In 1976, while doing research for a Master's Degree, I learned that scientists working at the University of Maryland were exploring possibilities for uses of tobacco, other than smoking. They called it Fraction-1 Protein.

Their scientists were intrigued by the high-grade protein that they were able to extract from
tobacco leaves. The nutritional value of the extracted proteins were comparable to milk, they surpassed soybean, and had no taste nor odor.

It amazed me that there was little or no publicity about this endeavor. Only a handful of news media picked up on the story, in 1996, which seemed odd to me, at first. Then, I realized how powerful the tobacco industry is in the south.

Well, it is more than 30 years since those scientists made their discovery. Has anyone ever read about it or seen it on the news or in medical journals? With all of the world-wide starvation, wouldn't the use of tobacco as a food source be a fantastic solution?

Wonder why? It seems to me that our government has only supported the no-smoking campaigns,
because of the proven relationship between tobacco use and life-threatening diseases.
Due to fear of the powerful tobacco growers in the U.S., I think they do not want to explore tobacco for uses that are not revenue producing.

We might just have a non-hazardous, non-cancerous product from a plant that has been around for thousands of years and is able to grow in numerous countries. What do you think?

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