturalTobacco Co. allowed to advertise its American Spirit cigarettes as “natural” and “organic?” Again, for starters, tobacco is actually considered a foodstuff by the U.S. government. Therefore, when the Santa Fe Tobacco Company follows the organic requirements that have been established, it gets to label its cigarettes organic.
You can break Santa Fe Tobacco Company tobacco fields in half for the purpose of how it labels and markets its cigarettes: one half of its tobacco is grown following the requirements of the organic ideal; the other half isn’t grown following the requirements necessary to gain the organic designation-and that’s the tobacco labeled “natural.” Certainly, this is the simplified version of how it works, but strip everything else away and that’s how it shakes out: if it isn’t grown following the requirements of the National Organic Program, one of the only alternatives is to use the catch-all term, “natural.
Finally, does an organic tobacco cigarette or a 100% additive-free natural tobacco cigarette mean it’s a better, even a safer cigarette, for you than other cigarettes that aren’t natural or organic tobacco?
Ok yes, American Spirit cigarettes are natural in that they don’t have all of the chemical additives Marlboro®, Camel®, Kool® and other popular brands of cigarettes have in them. However, natural tobacco is still grown with the use of poisonous pesticides and the like. Plus, you don’t have to go any further than the cigarette packaging itself. Not only does the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. warn that “no additives in our tobacco does NOT mean a safer cigarette but, the same Surgeon General’s warning that’s on the aforementioned chemically-loaded cigarettes is on American Spirit cigarettes, too.
How about the organic cigarettes? Chemicals aren’t added to them nor are they grown with the use of pesticides? Ask yourself, “Are my lungs meant to inhale smoke-filled air or air without smoke?” Santa Fe Tobacco Company’s American Spirit 100% Additive-Free Natural Tobacco cigarettes and 100% Organic tobacco cigarettes does not mean green cigarettes are better cigarettes?
