Kauai farm
joins testing for
low-nicotine tobacco

The USDA is studying the
feasibility of using genetically
modified plants for cigarettes

---

By Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.com

A Kauai farmer is participating in a national test program that is expected to produce cigarettes this spring with genetically altered low-nicotine tobacco.

Joe Sauve, who began growing biotech tobacco last year in a trial under contract for Vector Group, said he is "not a fan of tobacco and genetically modified" crops.

But he said the project has "redeeming value" because a no-nicotine product would benefit smokers and could provide opportunities for a new agricultural enterprise here.

He said his test plot is "going reasonably well," but it is only a few acres, and there are no results so far. He declined to give the location of the site to protect the plants.

Tobacco harvested last summer from mainland test plots is going into cigarettes made by Vector Group, parent company of Vector Tobacco of Durham, N.C.

"The product is going to be launched the second quarter of 2002," Vector spokeswoman Carrie Bloom said. "Research has been going on for some time and growing started last year."

The crop is being grown under U.S. Department of Agriculture supervision on 5,200 aces in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Mississippi, Louisiana and Iowa, as well as Hawaii. The Kauai test plot began in August.

It takes 60 to 75 days after planting to harvest the crop, a two-month-long process, Bloom said. It then goes into a curing process. "It remains in Vector's control from growing to final production," she said.

The plant was altered genetically to block nicotine production in the roots. A USDA study confirmed low-nicotine levels in the tobacco and reported that the crop poses little environmental risk.

"This thing could be a home run, and it could flop. We think the odds are that it is going to be a successful product," Donald Trott, an analyst with the brokerage firm Jefferies & Co. Inc., told the Associated Press.

Vector Group owns Liggett Group Inc. and Vector Tobacco, a research and manufacturing company dedicated to developing tobacco products without carcinogens.

Sauve said he has grown papayas, blueberries "and all kinds of stuff that made some sense." But despite "lots of land, lots of water and lots of willing people," papayas, sugar, pineapples and other island crops are gone, he said.

He was wondering what could replace those crops when he saw a Wall Street Journal article last year about the Vector Group looking for farmers to grow biotech tobacco.

"We had to find something to grow, so I called them and said, 'What do you think about Hawaii?'"

He said they noted Hawaii has the same latitude as Cuba. "They're excited about it."

According to mainland reports, people who tested the biotech cigarettes say they are light and smoke like ordinary cigarettes.

Critics of the tobacco industry fear low-nicotine cigarettes could encourage smoking.

Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said a nicotine-free cigarette still could contain high levels of harmful toxic substances.

Many tobacco farmers and rival cigarette makers also are concerned that biotech tobacco could get mixed with conventional production and jeopardize U.S. exports.

Vector said the biotech product is grown and processed separately from conventional crops. The USDA said there is little chance that the biotech plants could become weeds or damage the environment.

Vector has asked the department to remove restrictions on where and how the tobacco can be grown.