If you had been a farmer in Finland 300 years ago, you would have been required by law to plant some of your land with tobacco to help meet local demand and, importantly, to offset the need for the country to import leaf. But times change and, if you had been a Finnish farmer growing tobacco commercially in 2013, you would have been the only one. In fact, you would have been Antti Pellonpaa. And being the lone commercial tobacco grower in Finland in 2013 is not the only distinction to which Pellonpaa can lay claim. Because the tobacco he grows is organic and because he turns this tobacco into products, legislation has had to be devised specifically to cover and, in part, outlaw his operations. It goes without saying that such legislation has proved to be generally unhelpful. But Pellonpaa has a mischievous side, and I think it would be fair to say that he derives considerable satisfaction from the attention that the authorities bestow upon him alone.
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