By TIM THORNBERRY
Kentucky Correspondent

LEXINGTON, Ky. — At a time when the tobacco quota system was still relatively new, tobacco research was in full swing at the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Agriculture.

The year was 1948, and UK Plant Pathologist W.D. Valleau was a leading tobacco scientist at the time. It was a young Chinese student of his who would become the leading tobacco scientist in his country, thanks to his studies with Valleau.

A Chinese film crew recently paid a visit to the campus to film a portion of a documentary about T.C. Chu, that young Chinese student.

“The documentary focuses on 60 years of tobacco science, and that started at the College of Agriculture at UK,” said Mingwu Cui, a senior scientist for the United States Smokeless Tobacco Co. and a former student at UK and under Chu in China. Cui served as the translator for the documentary crew.

With a master’s degree in agriculture, Chu went back to China in 1949 to begin his work, and has devoted his life to the science of tobacco production there.

According to Cui, Chu – or Zhu ZunQuan, as he is known in China and the international tobacco industry – came to this country when there were few foreign students and completed his studies in little more than 12 months. He said Chu remains active in his work and research today at the age of 90; in fact, the documentary is in recognition of his birthday.

Chu has been the driving force in his country in improving the quality and increasing the production of tobacco. He also conducted a survey of flue-cured tobacco in the 1960s and created a 17-level standard that received recognition by the Chinese National Bureau of Standards.

UK’s Michael Barrett and David Smith serve as chairs of the departments of plant and soil sciences and plant pathology, respectively, and both said the fact that the documentary crew wanted to include UK is a testament to how widely respected the research is done there.

“It’s a recognition of the strength that our tobacco program has had over many, many years,” Smith said. “It indicates the college’s status as a leader in tobacco breeding and pathology. Even 60 years ago this was one of the best places in the world to get this kind of an education.”

Barrett said, “For a former student to become so successful, it’s a major recognition for the college and the training our faculty and staff give to students. As a teacher your legacy is so much about your students.

“It’s remarkable how big of a decision it must have been for Mr. Chu to come here at a time when few foreign students did.”

While the film crew visited older sites on campus that were likely places Chu would have studied, Barrett also said it focused as much on UK now as it did about UK’s past. Some of those sites included previous and current tobacco research buildings: Scovell Hall, which was completed in 1905 and served as an agricultural experiment station; Spindletop Research Farm, where agronomic research pertaining to tobacco, grain crop, forages and turf is conducted; and the Kentucky Tobacco Research and Development Center, which explores new uses for crops such as tobacco, including pharmaceutical uses.

They also talked with tobacco professionals about the history of UK tobacco research and current projects at the university.
Tobacco in China

Since the days when Chu first returned to his country, China has become a major player in all aspects of world economy, but tobacco has fostered a connection between the most populated country in the world and a rural state with only four million people.

Brian Furnish with the Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative knows firsthand of that connection and works daily with growers here to find new avenues for Kentucky tobacco.

“China is the largest cigarette-consuming country in the world by far, and they are also are the largest tobacco producing country in the world. They produce over one-third of the world’s tobacco,” he said.

“They raise mainly flue-cured tobacco, or Virginia-style tobacco, as they call it. They raise very little burley tobacco in China and have very little burley in their cigarettes.”

Furnish also said the Co-op has started to sell aggressively to China in the last two years, just completing a fourth sale to the country, with volumes increasing. Furnish attributes this increase to the fact that China has increased their cigarette exports.

“As they go out into the world and compete against companies like Philip Morris, they have to have a cigarette that tastes closer to theirs, so that’s why they are buying burley tobacco from us. And they will only buy the best from us. They are the Burley Co-op’s largest customer right now,” said Furnish.

Once completed, the documentary will be distributed to tobacco industry professionals in China and could possibly be seen on China’s National Television, according to information from UK. The film was made possible by China’s State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, the Chinese National Science Foundation and the Tobacco Institute.

For more information about tobacco research, visit the UK College of Agriculture’s website at www.ca.uky.edu

For more information about the Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative, visit www.burleytobacco.com