Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/550313
tobaccoasia 67 Measured by Commitment Contact Us: USA: +1 626 960 3300; EMEA & ASIA: +44 1621 852 244; CHINA: +86 20 8666 2790; enquiries@ndc.com On-line and At-line, NDC tobacco measurements are relied on in hundreds of locations worldwide for quality and process control. www.ndc.com Tobacco Measurements ▼TM710e On-line Tobacco Gauge ▲InfraLab Tobacco Analyzer ►Moisture ►Nicotine ►Sugars T E C H N O L O G I E S Our name has changed but our commitment remains the same: to provide the best in in-process measurements for quality and process control. From June 2014, NDC Infrared Engineering becomes NDC Technologies. Read more at: What could this development mean for American tobacco farmers? Probably not much. Rod Kuegel, a burley and dark tobacco grower near Owensboro, who has been involved in the Owensboro research for 20 years, points out that you won't see it pro- duced on tobacco out in open space. "This has to be done in a controlled environment," he said. The Ebola treatment was developed in a greenhouse setting in a 40,000 square foot warehouse. An illustration of why pharmaceutical production is not well suited to commercial tobacco production: "Several years ago, we produced a vaccine for cats as part of this program," said Kuegel. Afterwards, the man in charge of the project told Kuegel he had some good news and some bad news. "The good news is that we have three million doses of the cat vaccine. The bad news is that we have three million doses of the cat vaccine," Kuegel remembers. Other new technology Kuegel noted a few other areas where new technology might help farmers: – In a very unusual move, R.J. Reynolds bought stripped stalks from the 2013 bur- ley crop. Kuegel sold his and said the price of 10 cents to 15 cents per pound was a very welcome bonus to his income from the leaf. He said he was told that the stalks were purchased to be used in the manufacture of flip top cigarette boxes. He understands that the volume of stalks bought was in the several million pound range. – Liquid nicotine for electronic cigarettes might be produced as a byproduct of processing stalks or some other "industrial" process. – The technology to extract certain valuable proteins from whole flue-cured to- bacco plants had been developed 35 years ago, but the process had never been taken to market because of the bad image that tobacco had at the time. After the Ebola vaccine, public opinion might be favorable for a revival of this technology.