Whole Foods Market’ Celebrates Hemp History Week June 3-9

Press Release
Source: theweedblog.com

Natural and organic grocer to feature hemp products in grocery and body care departments

Whole Foods Market is celebrating Hemp History Week June 3-9 by spotlighting more than 300 hemp products, ranging from non-dairy milks and cereals to soaps and supplements.

Hemp is an environmentally sustainable ingredient used to make a wide variety of foods, paper, clothing, body care products, building materials and fuel. The crop originated in Central Asia thousands of years ago and was brought to North America in the 1600s, where Canada now acts as the main supplier to the United States market. Hemp functions as a nutritional powerhouse and is loaded with digestible protein, dietary fiber and vitamin E.

“It is encouraging to witness the growing demand for hemp products,” said Errol Schweizer, global grocery coordinator for Whole Foods Market. “We have seen a tremendous increase in products made with this nutritious, wholesome ingredient over the last five years. We are committed to offering our shoppers a wide array of the highest quality hemp products in our grocery and body care departments.”

Whole Foods Market offers a variety of hemp products, including: hemp milk, cereals, granola, waffles, protein powders, nutrition bars, breads, snacks, chips, pastas, flour, vegetarian burgers and a large variety of personal care products including supplements, lotions, makeup and shampoos.

Products will be prominently featured throughout the store and with special displays during Hemp History Week including:

• Dr. Bronner’s - Liquid and Bar Soaps with Organic Hemp Oil
• Living Harvest - Tempt Hempmilk, Frozen Hemp Ice Cream Pints and Frozen Novelties
• Manitoba Harvest - Hemp Hearts, Hemp Pro Fiber and Hemp Protein Powders
• Nature’s Path - Hemp Plus Granola, Granola Bars, Eco Pac Cereal and Hemp Plus Instant Oatmeal
• Nutiva - Bulk Hemp Seeds, Organic Hemp Oil, Packaged Hemp Seeds and Hemp Shake Mixes

Thanks to both product innovation and increased awareness of hemp’s nutritional benefits, shoppers are seeking out hemp products more than ever before. According to federal trade statistics, the importation of hemp has more than quadrupled from 2000 to 2011. The Hemp Industries Association (HIA) estimates that the total retail value of hemp products in 2011 was $452 million.

Currently, all hemp products in the U.S. use imported raw materials since it is not cultivated in the U.S.  However, several states are now working on legislation to allow it to be grown. “With the popularity of hemp products on the rise paired with the demand for locally grown and produced goods, we’d foresee a very viable market for products made from domestic hemp,” said Schweizer.

Hemp History Week is a nation-wide education campaign to raise awareness about the benefits of hemp products. For more information, visit HempHistoryWeek.com.

Hemp growing now legal (in Lithuania)

Source: baltictimes.com

VILNIUS - Lithuania on May 23 legalized the growing of hemp as of January for the industrial-scale production of textiles, making it the last of the EU’s 27 members to give it the green light, reports AFP. Although hemp is not marijuana, its resemblance to its drug’s high-inducing cannabis cousin has kept the plant banned in the United States and elsewhere for decades despite its many uses for textiles, food, cosmetics and other purposes. 

Majority of Americans support legalization of hemp in U.S.

By Arrianne Talma
Source: redalertpolitics.com

It looks like there may be a possibility that legalization will succeed in the US – of hemp that is.

A recent HuffPost/You Gov poll shows that 56 percent of Americans support legalizing the non-drug version of the cannabis plant, more than double of the 24 percent of Americans who oppose it. Twenty percent are unsure if it should be legalized or not.

Even politicians on both sides of the aisle support the legalization of hemp. A bipartisan group of senators, including Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), introduced an amendment to the farm bill last week that would make it legal for farmers to grow the plant domestically. The proposed amendment comes after the two Kentucky senators succeeded in making the plant legal for cultivation in their own state.

Moreover, both Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) are open to the legalization. The bipartisan amendment would have to pass Leahy’s committee before the full body could vote on it.

While hemp is used in many common products and cannot be used to make drugs, it’s similarity to federally banned marijuana may be a reason why many legislators are hesitant to allow farmers to grow it domestically, even though the poll showed that 47 percent of Americans think it should be legal to grow marijuana.

Instead, many manufacturers import hemp from Canada and other countries to make clothes, jewelry, soap and many other hemp products.

“I firmly believe that American farmers should not be denied an opportunity to grow and sell a legitimate crop simply because it resembles an illegal one,” Wyden said in a press release last June, after introducing a similar amendment on hemp legalization that failed to make it to a vote. 

This time around, however, Wyden is more confident “that if grassroots support continues to grow and Members of Congress continue to hear from voters then common sense hemp legislation can move through Congress in the near future.”

Hemp Can Build Your House and Make Your Blouse

Source: huffingtonpost.com

Hemp is conceivably best known for its Omega-3 and -6 fatty acids that make it an excellent addition to a healthy diet, or perhaps as a cotton substitute used in the manufacturing of ecologically-sound clothing. But it can also be manufactured into a vast array of resourceful, environmentally-sound building materials.

Hemp is typically categorized as a long or bast fiber crop with its stem consisting of an outer skin that contains long, strong fibers and a hollow wood-like core or nucleus. When the stems are processed it results in two different types of materials: hurds and fibers, both of which possess properties that make them extremely useful in building construction.

The hurds themselves are derived from the inner short fiber and are capable of being used in the manufacturing of numerous wood-like, earth-friendly, long-lasting building materials, such as fiberboard, roofing tiles, wallboard, paneling, insulation and bricks.

A material of stone-like strength that is commonly known as "hempcrete" is also produced using the hurds of the hemp stalk which is claimed to be up to seven times stronger than the traditionally used concrete, half as light and three times as elastic.

The added bonus of using the superior strength and flexibility of concrete manufactured with hemp hurds is that foundations which are constructed using these particular types of materials are resistant to stress-induced cracking and breaking, even in earthquake-prone areas such as the state of California.

The hemp-based building material is known for its self-insulating capabilities; also for the fact that it is resistant to rotting, rodents and insects; and extraordinarily fireproof, waterproof and extremely weather resistant.

You can also manufacture manmade hemp stones by merely wetting the stalk's cellulose, and forming it into a hard black rock, which can be cut, drilled, cast, carved or formed into any shape and used as an alternative to natural resources in applications such as landscaping. Maybe California residents should consider building a Freddie Flintstone style house that is constructed entirely with hemp-based concrete; just a thought.

When hemp hurds are mixed with a combination of lime products, they can produce a light weight insulating plaster, which can be cast around a timber frame or even sprayed against a wooden or stone form. In France, the use of hemp plaster is quite common, partly due to its high insulation properties, but also because it works very well in old stone buildings.

The hemp plant's bast fibers offer numerous manufacturing possibilities as well such as being used in textile production and in oriented hemp board panels, in making interior panels for automobiles, rope, paper and much more.

In order to produce textiles using hemp's bast fibers several successive procedures are involved, but may be combined in one mechanical process with the proper equipment.

Traditionally hemp was retted, or wet treated with microbes to loosen the lignin binding the fibers, then it was scutched to separate the dry fiber from the rest of the stalk, hackled to comb the fiber, which aligns and separates bundles of cellulose into strands, then drawn five passes to make a continuous strand, called a sliver. The sliver was then roved to twist it slightly before being spun, woven and dyed.

Back in 1919, a man by the name George W. Schlichten developed an all-in-one machine that combined all these procedures and produced a soft sliver from dry unretted stalks.

In difference to this high value processing procedure which Mr. Schlichten's machine-made possible and is essential to producing textiles, the use of hemp in building materials can actually utilize the plant's lower quality fiber such as that left behind from hemp seed grain production, and the amount of processing to reach the final product takes only a few stages.

Farm processed cellulose would run through a hammer mill or fluted rollers, much like gears, to mechanically decorticate the hemp, which separates the hurds from the long bast fibers and adding the farm-conducted procedure would offer the farmer an opportunity to reap further benefits from his final harvest. Ah, what a fantastic sight that would be, to witness United States farmers working fields of hemp once again.

The hemp plant's advantageous attributes to mankind appear to be endless with new discoveries continually being made worldwide. It offers an abundance of astounding building material possibilities, the capability of producing numerous earth-friendly textiles, a plethora of nutritious seed foodstuffs and the fact that it possess the potentially lifesaving molecule Cannabidiol, which may quite possibly be the hemp plant's most vital aspect of all.

Keep in mind that you are the only person keeping your voice from being heard, so become actively involved at a hemp roots level and help bring an end to this antediluvian war on a substance that could indeed have a profound impact on our society and economy.

Hemp shows promise for Chico entrepreneur

By LAURA URSENY
Source: orovillemr.com


Jake Wade talks about his business, Parallel Revolution, and his shirts made from hemp 
during an interview at the Enterprise-Record office on May 10. (Bill Husa/Staff Photo)

CHICO -- Jake Wade of Chico likes to be well dressed, but the shirts on his back aren't off the rack. They're made of hemp, produced by a business he created.

Not to be confused with marijuana, hemp is a relative, but different, says Wade. It's a fiber with historic value in the U.S., used for sail cloth during the Civil War, but outlawed as drug laws developed.

Hemp plants can't be grown in the U.S., or bought in an unprocessed state. The hemp in Wade's shirts comes in legal, finished bolts of material.

He's designed the shirts, has them manufactured in San Francisco, and is entering his final year at Chico State University as a business major with an entrepreneurial specialty. He sells the shirts through his business, Parallel Revolution, which was among a dozen businesses that pitched their ideas at a Chico State University Center for Entrepreneurship competition recently.

A bank of judges chose Wade as the winner, landing him $1,500, which he'll use for manufacturing his next batch of shirts. Originally a $500 award, the pot was sweetened by 3CORE, a local funding program headed by Marc Nemanic.

Of Wade, instructor and center director Peter Straus said, "What a great salesman. Selling his stuff probably will be the least of his problems; that is if he can figure out how to get into the market and what form or forms of distribution he will use. He is taking a course in writing a business plan right now so his education is unfolding.

"In the entrepreneurship program, we're more concerned with giving students a tool kit they can take out into the world. That tool kit, by the way, is really an exploration about how to think: Think about the world around them; think about the business world; think about how their business fits in and ultimately how to dig deep and produce something of value," said Straus, who also is key in AVL Looms in Chico.

Originally from the San Diego area, Wade has juggled a full load of classes, as well as working out what will be his future. A family member who once lived in Paradise suggested Chico State.

He really hasn't made money from the shirts yet, but relies on the relationships he's developed with sources and suppliers to keep going.

Stating that hemp is a more favorable agricultural crop than cotton because of using less water and pesticides, Wade would like to see laws change to allow its growth here. The hemp Wade uses is grown in China by an American company and woven into bolt fabric in combination with Lyocell, a cellulose fiber. A designer in Grass Valley created the variety of long- and short-sleeve, buttoned men's shirts shown on Wade's website, http://pararev.com. Women's fashions are next, maybe a dress or blouse, and there's a T-shirt as well.

As far as selling, most of his inventory is gone, but new inventory is coming in July, he said. He figures he's sold, given away or kept about 150 shirts over the past three years. 

Besides the environmental friendliness of hemp, Wade notes the shirts are warm-water washed with a short-cycle tumble dry, with extended durability because of the longer length of the fibers. Ranging from beige to black, the shirts are lighter weight because of the hollow core of the fiber, he said. The buttons are cored from palm nuts in Ecuador.

Wade reiterates that key for him is environmental sensitivity, and he has coined the motto "Planet Earth Preferred Products" for his business.

An early mentor, who wore sandals made from recycled tires, exposed him to the idea of environmental responsibility.

"I'd like to be zero-waste. I even keep the scraps cut from the shirt material thinking I can sew them together for a new shirt." 

Wade believes his business could make a difference in the world, not only from an agricultural standpoint, but from a consumer standpoint, too.

Rural Vermont and Vote Hemp to hold Hemp Victory Celebration

Press Release
Source: vtdigger.org

Event in Brattleboro will celebrate passage of Vermont’s new Hemp law and include a screening of the classic film “Hemp for Victory”

Montpelier – Rural Vermont, in conjunction with the national hemp advocacy group Vote Hemp, will be hosting a Hemp Victory Celebration on June 5, 2013 from 5:30pm – 9:00pm at the Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery located at 139 Main Street, #407 in Brattleboro, Vermont.

The event will include two special viewings of the short 1942 USDA propaganda film “Hemp for Victory” at 5:45pm and again at 8:30pm. In addition to the film presentations, we will feature Vermont legislative updates by Rural Vermont Organizer Robb Kidd and national legislative updates by Vermont resident and Vote Hemp Co-Founder/Board Member Eric Lineback. Guest appearances by Vermont farmers and policy leaders, as well as free samples of hemp product samples, are also planned for the evening.

The Hemp Victory Celebration is part of the National Hemp History Week campaign, and this year we will be highlighting the positive work that Vermonters have done to contribute to this widespread effort to restore hemp as an agricultural crop for Vermont. At this time we are optimistic that Governor Shumlin will sign the recently-passed hemp bill (S.157) which provides a simple, commonsense regulatory structure for growing hemp in Vermont. “With Senator Leahy’s recent pledge of support for a hemp amendment to the federal Farm Bill, Vermont is cultivating a ‘hemp renaissance’ with its strong leadership on the issue,” states Robb Kidd of Rural Vermont.

“In this currently tough and challenging economic climate, allowing our farmers to once again produce hemp is a smart move for Vermont. We have the opportunity to be leaders in this exciting and promising emerging ‘green’ industry,” adds Eric Lineback of Vote Hemp.

Will Allen, farm manager of Cedar Circle Farms in East Thetford, already has plans to purchase a nearby tract of land and begin growing hemp as soon as the law is enacted. “Hemp gives farmers another quality crop to grow in rotation, producing renewable raw materials both to sell and process in the field,” Allen says.

American Drug War 2: Cannabis Destiny

Who is America’s Longest Running War Really Helping?
In Theaters Today, American Drug War 2 Seeks Answers to Big Questions

Source: americandrugwar2.com

American Drug War 2: Cannabis Destiny, https://americandrugwar2.com  now playing in select theaters across the nation, takes a hard look inside America’s longest running war to find out why the government and big pharma companies are benefitting from cannabis restrictions while others are suffering.

From cannabinoid patents held by big pharmaceutical companies to hundreds of thousands of cannabis-related arrests each year, the war on drugs seems to be benefitting someone. But what about the innumerable cancer patients, many of whom are barely taking their first steps, who are denied access to relief every day? American Drug War 2: Cannabis Destiny, now in theaters, asks, “Who is America’s longest running war really helping?”

Produced in association with United Patients Group, the latest documentary from filmmaker Kevin Booth is now playing in select theaters across the country. It follows the increase in pediatric cancer cases and the continuous push to keep the medical benefits of cannabis away from the people who need it the most.

It questions the motives behind the 800,000 cannabis related arrests each year, the 2003 patent on cannabinoids held by the government, the similar US patent application by overseas giant GW Pharmaceuticals, the restriction of cannabis oil as a cancer treatment in the case of young Cash Hyde, and the lies American people are told every day.

American Drug War 2: Cannabis Destiny overturns stones that powerful people have tried to hide the truth under.  It takes a real look inside the history of marijuana and how this war got started. It shows how far cannabis has come over the years, and how far it still has to go.

“The truth is that we have seen, time and time again, that cannabis has the power to kill cancer cells,” said Booth. “Here we are, with documented cases of cannabis sending cancer into remission, with a little boy whose life was stripped away when traditional Western medicine failed him, and the solution is there but we can’t have access to it? It doesn’t make sense.”

“It’s time for someone to look Mike Hyde in the eyes and tell him why he lost his 4-year-old son. Why the only treatment that worked – that he proved actually worked – was discouraged by doctors and banned by the government,” Booth continued. “There are answers out there and we’re going to find them.”

Catch a screening of American Drug War 2 near you:

American Drug War 2: Cannabis Destiny is giving people the chance to host a screening in their cities. For the list of cities where the film is currently available and more information about how to host a screening, visit http://www.tugg.com/titles/american-drug-war-2.

To support the Cash Hyde Foundation’s mission of ending pediatric cancer, visit http://www.cashhydefoundation.com/donations.php.