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.
An informational meeting on industrial hemp will be held in Otis on Monday, February 1. It will be in the Otis School Cafetorium beginning at 6 p.m.
An industrial hemp event, sponsored by Progressive 15, recently was held in Akron, followed by another one in Otis on January 6.
Monday's meeting is organized by Lana Rogers, in conjunction with the Town of Otis. The purpose of the Hemp Roadshow is to provide an opportunities for locals to learn how this versatile crop could be an economic driver for the local economies.
Hear from experienced industrial hemp farmers about the planting, production and harvest of industrial hemp. Learn about the High Plains Hemp Co-op’s special price on viable seed, how to get registered with the State of Colorado, and what value-added products industrial hemp can be made into and it’s potential to bolster rural America’s economy. For more information visit www.highplainshempcoop.com.
Ashley Weber, president of the High Plains Hemp Co-op, will be the first presenter. Hemp Co-op board members include Bethleen McCall of Yuma.
Hemp farmer Leonard Roskop will make a presentation following Weber. Matt Silz, a hemp farmer from the Fort Morgan area will show footage over a hemp field videotaped from a drone later in the meeting.
Casey Ives of Pure Vision Technology will have a presentation on industrial hemp processing. Grant Orvis, PhD, will have a talk on genetics, seeds, pollination, and the difference between hemp and marijuana. Lawyer David Bush will make a presentation about the legalities of hemp in Colorado. Industrial hemp was legalized a few years with the passage of Amendment 64, which also legalized possession of one ounce or less of marijuana by those 21 years or older.
Hemp was a commonly-grown crop throughout the United States, including this area, decades ago before the federal government made it illegal.
Hemp still is imported into the United States, where it still is legal to use it to make products. It just illegal at the federal level to actually grow it in the U.S.
Colorado's law dictates hemp's THC level (the psychoactive ingredient that causes the “high” in marijuana) at 0.3 percent or lower.
Hemp can be used for the manufacturing of many products. It can be used for construction, insulation, carpets, paper, rope, canvas, stucco and many more. Its seed can be used to make foods, cosmetics, fuel, paints, lubricants, and the seed cake can be used for animal feed, protein powders, gluten-free flour and beer making.
Those who attend the hemp event on Monday can visit one-on-one with experts, ask questions and learn from exhibits, as well as the speakers.
Refreshments will be served. There is no need to make reservations, and no charge to attend.
Thank you for the editorial titled “Prosperity from hemp.” The phobias about marijuana should be put aside once people realize that hemp (aka, industrial hemp) is not a drug-related crop. The hemp plant has an astonishing number of uses, but giving pot smokers a buzz isn’t one of them. Hemp offers enormous economic potential for Kansas, particularly for our farm families and rural communities.
Hemp is a poor cousin to marijuana. The leaves of hemp and marijuana look alike, but the plants are different. Marijuana plants are short and bushy. Hemp is tall and fibrous. Marijuana contains enough of the psychoactive agent THC to give pot smokers a buzz. Hemp does not. Henry Ford probably never smoked pot, but in 1941 (after 12 years of research), Ford produced a strong and lightweight car body made only of hemp fibers and other natural materials.
Hemp is used in thousands of products, many of which you can buy on eBay, Amazon.com and increasingly in local stores. Hemp is an alternative to cotton and synthetic fibers for clothes and trees for paper. It grows fast and crowds out weeds. Unlike cotton, it does not need large doses of pesticides and herbicides.
It can grow on marginal land and needs little if any fertilizer. Trees must grow for years before being harvested for paper, but hemp can be harvested in a few months and make four times as much paper over a few decades. Much less chemicals are needed to make paper from hemp than from trees.
Why has our federal government lumped hemp in with marijuana? In the 1985 book, “The Emperor Wears No Clothes,” author Jack Herer states that DuPont played a key role in the criminalization of hemp. By stopping the growth of hemp, DuPont would have a monopoly on producing plastic and paper under its recently patented processes that used coal, oil and wood pulp. You can figure that other petrochemical, wood and paper product companies such as Koch Industries (based in Wichita and owner of Georgia Pacific) also would like for the growing of hemp to remain illegal.
The U.S. is the only developed country where it is illegal to grow hemp. Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, Canada, Australia, Austria, Spain, India and at least 20 other countries all grow hemp. Some states have laws allowing restricted growth of hemp (mostly for research) but must receive permission from the DEA to do so. Kansas is not one of those states.
For more than 100 years, my family has owned a quarter-section of land in Ellsworth County — pastureland with a winding creek. For as long as I can remember, hemp has been the most successful “weed” to grow there.
Back when I lived in Salina, the author of a book that promoted legalizing the growing of hemp spoke at an event in Lindsborg.
Soon afterward, I arranged for this author to meet with Saline County Sheriff Glen Kochanowski, a representative from the Salina Police Deptment and a Saline County commissioner. As I recall, the sheriff thought the author’s proposition was technically strong but politically impossible. I had to agree.
That was almost 20 years ago. Attitudes and ideas are changing, and so is Kansas. I believe the federal government will legalize the growing of hemp in the not-too-distant future, and the effect will be huge. Kansas should be preparing for this to happen and working to make it happen.
Our state Legislature could work as other states have done to open doors for industrial hemp. This would be good for our state, our farmers and rural communities. Kansas Sens. Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran and Rep. Tim Huelskamp could, I hope, lend their support.
See the YouTube video, “Why Kentucky farmers are quitting tobacco and turning to hemp.”
— David Criswell, of Wilson, served as the Saline County administrator from 1994 to 2001.
Representative Kaniela Ing (Kihei, Wailea, Makena) of Maui joins Representative Cynthia Thielen (Kailua, Kaneohe Bay) of Oʻahu today in introducing a bill to expand industrial hemp research, growth, cultivation and marketing activities in Hawaiʻi.
The bill follows the model used in other states like Kentucky and Colorado, by supporting partnerships with the private sector to further explore industrial hemp’s potential contribution to the state’s economy.
Representative Ing said that while industrial hemp is not a “magic bullet” for Hawaiʻi’s agriculture, he said it deserves consideration, especially with the closing of sugar operations by Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company on Maui.
It is no small thing that industrial hemp will be a new crop growing in this entire region soon.
North Dakota will start its pilot project this spring, but Montana is not far behind, and Minnesota is considering starting an industrial hemp project as well.
We owe the North Dakota Department of Agriculture a ‘shout-out’ because through different ag commissioners, it has stuck with industrial hemp.
Another shout-out should go to Burton Johnson at North Dakota State University for his extensive research and certainly, Bryan Hanson at NDSU’s Langdon Research Extension Center, for seeding industrial hemp plots, harvesting, and evaluating its yield potential and other research results for farmers.
To us, that means that keeping agriculture number one and supporting our producers with new ways to be profitable really is important – and that means a lot to all of us involved with agriculture.
A sign made in 2007, when the North Dakota Department of Agriculture was issuing its first state industrial hemp licenses, said, “Let U.S. farmers grow industrial hemp.”
At that time, there wasn’t any industrial hemp farming, in spite of the significant profit potential for the crop and the fact that the uses of industrial hemp were huge.
Now industrial hemp is catching on and growing by leaps and bounds across the U.S.
Four North Dakota farmers, under the North Dakota Department of Agriculture’s pilot project, will start growing the seed this spring on their own farms, being the first to take the leap.
We don’t know if it was on purpose, but these four are situated in different regions of the state: southwestern; southeastern; and northeastern North Dakota.
Thanks to them, all the ‘kinks’ of growing industrial hemp can be worked out – or at least the problems of growing the crop can be exposed – so researchers can work on them.
While many say hemp doesn’t need pesticide or fungicide, even herbicide, these four farmers will find out for sure for the rest of us.
One person said on Farm & Ranch Guide’s Facebook page, “What is the big deal? Hemp was grown here during WWII.”
We would argue it is a big deal.
It is a big deal to producers who have needed another good rotational crop and to producers who saw low commodity prices last year.
A new crop like industrial hemp has all kinds of economic possibilities and that’s not a fairy tale.
Canadian farmers have sold the product all over the world for use as both grain and fiber, and Canada’s number one consumer of its industrial hemp products? – the U.S.
Now, we can start to be our own domestic provider of industrial hemp.
The oil extracted from industrial hemp seed has all kinds of uses in health products, and almost every part of the plant can be used.
There is hempcrete, an amazing insulation, among other products made from it. The strong fiber makes strong rope, clothing, twine, even plain old paper that can be recycled, and of course, is a biofuel.
Let’s hope the price for industrial hemp seed remains reasonable, and let’s hope elevators and processors will work with producers so there really will be a profit made.
Thanks to North Dakota Ag Commissioner Doug Goehring for working with industrial hemp processors on behalf of our producers.
Thanks to the producers who stepped forward to be part of the pilot project, and thanks to Rachel Seifert-Spilde, at the North Dakota Department of Ag, for all her research and work.
Industrial hemp is destined to be a really good rotational crop that fits with other crops, whether producers are wheat and barley growers or soybean and corn producers.
By mixing old-fashioned building materials — straw, clay, wheat, grasses and the like — with innovative binders, researchers in Europe are hoping to develop materials with lower embodied energy and improved energy efficiency.
They hope, too, that these materials will mean greater comfort for building occupants than is sometimes the case with conventional building materials.
A long-term research project dealing with biomaterials has just been launched with funding from the European Union. Dubbed ISOBIO, it's one of many aimed at providing the architecture-engineering-construction sector with tools better suited for meeting today's imperative of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases in the hope of limiting global warming.
But the researchers are well aware that any innovative materials must meet a number of criteria.
"We hope to develop materials that are competitive in every sense," says Alan Taylor, project co-ordinator of the new program. "We want to solve the 'trilemma' of guaranteeing the security of supply of materials, producing materials that have a genuine competitive edge and reducing emissions."
Taylor is with TWI Ltd., a British-based engineering consultancy.
The new program has begun by identifying promising organic materials that could be used as insulation, many presently classified as waste. Finely chopped bio-materials such as hemp and straw are being treated with special resins and nanoparticle gels so that they become robust, resistant to moisture and fire retardant.
Researchers are looking at combining organic and inorganic materials. The inorganic materials might have excellent insulating properties, for example, while combining them with inorganic material could make the end product more robust.
It's not as easy as it sounds. Consider hemp. When it is combined with a lime mortar, there is a chemical incompatibility which may result in a reduction in the strength of the composite material. It's in cases like that where nanotechnology comes into play.
Nanotechnology can best be described as the science of the extremely small. Scientists have discovered that engineering materials at the atomic or molecular scale can result in surprising — and very useful — results. So when we're talking about nanometres, we're talking a billionth of a metre. An average human hair, for example, is about 80,000 to 100,000 nanometres across.
Because of the nano-engineering involved, it may turn out to be possible to add hemp to mortar. So the new bio-aggregates can not only improve the performance of conventional materials, they can also offer new features.
Speaking of hemp, the shiv, which is the core of the hemp stalk, has a porous structure that provides moisture buffering, which helps maintain humidity inside a building at a more constant level. But to achieve that property, the shiv must be treated with hydrophobic resins. The result is that water vapour can travel in and out of the material, but liquid water can't penetrate it.
"We're striving to find the delicate balance between applying the right level of coating on the hemp shiv and preserving...its inherent properties, such as porosity," Taylor says.
He adds that any new biomaterials developed must not only be technically feasible but commercially viable as well. So the key question becomes:
"How do we adapt the materials to the existing manufacturing processes for conventional materials?"
So ISOBIO, during a later phase of the project, will be manufacturing biomaterials and conducting tests on a series of industrial-scale demonstration prototypes.
ISOBIO is also doing Life-Cycle Assessments of a wide range of materials both old and new. Such assessments are often referred to cradle-to-cradle analyses, and have become essential for making "green" decisions. They aren't really about distinguishing good products from bad products; they are mostly about informed decision-making.
"A purchasing manager may not consider operating cost, ignore the thermal performance of a building or the embodied energy used to construct it," Taylor says.
"We need to move away from 'this is the cheapest' to consider whole-life cost."
Korky Koroluk is an Ottawa-based freelance writer. Send comments to editor@dailycommercialnews.com.
I've been a fan of hemp since my Sublime-is-the-only-band-that-matters phase in 1997. While I may not be making hemp necklaces for everyone I know anymore, I'm definitely embracing the skin benefits of hemp milk like it's the late '90s and it may go out of style. I'm all about milk alternatives in natural beauty recipes, but only if they can provide the same level of effectiveness that their cow counterparts can. According to sources at Care2 Living, the Omega-6 fatty acids in hemp promote hair growth and new skin cell growth. Hemp is also known for providing your skin with a healthy dose of vitamins like A, B12, D, and E. Basically, if you apply hemp milk topically, you can expect a healing marathon.
According to sources at Zliving, hemp milk has some amaze moisturizing properties that can provide hydration to dull skin. Which is great, because there are some mornings I wake up and worry that I'll fall asleep on the train and people will assume I'm dead because my skin is so gray and dehydrated. Those winter skin blues are nothing to worry about as long as you keep your skin freshly hydrated and nourished and hemp milk does just that.
If you're looking for a natural ingredient that is affordable, easy to find, and effective, hemp milk is great for all skin types. The moisturizing properties and antiseptic qualities are going to give your skin the gentle cleansing experience that you've been dreaming about. Here are three of my favorite recipes to get your started.
1. Natural Microdermabrasion Face Scrub
This is one of my fave ways to get a nice gentle exfoliate without irritating my skin, especially if I'm in the middle of a break out. Mix together one cup of hemp milk, one teaspoon of nutmeg, and half a teaspoon of cinnamon, then massage gently on your face and neck for several minutes. If you've found cinnamon too drying in the past, skip it and use a little more nutmeg insteam. You're face will be clean and super smooth when you rinse it off with lukewarm water.
2. Hemp Milk Hair Rinse
I'm always looking for a quick rinse for my hair when I'm feeling equally pressured by time and dirty strands. Hemp oil has long been a staple in products that promote hair growth and healthy hair; hemp milk can nourish your hair and cleanse your scalp. A simple rinse with hemp milk before you condition is a great for anyone whose tresses are on the no poo diet, since you won't strip your hair of its natural oils.
3. Hemp Milk Face Mask
To relieve blemishes without drying out your skin, add some more food to your hemp milk. I used half a banana and one tablespoon of hemp milk. This delicious two ingredient mask can be used daily because it's balancing, cleansing, and super hydrating while combating current and future outbreaks. Try to leave your mask on for at least five minutes before rinsing completely off.
Cannabis flowers, seeds, buds, and roots have been used in the form of powder, oil, paste, drinks, edibles, and drugs to treat ailments for thousands of years. Wikimedia
For many decades in the U.S., marijuana has been painted as the psychedelic drug of hippies and stoners who lay around smoking dope to the detriment of their cognitive function. This image of marijuana use can certainly be attributed to one aspect of its culture, but Cannabis — a category of plants that include three species and seven sub-species — have been used in medicine for thousands of years.
Ancient and medieval physicians mixed the plant into medicines or teas to treat pain and other ailments; back then, it wasn’t a highly controlled substance the way it is today, where in the U.S. it’s listed as a Schedule I drug along with LSD and heroin. Here’s a brief history of medical cannabis to better understand the level of its efficacy in treatments and therapies.
ANCIENT
Hemp seeds, which were used for food in the ancient world.CC BY-SA 3.0
In the ancient world, hemp was a common agricultural crop — harvested for its high-protein seeds, oil, and fiber used for rope and clothes. Hemp is one variety of the Cannabis plant, but it doesn’t have the same mind-altering effects as marijuana.
In ancient China and elsewhere in the world, however, hemp was grown for food and had hundreds of other uses — so it was only natural for people to discover that other types of the Cannabis plant could be used medicinally. The spread of medicinal cannabis first started in China, then traveled throughout Asia into the Middle East and Africa. In ancient times, cannabis was used to alleviate pain and treat various conditions. But doctors also warned against using it too much, as they believed it could cause people to “see demons.”
2737 B.C. According to Chinese legend, Emperor Shen Neng was one of the first major leaders in the ancient world to officially prescribe marijuana tea to treat various illnesses — including gout, rheumatism, malaria, and poor memory, according to Understanding Marijuana: A New Look at the Scientific Evidence.
2000-1400 B.C. Compared to the Western world and even other parts of Asia like China and Japan, India had always remained closely tied to cannabis use — medicinally, religiously, recreationally, and spiritually. Cannabis was and continues to be mixed into special drinks that are used for simple enjoyment but also for medical reasons. One of the most popular of these drinks is bhang — a mix of cannabis paste (made from the buds and leaves), milk, ghee, and spices.
In the fourth book of the Vedas, known as the Atharvaveda which means “Science of Charms,” ancient Indian writers refer to bhang as one of the “five kingdoms of herbs… which release us from anxiety.” Later, as the drink became more popular, it was defined as having the ability to make people happy, warm, and improve “mental powers,” as well as “remove wind and phlegm.”
Traditional bhang being made as a paste with cannabis powder, milk, and spices.CC BY-SA 4.0
Later, the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission described the history and culture of cannabis in India: “To the Hindu the hemp plant is holy. A guardian lives in the bhang leaf… To see in a dream the leaves, plant, or water of bhang is lucky… No good thing can come to the man who treads underfoot the holy bhang leaf. A longing for bhang foretells happiness.
Besides as a cure for fever, bhang has many medicinal virtues… It cures dysentery and sunstroke, clears phlegm, quickens digestion, sharpens appetite, makes the tongue of the lisper plain, freshens the intellect, and gives alertness to the body and gaiety to the mind.” While at the time there was probably little scientific evidence behind the medical usefulness of weed, it proves that the drug had been largely incorporated in medical life in India for thousands of years.
In ancient Egypt, the Ebers Papyrus mentions cannabis as having medical benefits.CC BY-SA 3.0]
1550 B.C. Ancient Egypt’s Ebers Papyrus makes note of medical cannabis as a way to treat inflammation.
100 A.D. In ancient China, the Shennong Bencaojing, a medical book, refers to cannabis as dama(da meaning great and ma meaning cannabis) and notes that the flowers, the seeds, and the leaves of the plant can be useful in medicine.
200 A.D. Hua Tuo, a Chinese surgeon, is the first recorded physician to use cannabis as an anesthetic during surgery. Hua Tuo ground the plant into powder, then mixed it with wine for a patient to drink before surgery. Interestingly, the word for anesthesia in Chinese, mázui, literally means “cannabis intoxication.” During this time, Chinese physicians also used the root, leaves, and oil of cannabis to treat blood clots, tapeworms, constipation, and even hair loss.
MEDIEVAL
Throughout the Middle Ages, cannabis was a widely popular drug in the Middle East. Because wine was forbidden in Islam, many Muslims turned to smoke hashish — the Arab word for marijuana — also known as “grass.” It was also used in traditional Arabic medicine.
Cannabis is listed in the Vienna Dioscurides, an illuminated manuscript in Greek that provides a scientific encyclopedia of animals and plants.Wikimedia
100-1000s A.D. During the Middle Ages in Europe, cannabis may not have been a religious or spiritual hallucinogen like it was in India, but it was still integrated in folk medicine. Cannabis was used to treat tumors, cough, and jaundice. Interestingly enough, medieval physicians and herbalists still warned of using cannabis excessively — believing that too much could cause sterility and other harmful conditions.
MODERN
1500s. The Spanish brought cannabis to South America, but during the North American colonization, there was only hemp — used for practical purposes like clothes, bagging, paper, and ropes for the maritime industry. The hemp industry largely relied on slave labor, and cannabis wasn’t introduced to America as a psychoactive or medicinal drug until years later.
Late 1700s. At this point in time, some American medical journals were suggesting using hemp seeds and roots to treat various health problems, including skin inflammation and incontinence. William O’Shaughnessy was an Irish doctor in the British East India Company who touted medical marijuana’s benefits for rheumatism and nausea in England and America.
1906. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is created to prevent another morphine addiction crisis — as many people were becoming addicted to heroin, opium, and morphine, which weren’t properly regulated. The FDA mainly controlled opium and morphine during this time, and not so much marijuana, but its creation signaled a big shift in drug policy in America.
During this time, Mexican immigrants entering the U.S. introduced marijuana to the country (and the word "marijuana" itself likely originated in Mexico), popularizing the recreational use of the drug more. However, many Americans saw those who smoked weed as debaucherous and troublesome, associating cannabis with “lower class” criminality.
1914. Drug use, under the Harrison Act, is officially declared a crime.
1937. By now, 23 states have outlawed marijuana. The government also passes the Marihuana Tax Act, making the use of non-medical weed illegal. Cannabis was still used in various medical treatments, albeit in controlled forms.
1970. Marijuana was categorized as a Schedule I drug along with more dangerous ones, and was listed as having no accepted medical use. Despite the fact that some early American medical journals had begun listing the medical uses of cannabis, the government restricted any further research into it until more recently.
As of April 2015, 23 states in the U.S. have legalized medical cannabis, but only people with certain qualifications can obtain it. That will usually entail children with epileptic conditions, or sometimes cancer patients who use cannabis to ease the side effects of chemotherapy or radiation. Some states allow patients with HIV/AIDs, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, or even Crohn’s disease to obtain medical cannabis.
While research into medical cannabis is still limited due to restrictions preventing scientists from obtaining the drug, recent studies have explored some therapeutic aspects of medical marijuana. For example, a 2015 study found that cannabis could be effective in treating schizophrenia. Research has also shown that it can help heal broken bones, stop severe seizures, and even cure migraines. And one 2014 study suggested that cannabis might be effective in targeting brain tumors, though far more research is needed to replicate those results.
In states where medical marijuana is legalized, there seems to be general consensus that it’s quite helpful in treating a variety of ailments. One 2014 study found that over 90 percent of people in California who were prescribed cannabis reported that it helped them treat a serious medical condition. And based on the history of medical cannabis, which has been circulating as some form of therapy for thousands of years all over the world, they’re probably right.
Rep. Kaniela Ing Rep. Cynthia Thielen
