Sunflowers vs. Cigarettes

This is the first time we've seen sunflowers planted in the Céou Valley. It's usually been stands of feed corn, tobacco, wheat...but this year the tobacco plantings were distinctly absent. Instead, we have field after field of sunflowers! What a fantastic way to phase out smoking!

Neighbors say the government has either dropped subsidies for the tobacco, or maybe they told me the prices were set so low (also by the government) that it's not worth planting anymore. My French is better than it was in the beginning, but I still miss some subtleties in rapid conversation. Actually, sometimes it's not just the subtleties I miss. Sometimes I miss the whole point. But I think, essentially, that since there's been a big "anti tabagisme" campaign in France, someone in government thought it was a bit hypocritical for the powers that be to support the tobacco-growing industry and at the same time, tell people to quit smoking.
In any event, I'm delighted to look at sunflowers out my kitchen window. Much prettier.

Interesting note...I'm reading an interesting history book right now which tells me that corn has been grown in the Perigord for centuries. I'd thought it had only been used in France as animal feed (ducks, geese, cattle), but I'm learning that in the 1700s, the people of the Sarladais were so impoverished that they ground corn into a coarse meal, from which they made various poor-quality breads and cakes to sustain them through the winter. Chestnuts were used similarly, and for some peasant families, these two foods were their primary sources of protein. One early doctor recorded that he had never seen such a high rate of malnutrition, evidenced by the swollen bellies of many children, as he saw in the region of Sarlat.