Tobacco Wars

Adairville, Ky., is home to the high-stakes world of Kentucky's dark fire industry. Fourth and fifth generation tobacco men compete to survive by any means necessary -- gambling all, not just on their notoriously precarious crop, but on the wild wagers that are a fundamental part of their way of life. It's a risky business, but when you're a Kentucky tobacco man, your whole life's a gamble. Dark fire tobacco, named after the perilous barn fire drying process, is used in cigars and chewing tobacco (not cigarettes). Competition to produce this most perilous, but lucrative crop (valued at approximately $3,000 per acre annually), is fierce. The farmers of Tobacco Wars are country proud and love their lives to the fullest, knowing no other way to live life. They work hard and play even harder, a living embodiment of the old saying "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die." It's the highest stakes anyone could imagine. Their farms, their lives and their family names are on the line each and every year.