Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

Pronounced "Backer", Tobacco has been vilified as a major cause of lung cancer, and for very good reason - it's been scientifically proven that it is not good for humans when inhaled into the lungs.

But new uses for this plant are being discovered by a different set of scientists every day.

1. Researchers and bioengineering entrepreneurs have already begun to use tobacco plants as hosts for bioengineering processes that could be used to produce new antibiotics, vaccines, cancer treatments, other medicines, blood substitutes, and even biodegradable plastics and industrial enzymes and solvents.
2. Similarly, other researchers are exploring the possibility of using genetically engineered tobacco plants that could clean up contaminated areas around weapons factories and munitions dumps just by being grown in the contaminated dirt.
3. Tobacco plants are ideal for these biotechnology procedures because tobacco is leafy, readily accepts the procedures, grows quickly, is relatively easy to harvest, and yields millions of new seeds per plant. A handful of U.S. tobacco farmers are already doing a small amount of “molecular farming” to produce genetically altered or treated tobacco plants for the biotechnology companies that are developing these new procedures and products.

This is good news for the tobacco farmers in North Carolina and Virginia. Now, perhaps, you will be able to see Tobacco in a new light. Observe ......

(Download)

Sirius_one Loc: S.F. Bay Area

Your shot certainly does show tobacco in a new light. :-P :thumbup:

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

I captured these this morning Sirius ..... it's ripe for picking, all bright yellow. It's what gave me the idea I could convert it to monochrome in the first place.

nicksr1125 Loc: Mesa, AZ

Kids whose parents farmed tobacco when I was in school got days off to help with the harvest. We took a field trip to a tobacco warehouse in downtown Winston-Salem to see what an auction was all about. That ended sometime in the late '50's. With these new uses, maybe tobacco will become an important crop again.

john21a

You're an artist Bob. John

Treepusher Loc: Kingston, Massachusetts

Nice one, Bob. Spent some of my younger days in tobacco-growing country in southern Indiana, an important crop there, along with soybeans and corn. Hope they find a beneficial use or two for it, give the farmers a boost.

As an aside, best thing my father--a heavy smoker who died of lung cancer--ever did for me was to sit me down at eight years old and force me to smoke a cigarette. Never wanted another one, and today I'm grateful to him for doing that. At the time, however, maybe not so much, lol.

Paul B. Loc: North Carolina

Looks good in B&W, good job.

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

Thanks for the comments nick. It seems that tobacco touched a lot of lives throughout the various states.

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

Thanks John. Anytime I see a light colored flower or plant these days, I get to wondering what it would look like in monochrome. And then I have to go scratch that itch.

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

Thanks Randy. When I was 12 years old, 2 things happened that were to prove instrumental in my young life. I tried smoking a cigarette, inhaling until I coughed my head off. I got so dizzy I fell flat on my face downtown, right in front of everybody. That was all it took - I never wanted to go through that again. And when my grandfather died of lung cancer just a few months later, it cemented the decision.

As for tobacco, another use that is being explored is for use as a bio-fuel. It's as easy to grow and harvest as corn, and works equally as well - although no one has tried growing it commercially as of yet.

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

Thanks Paul. For the past few months I have been trying my hand at portraying flowers in monochrome that don't usually receive that treatment. It's surprising, even to me, how good some of them look.

loboimages Loc: Texas

Another beauty along with very interesting information on the beneficial aspects of tobacco. Thanks Bob.

Lou

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

Thanks Lou. Living as I do in a tobacco-growing state, it's good to know that this crop can be repurposed. Ironic, though, that the best prices the farmers of that plant could ever expect to receive was, and still is, from the cigarette companies.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Nice treatment of the tobacco plant. Also, it's good to hear there are other uses being developed for the plant.

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

Thanks jaymatt. I didn't realize just how rich in textures those plants were ..... it turns out they make interesting subjects after all.