Tobacco Execs Enlist Amish in Experiment

U.S. tobacco executives looking to use the latest in genetic engineering to create a so-called safer cigarette have struck a curious alliance with Amish and Mennonite farmers famed for avoiding anything as modern as electricity.

Shunned by growers in mainstay tobacco states such as North Carolina and Kentucky, who fear a consumer backlash against bioengineered tobacco, maverick cigarette maker Vector Group Ltd. has appealed to cash-hungry farmers in Pennsylvania for help raising a new genetically modified crop this year.

“This is a traditional tobacco-growing area that has experienced price declines over the past several years. This presented a good opportunity to secure a lot of acreage,” said Tim Jackson, Vector’s vice president for operations.

Vector scientists say they have engineered “Type 21 Burley” tobacco plants to produce a leaf virtually free of nicotine and a carcinogen called tobacco-specific nitrosamines.

The small Miami-based company, racing against industry titans R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Co. and Philip Morris Cos. to successfully market a less-harmful cigarette, hopes to introduce the modified tobacco to consumers in 2002 through a new cigarette brand called Omni.

Just last week, Vector received regulatory approval to grow the modified tobacco from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Pennsylvania, which produces only 6,000 acres of tobacco, has never been a major supplier for cigarette companies. Local farmers cannot get federal price guarantees that make it a leading cash crop in other states.

But the Amish and Mennonites, descendants of 16th century Swiss and German Anabaptists, have been growing tobacco for generations near Lancaster, Pa.

Wall Street analysts are pessimistic about the economic prospects for “safer” cigarettes but say a home-run product could revolutionize the trillion-dollar tobacco industry.

“With any attempt at safer cigarettes, you’re either going to get broad consumer acceptance, or no consumer acceptance,” said Martin Feldman of Salomon Smith Barney.