There’s a Hemp bill in California that needs the attention of all California Boo-sters.
But wait. Some background….
We used to make a lot of things from hemp. Hemp farmers were happy. Not because they were getting high on it, but it do love to grow, is hardy, and bugs don’t much like to fool with it.
During WW2, the government cranked up hemp production, but After the war ended, quietly shut down all the hemp processing plants and the industry faded away again.
The Hemp Industry Assoc.
I say let’s crank that sucker back up again…so follow me down to where the roots feed….
In 1997, the USDA Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin conducted an evaluation of hemp as a potential feedstock for the paper industry in that state. They concluded that “… hemp could profitably be used as a fiber source for the paper industry” and that “Wisconsin farmers could meet the demand for fiber by the fine paper manufacturers of Wisconsin.
The Vermont State Auditor’s Report on the Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program (DCE/SP), published in 1998, found that the national average for ditchweed seized under the DCE/SP in all 50 states was 99% as of 1996. The study notes that over $9 million was spent on this program in 1996 and that out of 422,716,526 cannabis plants eradicated, 419,660,022 were low-THC ditchweed, also known as industrial (feral) hemp. The report recommends that policymakers who are concerned that the federal cannabis eradication program focuses so heavily on wild industrial hemp consider lobbying the DEA to change the DCE/SP grant to target cultivated cannabis more exclusively.
This report indicates that millions of our tax dollars are wasted on eradicating harmless low-THC industrial hemp plants instead of focusing on the eradication of cultivated marijuana. More recent 2001 statistics show that more than $13 million in taxpayer funds were spent on this boondoggle program. Vote Hemp
In my own state, all I can say is “Bless Virginia’s Legislators little hearts”….
WHEREAS, similar to jute and flax, industrial hemp’s three principal raw materials–fiber, hurds, and seeds can be used in more than 25,000 products, including textiles, rope, cellulose plastics, resin, particle board, paper products, shampoo, vitamins and oil; and
WHEREAS,WHEREAS,WHEREAS,
RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the Commission on Rural Prosperity be requested to consider the growth and production of industrial hemp in Virginia as a means to promote rural prosperity
…..yada yada, that was in 2001, I think. I will need to do a little additional digging and see if any of the requested consideration has occured.
Ok, so what about California? Consumers, staart your keyboards….
The Call to Arms:
BENEFIT OF GIVING FARMERS THE RIGHT TO GROW HEMP: PRICELESS!
The next six months is a crucial time for lobbying legislators about the California Industrial Hemp Farming Act – AB 1147, introduced by Asm. Mark Leno of San Francisco. Vote Hemp has hired Michael Greene,
of CDS Consulting, to be our lobbyist in Sacramento and help us secure passage. A plan has been created to educate influential members of committees that will be hearing the bill, as well as all members of
both chambers of the legislature and the Governor’s office. Michael Greene will also help us to build grassroots and business support for the legislation. We recently held a press conference in Sacramento to announce AB 1147. Read more at:
We urgently need your help in covering costs for this major effort to secure passage of AB 1147 which could be as much as $11,000 over six months. Fortunately, AlpSnack(http://www.Alpsnack.com) has generously offered to match dollar for dollar donations for this effort.
Every dollar you give over the next six months is actually worth two!
Some of the notable supporters of AB 1147 include the California Certified Organic Farmers, Rain Forest Action Network and Organic Consumers Association. Despite these groups’ public support, it’s up to the Hemp Industry to pay the bills. Send donations to:
Vote Hemp
P.O. Box 862
Bedford, MA 01730
And of course, there is a paypal donation button on the site.
The Vote Hemp site also supplies some marvelous links to such sites as the We The Planet vegetable oil bus tour, The Living Tree Paper Company and Carbohydrate Economy Clearinghouse.
I read, at the Carbohydrate Economy Clearinghouse, that in 1941 Henry Ford built a plastic car made of fiber from hemp and wheat straw. And that anything made from a hydrocarbon can be made from a carbohydrate. That the 21st century should be the era of the carbohydrate (sustainable agricultural products.)That Hemp plastic is biodegradable, synthetic plastic is not.
“Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forests and mineral products in the annual growth of the fields? Many of the raw materials of industry which are today stripped from the forests and the mines can be obtained from annual crops grown on the farms.” -Henry Ford
Why indeed? WTF? Boy,howdy.
“Over 25,000 products can be manufactured from hemp, from cellophane to dynamite.”
Popular Mechanics, 1938
One acre of hemp can produce as much usable fiber as 4 acres of trees or two acres of cotton.
ecomall/hemp products
Emmasnacker look good in blue hemp clothes, ya think?
Oh dear. An extra linky thing here. Wher’d that come from, I wonder. It’s one that shouts “Read me”, and is food for a whole new diary. You know how it is when a person starts following links. Sometimes they follow you home.
Forgot the
Vote Hemp Action ‘Lert Link.
There used to be a town in North Georgia called Hemptown next to the Hemptown Creek. The creek is still known by that name and you can walk along it’s banks and find the ghostly remains of the town that once derived its living from growing hemp for rope, sails and paper. All gone to rot now but still along the banks are what could be called groves of hemp, growing wild, monstrous maryjane trees flapping in the breeze.
In the late 60’s/early 70’s, hemp still grew wild along most country roads across North Georgia. We used to drive out in a battered old VW Beetle, come across a patch and toss it into the front trunk. We’d bring it home, dry it in a closet then pass it out to our friends. Weren’t no potent weed by any means; sometimes you’d have to smoke like two or three joints before you copped a buzz. But, hell, it was free!
Same road trips, we’d run out across cow pastures scooping up ‘shrooms. Ah, youth. I have such fond memories of life before cops knew cannibis wasn’t just another roadside weed among the thistles and Queen Anne’s Lace.
A friend went to visit relatives in Nebraska. Was bored out of the house on the last day, and noticed the “pot” growing in the ditches. Frantic, he picked all he could, and stuffed his clothes in the trash, and the pickins in his suitcase. Sweated all the way home with the haul heating up in the trunk, and mom & dad chatting in the front. Long story short: We quickly discovered it was not smokeable. His mother found the stash in the attic. Bust all around.
But ditchweed is wearable. And you can tie someone up with it. It’s part of the answer to our oil problems.
Why is hemp fiber preferable over other natural and synthetics for clothing and rope manufacture?
What is the name of the machine used to seperate the fiber from the stalk?
Why is HEMP oil superior to all other oils for consumption as a food product over other plant based oils?
Answer me these questions three and I will let you across this bridge you see– Monty Python ;Search for the Holy Grail
Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say Ni at will to old ladies. There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred. Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress in this period in history.
3.Hemp Seed Oil
The oil contained in the hemp seed is 75-80% polyunsaturated fatty acids (the good fats) and only 9-11% of the lesser desired saturated fatty acids. Hemp seed oil is reputed to be the most unsaturated oil derived from the plant kingdom. The essential fatty acids (EFAs) contained in hemp seed oil are required in our diet more than any other vitamin, yet our bodies do not naturally produce them. They must be obtained from external sources in the food we eat. EFAs are involved with producing life’s energy throughout the human body and without them, life is not possible. In general, North Americans have a high dietary deficiency in EFAs due to out high intake of animal fats versus plant fats, caused by our high consumption of processed foods and meats versus natural organic foods.
Hemp seed oil has been dubbed “Nature’s most perfectly balanced oil”, due to the fact that it contains the perfectly balanced 3:1 ratio of Omega 6 (linoleic/ LA) to Omega 3 (alpha-linolenic/ LNA) essential fatty acids, determined to be the optimum requirement for long-term healthy human nutrition. In addition, it also contains smaller amounts of 3 other polyunsaturated fatty acids in gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), oleic acid and stearidonic acid. This EFA combination is unique among edible oil seeds.
(see nutritional composition )
http://www.hempoilcan.com/nutri.html
most excellent lazbumm. Have some 4s, and my thanks for enlightening us further. No time to read your link now, will have to wait until work is done.
As you probably know, one of the biggest supporters of the anti-hemp movement in the 1930s was William Randolph Hearst, who owned scads of forestland to make pulp paper.
Now that many of the papermills in this country are facing closure due to overseas competition, it’s possible that could lead to an increase of support for a return to hemp for paper production.
The historical origins of this act are particularly interesting. In 1930, Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon appointed Harry J. Anslinger, his niece’s husband, to the fledgling Federal Bureau of Narcotics. At the time, one of Mellon’s chief financial interests was Mellon Bank, a principal backer of the chemical company DuPont.
DuPont, previously a munitions firm, were by now expanding into the field of plastics and synthetic fibres, a market they have dominated ever since. A statement by their corporate president hints at DuPont’s intentions:
“Synthetic plastics (made from mineral, chemical, petroleum, and fossil fuel deposits) find application in fabricating a wide variety of articles, many of which in the past were made from natural products.”
Furthermore, their archives reveal they had designs on Congress:
“The revenue raising power of government may be converted into an instrument for forcing acceptance of of sudden new ideas of industrial and social reorganization.”
At this time, hemp was an enormous industry in the States, where new extraction technology was being developed that made hemp products, such as paper and fabric, cheaper than ever before. Hemp seed oil was being used to manufacture paints and varnishes. The first plastics had been manufactured from cellulose, and hemp, with its huge cellulose content, was at the forefront of the nascent plastics industry.
This info was imported from here:http://www.ephidrina.org/cannabis/taxact.html
and as the article explains Hearst was brought in for two reasons, he was a rabid prohibitionist plus the forestry issue you mentioned.
I will point out again as I did below HEMP will never be farmed in the United States of America until it is removed from Schedule One status by the DEA. HEMP and all cannabis are lumped together and classified (illegally I might add) as a dangerous drug . Even though as our host has pointed out it contains virtually no THC .
I really appreciate you and carnacki bringing this info in. It’s usually those same guys, ain’t it, still haunting us after all these years.
I don’t vote in CA, but you’ve sold me. Clincher: “Hemp plastic is biodegradable, synthetic plastic is not.”
Your last link to the Institute for Self Reliance had a fabulous section on promoting locally owned businesses. Democrats might be able gain some ground with small business owners if we support them vs. WalMart and the big chains. Win-win. Thanks for another great resource. Please let us know how the hemp legislation works out!
I discovered a couple of more great links while researching this too. Fodder for future diaries. What gets me so riled up is that Community has been so broken, and Community is what can solve so many of the problems that we have. We may well be headed toward forced Community, if the economy keeps tanking. People are going to see just what that word means. Makes me glad I live in a farming community. At least we will have enough to eat.
I’d really be freaking if I lived in a city right now. Advice from Monty Python…”Run away, run away!”
and not just hemp, but regenerating resources… plant oils and fibers… a natural infrastructure is within grasp.
It definitly SHOULD be a HEMP based Economy and prohibition has got to END.
For so many reasons that books could and have been written covering both the hemp and cannabis industries.I will simply provide a few of links and recommend a few books.
Books: Sex , Drugs , violence, and the Bible : Chris Bennet
Is Marijuana Medicine ? : Dr. Lester Greenspoon
The Emporer wears no clothes : Jack Herer
Well that covers religion, medicine and Industrial uses.
Links:The United Sates Marijuana Party
http://www.pot-tv.net/main/The.US.Marijuana.Party.-.Loretta.Nall.Show.html
Marijuana news :political commentary by economist Richard Cowan
http://www.marijuananews.com/
Drug Policy Aliance
http://www.drugpolicy.org/homepage.cfm
That should provide a good base for the political.
The first step in this process is to get the DEA to move Cannabis from Schedule One controlled substance to a lower classification. (Case before the SCOTUS now expecting decision soon: check NORML website for more info.)
I’m all for legalizing pot. But don’t confuse it with hemp.
About the rescheduling issue !!Without it the industrial purpose of HEMP will never get off the ground, much less become reality.
But neither you nor I should avoid the social implications of keeping illegal a plant that 12 million americans use on a regular basis. Has never in the history of man ever killed one human being through overdose, and could relieve the suffering of millions of our citizens in pain from various diseases. Eliminating the use of synthetic medications with nasty side effects even death in some users.
So I cannot seperate the two, because whichever version of cannabis successfully breaks the DEA’s barricade first opens the door for the other to follow. Allowing the two most important uses for this plant to be realized. Industrial and medical.
To consider one without the other , is like trying to solve the deficit problem our country faces by only reducing discretionary spending.
Please! This is supposed to be a happy occasion. Let’s not bicker and argue about who killed who.
Does this mean I can’t grow poppies?
kind of federal exemption for the seeds !! Cultivation of the flower ,I dont know !!
I do know that the seeds are on bagels and other baked goods. If you are going to be drug tested DO NOT eat any poppy seed products for two days before as it will show in urinalysis as opiates!!
I think that there are several strains of Poppy, much like pot and hemp. Some carry only traces of the active ingredient, some are whoop ass. Maybe we can get lazbumm to look it up. <?>
Will read this tomorrow.
Remember those books? In them ‘god’ says Hemp is the all-doing plant-durable,plentiful,useful.
I’m in Ca. and you’ve convinced me. Following some of those links are really fascinating and bookmarked them.
Doesn’t everyone look good in blue? Or as bush might say, Fabulous.
Great! Now spread this knowledge around California! Vote Hemp. The e-mail that origionally set me off was notated from the sender “As goes California, goes the Nation.” Help make it happen.
Will do.
hell, a half acre would do me for a couple of years ; ) (and photoshop won’t take the red-eye outta that)