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Organic Hemp Hemp proves useful yet again, but the U.S. remains uninterested Hemp is a fantastically useful fiber. It's ten times stronger than cotton, and can even be used to make paper more cheaply  (and moreenvironmentally responsibly) than cutting down trees. Yet here in the U.S., the drug war mentality has caused hemp to remain an illegal crop -- even though hemp isn't marijuana and doesn't make you high when you smoke it. Rather, it makes you sick.July 15,2008...North Dakota Farmers Sue to Overturn U.S. Ban on Industrial Hemp So it's no surprise that Canada is the country finding new ways to apply this extremely useful material to industry. In Canada, there is no politically-motivated drug war, and hemp isn't an illegal crop. Car bumpers? Why not? The uses for hemp are probably only beginning to be discovered. If U.S. farmers were allowed to grow this crop, it could revolutionize U.S. farming and industry. But the cotton lobby has too much political sway to allow this to happen any time soon. They know that hemp is far stronger than cotton (makes better jeans, for one thing), and that allowing hemp to be farmed in the U.S. would seriously harm the cotton growers' profits. The Great Ethanol Corndoggle By Rand Clifford 12 January, 2008 Massive craters hugging the local convenience store this fall were planted with 20,000-gallon plastic bulbs, then filled in, paved over. And new pumps have sprouted, spanking-fresh with life like graphics of thigh-sized ears of corn seductively half-husked. So clean and appealing, this face of new energy, helping consumers feel good about maybe "paying a little extra"to benefit the environment....more (1)http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-241.html (2) http://www.logicalscience.com/ (3)http://www.starchiefpress.com/ (4)http://www.starchiefpress.com/ For one thing, hemp is as traditional a fabric as you can find. The hemp plant is the oldest cultivated fiber plant known, with a history of use in textiles and fabrics dating back as far as 8000 BC The reasons for hemp's continued popularity throughout ten millenia are still applicable today, and are the basis for the renewed interest in its cultivation and use. Over 25,000 practical products can be produced from hemp--anything from "dynamite to Cellophane", according to an article in the February 1938 issue of Popular Mechanics. In fact, nearly all petroleum-based products, including plastics, could be made as hemp-based products, and with less impact on the environment. Our time line of hemp in history provides many other examples of the uses of hemp. For the past sixty years in theUnited States, there has been a gulf between scientific opinion and legislative opinion concerning hemp. However, the past two years have provided many reasons to believe that the tide of opinion is turning. The legalization of industrial hemp in Canada is an obvious example; the issue is also being debated in several US state legislatures with promising results. To find out how such a beneficial and useful plant came to be outlawed, take a look at ourTimeline of Misinformation,which presents some of the key events that led to the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. We've put together a constantly growing section on the state of the hemp industry today, particularly concerning Canada and the United States. An excellent link for more information regarding the politics of hemp is: http://www.hemphasis.net Jack Herer has a written a terrific book that covers all aspects of hemp, including the many benefits, the many uses and the history of the hemp industry in the US and throughout the world. His website, www.jackherer.com is definitely worth checking out, and his book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, is a must-read. Some highlights from the book are included here: Chapter 8: Cannabis Hempseed as a Basic World Food Chapter 9: Economics: Energy, Environment and Commerce The world consumption of natural and synthetic fiber based products is increasing at the rate of 4% to 6% per year. In the last 50 years, mankind has cut down 50% of the world's forests. The human population is expected to double by the year 2050. |
