Source: Amanda Abrams, WASHINGTON POST, 3/14/20

 A generation ago, the annual opening of the tobacco market was a big event in this eastern North Carolina city. Bales of sweet-smelling tobacco leaves lined the warehouses downtown. People crowded in — politicians looking to boost their credentials with the powerful agriculture community, local reporters covering the market, farmers and their families and, of course, merchants ready to make a sale.

For more of this story, click here.