My blog is dedicated to the exploration of industrial hemp in America including the rich history of all forms of cannabis, the evolving law and politics of hemp and marijuana, the many products made from cannabis and the capacity, real or imagined, of hemp to re-industrialize rural America and revitalize the American family farm.
We the people ask the federal government to Change an existing Administration policy:
Created by E.S. on January 20, 2017
Industrial hemp was once a dominant crop on the American landscape. This hardy and renewable resource was refined for various industrial applications, including paper, textiles, and cordage. Unfortunately hemp was conflated with marijuana but hemp can't be used as a drug.
Over time, the use of industrial hemp has evolved into an even greater variety of products, including health foods, body care, clothing, auto parts, construction materials, biofuels, plastic composites and more.
Farmers in Europe, Canada and China all grow hemp and over $600 million in imported hemp products were sold in the USA in 2016. Congress has 2 bipartisan bills which would bring back hemp farming and create rural jobs. We request that President Trump work with Congress to pass hemp legislation in 2017
Nearly 10,000 acres of domestic US hemp were planted across 15 states in 2016, 817 hemp cultivation licenses were issued, 30 universities conducted research on cannabis sativa as an agricultural and industrial crop and 31 states have laws defining industrial hemp.
This according to the nation’s leading grassroots hemp advocacy organization working to change state and federal laws to allow commercial hemp farming. Vote Hemp has just released its 2016 States Report, which documents the state-by-state progress of hemp legislation passed in 2016, reported acreage of hemp grown, identifies states with active hemp pilot farming programs and advocacy work the organization has lead over the past year.
Enormous progress on many industrial hemp fronts in 2016
“We’ve seen enormous progress this past year toward returning this historic crop to American farmlands,” said Eric Steenstra, President of Vote Hemp.
“US consumers constitute the largest market for hemp products in the world–the demand is here for full scale hemp farming across the country. But growing the crop remains restricted at the federal level, due to outdated and misguided drug policy. We need Congress to take action this year to legalize this crop, so that American farmers can take advantage of the enormous economic opportunity industrial hemp presents.”
Since the passage of Section 7606 of the Farm Bill, “Legitimacy of Industrial Hemp Research,” hemp cultivation in the US has grown rapidly. In 2016 alone, 9,649 acres of hemp were planted across 15 states; 817 hemp cultivation licenses were issued; and 30 universities conducted research on the crop.
Seed crops have advantage in processing and markets
Among the fastest-growing categories in the natural foods industry, hemp seed is a rich source of Omega-3 and Omega-6 essential fatty acids (EFAs), providing both SDA and GLA, highly-digestible protein, and naturally-occurring vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin E and iron. An excellent source of dietary fiber, hemp seed is also a complete protein—meaning it contains all ten essential amino acids, with no enzyme inhibitors, making it more digestible by the human body.
Advancements in hemp research and manufacturing demonstrate the remarkable versatility and product-potential for hemp. Hemp bast fiber has shown promising potential to replace graphene in supercapacitor batteries, which could then be used to power electric cars and handheld electric devices and tools. Hemp fiber can also be used to create environmentally friendly packaging materials, and hard bio-plastics for use in everything from airplanes to car parts.
Hemp housing can address homelessness, jobs, earthquake preparedness
The US Department of Agriculture licensed nearly a million acres of hemp for the WWII effort to stop fascism and defend democracy. The film, Hemp for Victory, was to encourage farmers to plant cannabis hemp.
Hemp houses are also on the rise, as hempcrete, which is energy-efficient, non-toxic, resistant to mold, insects and fire, has many advantages to synthetic building materials, lumber and concrete.
To date, 31 states have defined industrial hemp as distinct and removed barriers to its production. These states are able to take immediate advantage of the industrial hemp research and pilot program provision, Section 7606 of the Farm Bill: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia.
Vote Hemp is a national, single-issue, non-profit organization dedicated to the acceptance of and a free market for low-THC industrial hemp and to changes in current law to allow U.S. farmers to once again grow the agricultural crop. More information about hemp legislation and the crop’s many uses may be found at www.VoteHemp.com.
GROWTH INDUSTRY: Paul Benhaim believes 2017 will be a watershed year for the hemp industry.
PAUL Benhaim is in an expansive mood as he outlines the great leaps forward he expects to see in the hemp industry in 2017.
The founder of Hemp Foods Australia has recently invested half a million dollars in new processing machinery at his Bangalow plant, where it produces certified organic hemp seeds, protein, hemp flour and hemp seed oil.
"They're the four main ranges we've had for five years, from a 114 gram pack of hemp seeds to full container loads of bulk products,” he says.
A two-year development project has led to the imminent launch of cosmetic range Sativa, "the world's first certified organic hemp extract skincare range” which is "super-nutritious, high in essential fatty acids, and can be absorbed through the skin”.
Mr Benhaim is also "very excited” at the likelihood that in April the law will be changed to make it legal for hemp seeds to be sold as food in Australasia.
Australia and New Zealand are the only countries where it is illegal to consume hemp foods and "we have got close to the ceiling of our distribution that is possible without hemp seeds being allowed for human consumption”.
At present the packets have a sticker covering the "food use” data on the back, warning purchasers that the contents are not to be eaten.
"In Europe you can buy hemp snack bars on aeroplanes, pastas and sauces in supermarkets, breads, cereals, the list goes on.
"That's all foreign to us here. In the US it's a multi-billion dollar industry and growing significantly, as it is in Asia.
"Most people in Australia are becoming educated to the benefits of hemp seeds but are not sure what they can do with them. At the moment we can't tell them 'you can add this to salads, sauces or smoothies, or have it as a snack by itself'.
"We still can't communicate that in Australia and NZ and we look forward to being able to do that later in 2017 and we look forward to giving out free recipe books.”
It's been a long haul: Mr Benhaim confronted the legal absurdity when he first came to this country, in 1998.
"Meanwhile I've watched the global market grow from a small niche to a multi-billion dollar industry, and it's now one of the fastest growing sectors within the fastest growing health food sector in Europe and North America.
"It's something we need to get on the bandwagon with as soon as we possibly can.”
What he is most happy about now though is the company's major breakthroughs in signing up large-scale farmers willing to grow certified organic hemp, or willing to convert their property to meet certification standards.
It's been a struggle to find growers to meet the increasing demand from a domestic and export market.
"We have been working to get Australian farmers on board since we began five years ago and we found it quite challenging for a number of reasons.
"Some farmers were scared that hemp was cannabis and was a drug and we have had to educate them that industrial hemp, our raw material, doesn't contain any psychoactive ingredients that would get you high.
"Finally we have found some great farmers, and we want to find more. This year we expect to be growing $15.5m worth of hemp food products - about a 30% step-up in total revenue from sales, but in terms of local farming it's a much bigger increase.
"It's big news because we have a four-year plan that will make Australia the largest single exporter of certified organic hemp grain in the world.”
In Old Berlin’s world-famous Nicholas’ Quarter, visitors can learn about hemp, cannabis and even see legal plants in person. Right next to Berlin’s oldest church, with almost 700 years of history, the Berlin Hempmuseum opened its doors in the historical center of the capital on Dec. 6, 1994. For 23 years now, the history of the cannabis plant and the boundless potential of the still-outlawed plant are being presented to visitors from all over the world in the context of one unique permanent and many changing exhibitions. The hemp museum is the only one of its kind in Germany, and one of only four in the world: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bologna, and Barcelona. The exhibition, which covers all aspects of the cannabis plant, spans almost 300 square meters. As a state approved and public sponsored museum, the Hanfmuseum regularly takes part in official city events like the “Long Night of the Museums,” the “Berlin Fairy-tale days,” as well as the “Historale” taking place in the Nicholas Quarter.
German Pipeweed in the 19th Century — Almost Like the Hobbits
In the Federal Republic of Germany, hemp was cultivated until 1981, and in the former GDR hemp production lasted until 1989. The historical hemp cultivation primarily served the extraction of fibers and seeds, but the psychoactive effect was already known to our great-grandfathers. Thus, hemp flowers in northern Germany were called “strong Tobak,” in the south the buds were known as “Knaster.” The name comes from “knistern,” which means crackling, as the seeds pop in the pipe while smoking and crackle. Wilhelm Busch, the world-famous poet from northern Germany, presented this historical fact dramatically in his 1864 comic “Der Krischan mit der Piepe” (“Krischan with the pipe”) and gave the readers a lesson in terms of prevention and protection of minors at the same time. The story tells of a ten-year-old boy who secretly smokes the father’s “Knaster” pipe. He gets dizzy and starts to hallucinate. The parents react with care, boiling a strong coffee to soothe the overdosed child. In the end, it goes well again and the moral of the story is:
The parents should never keep their stash unobserved, better hide it
Children should leave their fingers off papa’s stash if they find it
Panic is out of place
Of course, the exhibition is also dedicated to its use for building and insulating materials, cellulite use and paper production, seed and nutrition production, and the numerous medical possibilities offered by the three cannabis types: Sativa, Indica and Ruderalis. Those who find the way to the Mühlendamm 5 can book a guided tour — in German or English — that explains and illustrates processing machines, hemp spindles, medieval garments, old hemp pipes. The exhibits display numerous historical and new objects of the centuries-old hemp culture with vivid authentically.
In the Hempmuseum, Berlin’s only legal cannabis plants are shown. The Museum Association “Hanf e.V”. obtained an exceptional permission for the cultivation of certified fibre hemp plants for exhibition purposes. Growing cultivation hemp with less than 0.3% THC still requires a special government permit that is only available to full-time farmers. Private individuals and non-agricultural companies cannot grow any of the EU-certified fibre-hemp strains.
Cannabis history in the Hempmuseum — does that fit together? The last hemp farmer of the Federal Republic of Germany, Martin Butter, was forced to close and sell his company in 1981 after a decade of legal trouble fighting the government’s general hemp ban. In his book “The White Gold of the Batschka” Butter writes about old hemp cultivation techniques and revenge on the EU guidelines for the cultivation of hemp. Due to rigorous provisions on THC content, our ancestor’s strains are banned today.
Since the approved EU varieties are also the basis for all strains recently approved in the USA, this restriction of natural diversity also applies to the United States. The arbitrary nature of this classification can be seen in the current regulations in Switzerland. Unlike in the EU, THC content up to 1% is defined as fibre hemp, while it is an “addictive drug” or “Marijuana” elsewhere. Since the re-legalization of hemp cultivation, European hemp farmers are no longer allowed to produce their own seed. Hemp farmers in the EU must obtain their seeds from specialized seed producers, most of them operating in France or Italy.
The seed producers are very keen to keep the THC content low through selection. If hemp farmers were able to produce their own seeds again and freely select strains from the historical genetic pool according to soil and climate conditions, the artificially low THC content would hardly be guaranteed. In the south of Germany, fibre hemp strains could produce their original 3% THC after a few generations of growing. That is why varieties such as one CBD-rich “Fedora”-strain are banned from the EU seed catalog, because in some samples THC content above 0.5% was found.
Specific information and knowledge about the German and international hemp history are not conveyed on Google or in another analogue or digital source, but only in Berlin’s Hempmuseum. If you wish to deepen the knowledge acquired after the exhibition, or simply want to drink a cup of coffee or tea, you will find a thematic reading café and room for artists on the lower floor of the historic building. Here, artists are also given the opportunity to exhibit their works, and the museum’s visitors will be able to find thematic videos. A final visit at the Museum’s Gift Shop rounds off the visit. Roasted hemp seeds, an informative book, hempy souvenirs or a Hempmuseum shirt are a perfect and novel souvenir for the loved ones at home as well as the necessary support for the museum’s Director Rolf “Rollo” Ebbinghaus and his supporting team of idealist and activists.
Hanfmuseum Berlin Mühlendam 5 10178 Berlin-Mitte, Germany www.hanfmuseum.de Open: Tue-Fri: 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Sat./Sun: 12 a.m.-8 p.m. Closed on Monday
Process still heavily regulated by Department of Ag, and DEA
Many products can be made from the processed hemp, including shoes. (Photo by Cole Benz/The Herald)
Thanks to the change of some regulations in the 2014 federal farm bill, North Dakota has been able to conduct a pilot program for industrial hemp the last two growing seasons, and so far, the results have been positive.
According to the North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring, the yields have produced some of the highest profits in the state.
“Commodities have not been good this last year, and all of a sudden this one looked pretty darn good,” he said in a phone interview with The Herald.
So how do producers enter the Industrial Hemp pilot program?
They must fill out an application, provided by the North Dakota Department of Agriculture, and go through a background check.
Since hemp, a close relative of the marijuana plant, is still classified as a schedule one controlled substance, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) heavily regulates the program. The producer is required to get a DEA number before a license can be granted, adding that the background of the producer needs to be cleared.
“If something comes back in your background check, and the DEA says no,” Goehring said. “Chances are I’m not going to issue you a license and allow you to grow it.”
After an application is approved, the seeds are supplied by the state’s ag department.
But, the regulations don’t stop there.
Goehring said that they take multiple samples throughout the growing process to ensure that the plant is still legal. They monitor the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) level in the plant. THC is the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that gives its users ‘the high,’ and in hemp, to be legally grown, the level needs to be no higher than .3 percent. The levels in the drug marijuana varies from 3 percent to as high as 15 percent.
Though there is quite a few steps to take before the plant can be put in the ground, Goehring said the product is very viable in the state.
“Quite frankly, what were showing so far, [is] pretty viable,” Goehring said. “I think in North Dakota, it probably had the highest profit last year.”
Goehring said that he saw profits as high as $150 per acre, a significant increase against a crop such as corn, where producers saw profits as high as $40 with some even losing money.
But, in order to participate in the program, there is some additional work for the producer above and beyond the typical growth and cultivation. Because it is an educational program, the state needs to monitor your work nearly every step of the way, including the timing of planting, conditions during the initial planting, whether the area was pre-burned, information about the growing conditions and when the plant started bolting, among other things.
“We come out and actually have to sample and analyze the plant in the growing season,” Goehring said. “We want to know what you harvested with, when you harvested.”
But maintaining the crop does not require the effort other crops do. For instance, Goehring said that because the plant is a schedule one controlled substance, the Environmental Protection Agency restricts the use of pesticides, essentially subtracting that task for farmers.
So how would this product do locally?
Both Goehring and Research Agronomist John Rickertson, with the Research Extension Center in Hettinger, said it is very feasible for hemp to succeed in this state.
Rickertson noted that the plant is native to North America and that it should be durable enough to grow in the southwest part of the state.
However heavy rains can be detrimental to the success of hemp. The research center in Langdon, N.D., was experimenting with 12 different variety when rain and flooding destroyed them all, according to Goehring.
Rickertson said that the state is fortunate to have the regulations in place to study the crop and gather as much information as they can. Rickertson suggested that there might be a learning curve right away, especially in figuring out a way to properly cultivate the plant. Planting the seeds may not prove to be as difficult as actually cutting and harvesting the product. Rickertson said he hopes to do some research of his own soon.
“Some time in the near future I’ll look at growing it here in Hettinger,” he said. “So I can get a look at how it does here.”
There is a market for it. Hemp can be processed into three different types of product: oil, fiber and meal.
The fiber may be the most popular form of the processed plant, and can be used for things like paper, and clothes. Though a multitude of products can be made from hemp, including beauty supplies, food products, and in the cosmetic industry.
Asked whether it could be seen as a replacement industry for things like paper made of wood from trees, Goehring said that he sees it more as a partnership.
“For any country to be really successful, they need to utilize all their resources,” he said. “And I think that’s just a great way of looking at building a better foundation for your economy and supporting use of the land in very reasonable and good ways.”
During the 2016 growing season, which was the first year that the state was able to set up and execute the full-fledged pilot program, there were five producers that participated, including one near Elgin. But Goehring anticipates that number to grow for 2017, and highly encourages anyone interested to contact his office.
“I want to really encourage producers, if you’re thinking about doing this, please, please contact [the Department of Agricultre] and fill out an application, be lengthy, wordy, so that we know what your objectives are, what you’re trying to do,” he said. “And do it soon, I don’t want a situation where I hear about a grower that grew it without being in our program and then that field is destroyed and somebody goes to jail.”
The deadline for applying for the pilot program is Jan. 31, 2017. The application is available through the office of the North Dakota Department of Agriculture.
A new business that uses hemp for home-building materials was approved for the Colorado Rural Jump-Start program on Thursday.
Hemp Adobe, operated by BioCorp US, will open in Montrose, and uses industrial hemp to manufacture residential building material.
The company’s CEO, Kevin Hodge, said he decided to bring his business to western Colorado after a frustrating three-year experience trying to get his venture going in Washington state. He was shopping for incentive packages in a few states, came through Montrose on business and saw a good fit in the community after meeting with Sandy Head, the executive director of the Montrose Economic Development Corp.
“She understood my needs implicitly,” Hodge said. “I want to operate in a place where we’ll be accepted. We want the agrarian society of hemp farmers in a community that will be able to sustain themselves and grow the industry.”
Hemp Adobe’s process uses industrial hemp to make a bio-composite cement for building materials. The finished product has several advantages, including the ability to resist water and mold, and repel insects, including termites.
The material also has insulating properties and is 60 percent lighter than conventional concrete structures.
Hodge said he and Patti Devine-Beckwith, the company’s chief operating officer, are shopping for a temporary home for the company and will begin obtaining the proper certifications for the building products.
Initially, the production facility will need 30 tons of hemp per month, but Hodge said the business will eventually need as much as 120 tons per month for full production.
He expects to rely on local farmers for that material.
Hodge said he’s excited to relocate to a community that has welcomed his business with open arms, and is looking forward to the recreation opportunities.
“Montrose has everything that I wanted minus the beach, and then I can go 20 minutes out of town and have a lake with a lot of beaches,” he said. “It’s great.”
Hemp Adobe is working with the Maverick Innovation Center at Colorado Mesa University and anticipates including students in applied research, internships and jobs.
The company expects to hire a total of 25 new employees by 2020, Hodge said, and five of those new hires will be in the first year of operation.
The Rural Jump-Start Zone program offers tax-relief incentives to new businesses and the employees of those new businesses in parts of rural Colorado struggling with economic development. Counties qualify through designation as economically stressed areas by the Economic Development Commission and by having populations of less than 250,000 people. Currently, 46 counties are eligible for the program.
Hemp Adobe is the eighth company approved for the state’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade Rural Jump-Start Program since February 2016. The other companies already in the program are Kaart Group, Colorado Clear, TSW Analytics, ProStar GeoCorp, Rebco Hydroponics, General Synfuels, and Qmast. Together, they will provide an anticipated 204 new jobs to western Colorado.
On Thursday, the commission also approved allowing De Beque to join the Mesa County Rural Jump-Start zone, making it possible for companies wanting to apply for the program to locate there as well as Fruita, Palisade, Grand Junction and unincorporated Mesa County.
Did you know that hemp was the largest agricultural crop in the world until 1883, including in the United States?
It had thousands of uses and products, including the majority of paper, oils, textiles, fibres, fuels, and medicines (50% of medicines were hemp based).
Did you know that the very first marijuana law in the United States was one ordering farmers to grow hemp? Meaning, it was illegal to NOT grow it; farmers were REQUIRED to grow it.
Popular Mechanics magazine, in their February, 1938 issue, said that “Hemp is the standard fiber of the world. It has great tensile strength and durability. It is used to produce more than 5,000 textile products, ranging from rope to fine laces, and the woody “hurds” remaining after the fiber has been removed contain more than seventy-seven per cent cellulose, and can be used to produce more than 25,000 products, ranging from dynamite to Cellophane.”
Hemp was celebrated as the “new billion dollar crop”.
And then shit happened.
It was banned.
Banned precisely because it was too good.
The new materials and pharmaceuticals industries started by the new industrial giants such as the DuPont Company (www.dupont.com, NYSE Symbol: DD, founded 1802), simply could not compete with it.
To protect their new industries and profits, these new influential companies had to kill the “new billion dollar crop”.
Plastics, synthetic fibres like nylon, and so on, needed Hemp to disappear for them to prosper.
Here is just a few of the products Hemp can make, easily:
And so today, in the United States of America, it is illegal to grow Hemp. And in the rest of the world, it is either illegal or suppressed.
If Hemp became legalised and utilised fully, the clear cutting of forests, the burning of fossil fuels to make synthetic materials and plastics, the proliferation of plastic waste, and even the spraying large amounts of pesticides, and much more, would be eliminated.
The reason why is that Hemp is the world’s wonder crop.
For many reasons, some of which include:
1. Hemp is one of the most sustainable crops. Sustainability is defined by The World Commission on Environment and Development as “the ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
As an example of this sustainability, consider that 93% of paper and cardboard comes from trees, and that the timber industry destroys an additional 40% of Earth’s trees. Were we to switch to Hemp, each Hemp plant would save 12 trees, and it would reduce the need for chemicals used in paper and cardboard manufacture. In the clothing industry, 1 acre of Hemp can replace 3 acres of cotton. Additionally, cotton requires heavy use of fertiliser and pesticides; Hemp doesn’t. Hemp produces 250% more fibre than cotton and 600% more fibre than flax from the same land area.
2. Hemp is one of the most durable, strongest fibres on Earth. It is strong enough to replace metal, glass, plastic, fabrics and synthetic fibres in many instances. It scores higher than many of these in various tensile, tear and pressure tests, depending on use-case.
3. Hemp, like corn, can also be used as fuel. Today, we grow tons of subsidised GMO corn for 95% of all ethanol production. Hemp can make ethanol, methanol, and biodiesel. Get this: first, it does so in a cleaner and safer way than GMO corn does; secondly, biodiesel is 100% biodegradable, a much cleaner fuel, and actually smells nice!
4. Because Hemp fibres are hollow, cloth made from them insulates the body in Winter and keeps it warm, while ventilating it in Summer to keep you cool. Plus it lasts longer, very durable. Because it grows without the pesticides and herbicides that cotton requires, it’s cloth is better for your skin. Plus, unlike cotton which wears out as you wash it and use it, Hemp “wears in”, becoming softer without getting damaged. And because it is fire-retardant to a greater extent, it doesn’t need the fire repellant chemicals that cotton is often soaked in for beddings and so on.
5. Hemp is a highly nutritious source of food, one of the most nutritiously rich seeds in the plant kingdom. It is very high in good proteins, good fatty acids like Omega 3 and 6, vitamins, minerals, fibre, and so on, and it has them in remarkably good balance. It is great for the immunity system. Unlike Soy and many other foods, it is highly digestible. And it is a lot safer to eat than GMO foods!
6. It grows FAST! Without any chemicals at all, it can grow to full harvestable size in 3 – 4 months flat. This is especially important for timber, paper and cardboard replacement. Today, we cut trees 3 times faster than they can grow, and it takes them up to 30 years to grow to maturity. That problem disappears with Hemp.
7. Hemp just grows. It can be labour intensive, but it doesn’t need agrochemicals like pesticides, herbicides or fungicides. Switching to Hemp instantly eliminates a great amount of the poisonous pesticides, herbicides or fungicides we use, which are destroying the planet and the environment in so many ways, and polluting our own bodies. Hemp grows poison-free.
8. Hemp is medicinal. The big pharmaceutical companies don’t like to admit it publicly, but they are busy patenting all sorts of synthetic drugs based on hemp and/or THC. Synthetics are the only way these companies can profit from cannabis, because they can control them using patents and sell them exclusively. Yet, the synthetics can never beat the natural product. Cannabis has been proven to reverse all sorts of ailments, including tumours and cancer, and many, many other ailments.
9. Hemp, as we now know, can make over 25,000 products, including soap, clothing, building supplies, fuel, medicines, and so on. But did you know that it is strong enough to make aircraft and car bodies? Henry Ford is said to have designed his first two vehicles with industrial hemp parts. Hempearth Group Ltd is making a ”twin-engine Hemp Plane that will carry four passengers at up to 210 miles per hour. About 75 percent of the entire plane – body, wings, seats, interior furnishings – will be made from hemp products and the plane will be powered by nothing but hemp biofuel.” Industrial Hemp, because of how it is layered, can be lighter AND stronger than steel and fiberglass, able to absorb impact better.
10. Hemp grows all over the world! From the north to the south, from east to west. No problem. Hemp is also an excellent rotation crop. It suppresses weeds, it loosens the soil, making it great to grow with other crops.
11. Hemp plastic is a 100% biodegradable and recyclable plastic replacement that eliminates non-biodegradable plastic waste, cuts down on CO2 production, and eliminates the need for oil-based materials. There are even flame-retardant versions of Hemp Plastic. An estimated 14 billion pounds of trash, much of it non-biodegradable plastic, is dumped in the world’s oceans every year. Soon, our oceans will have more plastic than fish, literally. Hemp Plastic solves this. Hemp Plastic can be thrown into the ground and it right away begins to turn into soil, compost. Remember, too, that synthetic plastics are oil-based. Using Hemp Plastic not only eliminates plastic trash, it also eliminates the need for oil in plastic manufacture – a double-win.
12. Hemp paper can be recycles 7 times, vs only 3 times for wood pulp paper.
13. Wood pulp paper production creates 220 million pounds of toxic pollution into the water and air. On the contrary, Hemp paper doesn’t need to be bleached with chlorine like wood pulp does. It can simply be whitened with hydrogen peroxide, which is much safer for the Earth.
14. Hemp also makes building materials, such as hempcrete, fibreboard, carpet, stucco, cement blocks, insulation, and so on. These are better for the environment, real green building materials. Plus, they are rot free, pest free, mould free, and fire resistant. They can last for several hundred years.
OK… That should be enough to demonstrate the power of Hemp.
Now, why would such a wonderful solution still be illegal to cultivate in the United States?
It is still a federal crime to grow hemp. It is classified as a “dangerous drug”.
What???
You can’t even smoke Hemp!
Hemp is the Cannabis Sativa plant. Contrary to popular belief, hemp is not the same plant breed as marijuana and contains less than 0.5% THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol), which is the property of marijuana that gets us high. You cannot get high on Hemp. And even if you could, it wouldn’t be as dangerous as legal alcohol and nicotine – but you can’t anyways.
So what makes it a ‘dangerous drug’?
More dangerous than the toxic chemicals it would replace, the tree felling practices it would end, the fossil fuels it would replace, the plastics it would replace, the pharmaceuticals it would replace, the oil-based raw materials it would replace, the GMO foods it would replace…?
A “dangerous drug”.
Interesting.
How is it a good idea to ban this plant that solves so many of our problems – especially when you cannot even get high on it?
What were they smoking when they came to that crazy conclusion?
Remember, these are not theories; Hemp was successfully used for thousands of years already in all sorts of industries, in the past, before it was banned.
Once we realise how much we are destroying the planet, all the while banning one of the most obvious solution staring us in the face, we can only wonder how things went so wrong, so far.
And for that, let us consider the Big Question…
How The Hell Did Hemp, This Most Versatile Of Plants, Become Illegal – Despite The Fact That It Cannot Get You High?
“During Hoover’s presidency, Andrew Mellon became Hoover’s Secretary of the Treasury and Dupont’s primary investor. He appointed his future nephew-in-law, Harry J. Anslinger, to head the [new] Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.”
Pause… Let’s get some context…
President Hoover was the 31st President of the United States from 1929 to 1933.
Andrew Mellon was a leading banker in the Mellon banking family, and a United States Secretary of the Treasury. The Mellon family is a wealthy and influential American family from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The family fortune originated with Mellon Bank, founded 1869. They became principal investors and majority owners of Gulf Oil (founded 1901 becoming Chevron-Texaco in 1985), Alcoa (since 1886), The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (since 1970), as well as their major financial and ownership influence on Westinghouse, H.J. Heinz, Newsweek, U.S. Steel, Credit Suisse First Boston, General Motors and others.The Mellon Bank has since become the Bank of New York.
DuPont, is an American conglomerate that was founded in July 1802. DuPont developed many polymers such as Vespel, neoprene, nylon, Corian, Teflon, Mylar, Kevlar, Zemdrain, M5 fiber,Nomex, Tyvek, Sorona, Corfam, and Lycra. In 2014, DuPont was the world’s fourth largest chemical company based on market capitalization and eighth based on revenue (25.27 billion USD in 2015).
Are you starting to see where this is going?
The Collective Evolution article continues…
“Secret meetings were held by these financial tycoons. Hemp was declared dangerous and a threat to their billion dollar enterprises. For their dynasties to remain intact, hemp had to go. This then led these men to take an obscure Mexican slang word: ‘marihuana’ and push it into the consciousness of America. The reason why they changed the name was because everyone knew of hemp and how amazing it was for the world. They would never be able to get away with banning hemp, so they used a name they knew no one would care about.
Not long after this plan was set in place, the media began a blitz of ‘yellow journalism’ [ fake news ] in the late 1920s and 1930s. Yellow journalism is essentially journalism where stories with catchy headlines are put into the mainstream media to get attention, yet these stories are not well researched or backed up. They are often used simply to create public opinion. Many newspapers were pumping stories emphasizing the horrors and dangers of marihuana. The “menace” of marihuana made headlines everywhere. Readers learned that it was responsible for everything from car accidents to losing morality and it wasn’t long before public opinion started to shape.
Next came several films like ‘Reefer Madness’ (1936), ‘Marihuana: Assassin of Youth’ (1935) and ‘Marihuana: The Devil’s Weed’ (1936) which were all propaganda films designed by these industrialists to create an enemy out of marihuana. Reefer Madness was possibly the most interesting of the films as it depicted a man going crazy from smoking marijuana and then murdering his family with an ax. With all of these films, the goal was to gain public support so that anti-marihuana laws could be passed without objection.
Unlike most films with a simple ending, Reefer Madness ended with bold words on the screen: TELL YOUR CHILDREN. In the 1930s, things were different than today. The population did not question things very much. They did not have tools like the Internet to quickly spread information and learn about things that were happening. Most built their opinions and beliefs off of the news via print or the radio. As a result and what was instructed by mainstream news, many people did tell their children about marihuana and thus shaping a strong public opinion about it.
On April 14, 1937, the Prohibitive Marihuana Tax Law or the bill that outlawed hemp was directly brought to the House Ways and Means Committee. Simply put, this committee is the only one that could introduce a bill to the House floor without it being debated by other committees. At the time, the Chairman of the Ways and Means was Robert Doughton who was a Dupont supporter. With vested interest, he insured that the bill would pass Congress.
In an attempt to stop the bill from being passed, Dr. James Woodward, a physician and attorney, attempted to testify on behalf of the American Medical Association. He mentioned that the reason the AMA had not denounced the Marihuana Tax Law sooner was that the Association had just discovered that marihuana was hemp. Or at least a strain of it. Hemp and Marijuana are both varieties of Cannabis sativa, but this distinction was purposely not made well known to the public. Since the law was not so much focused on banning one or the other, both found their way into the ban. The AMA recognized cannabis/marihuana as a medicine found in numerous healing products sold and used for quite some time. The AMA like many other’s did not realize that the deadly menace they had been reading about in the media was in fact hemp.
In September of 1937, hemp prohibition began. Arguably the most useful plant known to man has become illegal to grow and use both in its non THC strain [called Hemp] and THC strain called marihuana. To this day, this plant is still illegal to grow in the United States.”
Now, here is one of those movies mentioned in the article above:
Reefer Madness ORIGINAL TRAILER – 1936 (Not the full film)
And here are some alarmist posters from the 1930s-50s, which, with the propaganda films, rallied public support for prohibition:
So there you have it. An outcome based on government-sanctioned “fake news”.
A false-flag operation.
The 1937 Marihuana Tax Act defined hemp as a narcotic drug, and production halted.
And then something funny happened…
Something they didn’t see coming.
World War II.
The US needed Hemp for all its many products. Hemp was literally crucial for US WWII victory.
And so, they not only lifted the ban on hemp production, but they even produced a film called “Hemp For Victory” to encourage U.S. farmers to grow hemp for the war effort.
The U.S. government formed the War Hemp Industries Department, which subsidized hemp cultivation. Subsidized it! That is how important it was.
In 1943, U.S. hemp production rose from 1 million pounds to more than 150 million pounds on 146,200 harvested acres.
Here is the film the U.S. government made, Hemp For Victory:
After the war, the ban was reinforced, and hemp was made illegal again.
True story! It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
Now, here is a recent documentary that brings more to light:
The Culture High – Trailer
Journeying across the North American landscape, The Culture High is the riveting story that tears into the very fiber of modern day marijuana prohibition to reveal the truth behind the arguments and motives governing both those who support and oppose the existing pot laws. With budgets to fight the war reaching billions and arrests for simple possession sky rocketing to nearly a million annually, the debate over marijuana’s legality has reached epic proportions. Utilizing the quirky yet profound nature of its predecessor, The Union: The Business Behind Getting High, The Culture High raises the stakes with some of todays biggest names, unprecedented access to footage previously unobtainable, and incredibly moving testimonials from both sides of the spectrum. Top celebrities, former undercover agents, university professors and a slew of unforgettable characters from all points of view come together for an amusing yet insightful portrait of cannabis prohibition and the grasp it has on society as a whole. The Culture High will strip search the oddity of human nature and dare to ask the question: What exactly is going on here?
So, now what?
Are we to continue blindly suffering from plastics, chemicals, fossil fuels, toxins, disappearing forests, and a failing environment, while a perfect solution is staring at us in the face?
Are we to all continue suffering because a few people decades ago decided to ban the solution “for our own good”, and produce toxic synthetic alternatives?
It’s your planet.
You belong here. You are not a 2nd class serf. You are a Sovereign Being, in alliance with All of Earth. If you don’t like something, change it, Sovereign Beings. You are more powerful than you think you are.
Usher in the Golden Age, by following the Golden Rule: Do unto others what you would like done unto you. Love your neighbor, and love yourself.
Love always, yet stand up for Love.
Live, and let live. Meaning, do no harm, but take no crap.
Innovate your heart away.
Go for the establishment of a clean, abundant, compassionate Paradise on Earth for all humankind, for all life on Earth, a New Earth.
You are a Creator Being, a Sovereign Being. The time has come!
Who will stop the madness, if not you, World Citizen? And if not now, when?
What we need now is a Revolution of Consciousness.
Among the fastest-growing categories in the natural foods industry, hemp seed is a rich source of Omega-3 and Omega-6 essential fatty acids (EFAs), providing both SDA and GLA, highly-digestible protein, and naturally-occurring vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin E and iron. An excellent source of dietary fiber, hemp seed is also a complete protein—meaning it contains all ten essential amino acids, with no enzyme inhibitors, making it more digestible by the human body.
The last hemp farmer of the Federal Republic of Germany, Martin Butter, was forced to close and sell his company in 1981 after a decade of legal trouble fighting the government’s general hemp ban. In his book 
