Cigarettes without the kick
WebPosted Mon Feb 19 16:08:20 2001
PHILEDELPHIA-- A tobacco company in the
United States has struck a deal with farmers to help grow a "safer"
cigarette.
Vector scientists have created something called a "Type 21 Burley"
tobacco plant. It produces a leaf that is virtually free of nicotine and
nitrosamines, a cancer-causing byproduct.
The company is hoping to start selling the modified tobacco in 2001 through a
cigarette brand called "Omni".
The company received regulatory approval to grow the modified tobacco from
the U.S. Department of Agriculture last week.
Pennsylvania has never been a major supplier for cigarette companies.
Amish and
Mennonite farmers to plant new crop
However, the Amish and the Mennonites – descendants of 16th Century Swiss
and German Anabaptists – have been growing tobacco for generations.
Many shun modern conveniences such as electricity and cars, preferring oil
lamps and black horse-drawn buggies.
"Fifty or 60-cents a pound means you've worked the whole year for
nothing," said Larry Weaver, a farmer from New Holland, Pennsylvania.
Weaver helped sign up 530 Pennsylvania farmers for the venture - 90 per cent
of them Amish or Mennonite.
Executives are also hoping to recruit farmers in Illinois, Mississippi and
Louisiana.
Manufacturers pursued the concept of less dangerous cigarettes back in the
seventies. But they shelved those ideas out of fear – creating a safer
alternative meant admitting tobacco was a dangerous product.
But a landmark $206 billion settlement between the big tobacco companies and
46 U.S. states in 1998 has changed all that.
Cigarette companies are now scrambling to come up with new products deemed
"safe" or less harmful.
Vector Group has asked farmers in the Pennsylvania area to help them grow a
genetically engineered tobacco crop this year.
Scientists at Vector
have created a tobacco plant that is virtually free of nicotine. The
"Omni" cigarette could be on shelves by 2002
Vector is offering those farmers an attractive price – $1.50 a pound, versus
auction prices as low as 50 to 60 cents.
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