Fair trade ... cigarettes?

It almost seems like a oxymoron, doesn't it? But apparently the always-questionable company Phillip Morris is looking into using fair trade tobacco. Do progressives smoke? Never mind, I seem to remember seeing activists pontificating about how cigarettes are the Tool of the Man at the same time they were huddled outside sucking away.

And what about fair trade cigars, to placate Foodgoat?

Well, in Cuba, the famous tobacco farms, due to the economic troubles that began when Russia fell, have begun to move away from collectives into private hands. Farmers and workers are still doing things the old way, plowing with oxen, and doing all the work by hand. Is all this bad or good? I'm not sure, but that's why there are certification organizations like TransFair USA. They're the ones who go check these places out.