Sen. Ron Wyden calls for decriminalization of industrial hemp farming

By Jonathan Benson
Source: naturalnews.com



(NaturalNews) There is a prevailing misunderstanding in America today about the difference between marijuana and hemp, both of which are prohibited under federal law from being grown on U.S. soil. Somehow hemp, an industrial crop with virtually no hallucinogenic properties, got lumped in with marijuana in the federal government's overzealous prohibition mandates back in the 1950s, a grave error that Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is hoping to change with a new farm bill amendment he recently proposed.

Co-sponsored by Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Amendment 2220 to the federal farm bill (S. 3240) would effectively fix the broken laws that prohibit the cultivation of hemp in the U.S., but that simultaneously allow it to be bought and sold here. This failed policy has not only needlessly restricted American farmers from taking advantage of the rapidly growing demand for hemp by being able to grow it themselves, but it has also driven the entire booming hemp industry into countries like Canada from which it has to be imported.

"This is, in my view, a textbook example of a regulation that flunks the commonsense test," said Sen. Wyden on the House floor concerning the mindless prohibition of growing industrial hemp in the U.S. "The only thing standing in the way of taking advantage of this very profitable crop is a lingering misunderstanding about its use, and the amendment that I have filed on this issue will end a ridiculous regulation once and for all."

You can learn more about Sen. Wyden's farm bill amendment by visiting:
http://capwiz.com/votehemp/issues/alert/?alertid=61340711

America's rich hemp history

Few people today are aware of America's rich hemp history, which dates back to the early 1700s when colonists were actually required to grow hemp. Since it requires no pesticides or herbicides and has thousands of industrial uses ranging from textiles and cellophane to vehicle bodies and paper, hemp has long been an important cash crop, not to mention an amazing food source, throughout America's history.
Almost every single one of the nation's Founding Fathers, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, also grew hemp, and the Declaration of Independence was even drafted on hemp paper. Hemp is actually a far more sustainable source of paper than trees are, yielding as much as four times more paper per acre (http://hemphistoryweek.com/timeline.php).

A 1938 Popular Mechanics article titled New Billion Dollar Crop dubbed hemp "the standard fiber of the world" because of its "great tensile strength and durability." At that time, hemp was estimated to have the potential to earn American farmers millions of dollars a year in revenue -- so just think what it could earn American farmers today (http://www.globalhemp.com/1938/02/new-billion-dollar-crop.html).

Another amazing wonder of hemp is that it works better than toxic plastics at containing, protecting, insulating, and storing. If hemp once again attained mainstream status, food manufacturers could begin using it rather than plastics to package and distribute food, for instance, which would virtually eliminate human exposure to bisphenol-A (BPA) and other plastic poisons.

The U.S. Congress has a real opportunity before it to kick start the economy, and open up new opportunities for American farmers to make a solid living by producing a valuable and multifaceted crop. But this can only happen with your help.

The good folks over at Hemp History Week have created a portal through which you can call or email your Senators and urge support for Sen. Wyden's Amendment 2220. By signing, you will also receive discount coupons from some leading hemp brands, including Dr. Bronner's, Manitoba Harvest, Food Should Taste Good, Nutiva, and Tempt:
http://hemphistoryweek.com/

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/036231_Ron_Wyden_industrial_hemp_decriminalization.html#ixzz1yPF6B4h4

10 Great Reasons to Kill Our Absurd Ban on Growing Hemp

By:  Scott Thill
Source: alternet.org

The only people who oppose the cultivation of industrial hemp are anti-cannabis bureaucracies, politicians, drug-testing companies and U.S. law enforcement.

America's industrial ban on hemp is "a poster child for dumb regulation," argues lazy ass pothead! Wait, sorry, scratch that. Make that Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, introducing an amendment last week to the densely contested 2012 Farm Bill, which is either a subsidies and sustainability savior or callous food austerity, depending on who you ask. But if you ask Wyden, "the best possible Farm Bill" is one that repeals a ban on industrial hemp the United States is already quite busy, and expensively, importing from the few feet it takes to cross the Canadian border.

"I will be urging my colleagues to support this amendment," Wyden announced last week on the Senate floor, reminding the assembled elected that his plan won't cost American taxpayers a dime. "I want [them] to know I will be back at this again until there are smarter regulations in place."

"America needs to get real about hemp, and fast, even if the country continues to fight about ending cannabis prohibition," National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) executive director Allen St. Pierre told AlterNet. "There is virtually no one on earth who intellectually opposes farmers cultivating industrial hemp, other than anti-cannabis bureaucracies, politicians, drug testing companies and the U.S. law enforcement community."

That's some stacked opposition. But the list below provides more than enough firepower for encouraging an overdue repeal of the ban on industrial hemp, cannabis sativa's low-THC strain. 

1. We're buying hemp from Canada anyway. Maybe we should just burn money, too? "We're already importing a crop that the U.S. farmer could be profitably growing right here at home, if not for government rules prohibiting it," Wyden argued, reminding listeners that in 2010, Canada subsidized its hemp industry with over $700,000 more in funding, increased crop sizes and "fortified the inroads the Canadians are making in U.S. markets at the expense of our farmers." All while our hemp imports have grown 300 percent in the last decade, and 35 percent since 2009. Meanwhile, Canada's cropland devoted to industrial hemp doubled from 2011 to 2012, Wyden added, remarking that his local Portlanders who manufacture hemp products are doing brisk business, thanks very much.

 2. Everyone is growing hemp and laughing at us. Besides Canada, Australia is enjoying an agricultural rebound because of hemp production. Over 30 countries permit its production, and as usual, resourceful China is the world's largest producer with nearly 80 percent of global tonnage. Instructively, China has been around for thousands of years, so who on Earth is going to tell them shit about the future? Not the United States, which remains the only industrialized nation to forbid its farmers from growing industrial hemp. Cue the giggle track.

"Canada, France, China, Russia and the United Kingdom all have cannabis prohibition laws in place," St. Pierre told AlterNet. "And yet, they still allow their farmers to cultivate and prosper from industrial hemp." Speaking of...

3. We're not talking about cannabis here. But who cares if we were? Both should be legalized anyway, and everyone knows it. But even cannabis paranoiacs need to chill: THC levels of hemp are under .03 percent, which couldn't get a tobacco lobbyist high. Under Wyden's amendment, hemp production would be regulated, but by the individual states' permitting processes rather than the federal government that has made a Kafkaesque mess of medical cannabis. Nine states have already put similar legislation in place. 

"Why can't the US government and its law enforcement community be as pragmatic and practical as other countries regarding making the logical ecological and economical distinction between 'hemp' and 'cannabis'?" St. Pierre asked. "Is it that American narcs are less intelligent, or is it that they can't be as educated about hemp as police in the UK, China or Canada?"

4. Hemp is green. As any naturalist or historian will tell you, the uses for hemp -- from paper, textiles and clothing to health products, biodegradable plastics and biofuels -- are diverse and widely documented. But it's a much more sustainable crop than most: It needs less fertilizer than King Corn, can be grown in several consecutive years in the same fields (monocultural!), rarely needs pesticides (if at all), and, irony of ironies, it's a weed killer. Thanks to its fibrous density, it's a construction material just begging for an increased American market. Wyden claimed that North Carolina builders are using hemp to make their structures stronger and greener, while Minnesota's Original Green Distribution promotes it as the "perfect building material" -- non-toxic, non-flammable, mold and mildew resistant, and cash-positive. The argument against local hemp production? A house of cards.

5. Hemp is patriotic. Our lionized Founding Fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew it, and they helped create the nation. Hemp has been cultivated and consumed across the planet for millennia, from China's Neolithic Age to New England's Puritans and Virginian farmers -- who were instructed by a House of Burgesses' Act to sow it on their plantations. Americans even created a World War II propaganda film called Hemp For Victory, despite the destructive, embarrassing Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which criminalized commercial use of hemp or cannabis. Whether that legislation, supported by progressive hero and president Franklin D. Roosevelt, was a back-door favor to the competing and eventually triumphant industries of his friends and sponsors Mellon, Hearst and DuPont, or just post-Mexican Revolution immigrant xenophobia, is ancient history now. This is a new century. We're past it.

6. Hemp has carbon-negative promise. Those remaining hemp naysayers will eventually change their minds when global warming starts downsizing the planet's arable land. Because it has significant climate change upside, whether you're talking renewable energy, carbon sequestration or just food. (Yes, you can eat hemp.) According to the Hemp Industries Association, the U.S. Department of Energy considers hemp a biomass fuel alternative that could ameliorate our addiction to fossil fuels, as well as an alternative to toxic petrochemicals involved in plastic production. In fact, there are over two millions cars on the road right now -- from Ford, GM and Chrysler to Mercedes, BMW and beyond -- housing hemp in their interiors. And it's a naturally occurring carbon sink too. Unlike more traditional concrete, Hempcrete is carbon-negative, storing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. The HIA also claims that hemp proper produces more pulp per acreage than wood pulp, which is great because we really need to stop cutting down forests so they can continue to suck all the carbon dioxide we're pumping into the air before the world as we know it ends before we know it.

7. Nuclear apocalypse? Hemp has an app for that. Even if we jump back onto hemp's historical bandwagon and dodge catastrophic climate change with the help of other green alternatives, we still might nuke ourselves like idiots. But hemp can even give us a hand with that irradiated lunacy. Thanks to its sprawling canopy, it's already a powerhouse weed suppressor, as well an impressive mop crop capable of sopping up contaminants and even radiation. The Princeton-based company Phytotech and others even planted hemp in Chernobyl alongside sunflowers and other impressively extractive plants. It's logical that planting more phytoremediation-friendly crops will help us clean up proliferating chemical and nuclear dumps. Hemp is a phytoremediator just waiting for the innovation that repealing a lame ban on industrial cultivation can bring.

 8. Hemp can help the sick. The medicinal and rehabilitative value of cannabis is already well-known, despite certain compromised parties still claiming the science isn't in. (They often have the same denialist fever about global warming.) But once the ban on industrial hemp is inevitably repealed, expect stories about the healing properties of hemp oil to percolate above the subculture that presently contains them. American integrative medicine physician Andrew Weil has found that "some cancer patients have found it to be a superior remedy for the nausea caused by chemotherapy, and some people with multiple sclerosis are grateful for its relaxant effects on spastic muscles." But repealing the ban on industrial hemp will put these contentions to the test for true believers and skeptics alike, once hurdles to cultivation and innovation are removed. It's not an accident that more seniors are signing on with cannabis and hemp to deal with the ravages of age. It's also no accident that my late, great father-in-law, who passed last year no thanks to Parkinson's, extended and improved his deteriorating state with cannabis, or that his children who suggested it to him are mostly doctors.

9. Hemp means jobs. As you may have heard, we're mired in an ongoing recession with unemployment hovering near 10 percent and going nowhere. So why would we trash an economically logical, environmentally friendly crop whose industrial production could increase jobs and revenue? (Hey wait, is this why the Pentagon is built atop Uncle Sam's hemp farm?) In 2010, U.S. retail sales of hemp-based products passed $400 million, and there's likely a good reason that how much America pays annually to import hemp isn't just a click away. But It doesn't take 300 economists, including some Nobel laureates, arguing that decriminalizing cannabis and hemp could save us $7 billion a year to realize that domesticating hemp production will bring jobs back across the borders to unemployed Americans. Who then might just turn around and buy more hemp products with their hard-earned pay. No-brainer, bean counters.

10. Hemp can be a peacemaker. Bipartisanship haters, take notes. Senator Wyden's reasonable amendment has been cosigned by the sometimes unreasonable Tea Party favorite, Senator Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, whose controversial father Ron Paul, R-Texas, introduced a similar measure earlier this year. Whether or not it immediately works should not overshadow the fact that it is Wyden and Paul who have brought legislation favoring hemp to the congressional floor for the first time since the '50s. Not should it be forgotten than industrial hemp was once the second largest crop, after tobacco, of Kentucky's antebellum economy, which grew more than any other state before its criminalization. Plus, legal hemp will stop pointless enforcements, like that of David Bronner, the fair-trade, sustainability entrepreneur and activist, who was recently arrested in front of the White House protesting the industrial hemp ban while locked in a metal cage alongside his plants. 

Optimists with faith in humanity cannot help but look into the future and see more cannabis and hemp cultivation and consumption, as lab-rat mutations like soda, cigarettes and antidepressants finish off what's left of the evolutionary skeptics. We can't believe, for a second, that last century's superpower could stoutly march right off a cliff, armed with pharmaceutical marketing and a very unhealthy disrespect for earthly reality.


Scott Thill runs the online mag Morphizm.com. His writing has appeared on Salon, XLR8R, All Music Guide, Wired and others.

Third Annual 'Hemp History Week' Campaign is Biggest Yet

Press Release
Source: marketwatch.com

WASHINGTON, June 18, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- 800 Grassroots Events and Retail Store Promotions Held Throughout all 50 States

Senator Ron Wyden Introduces Historic Industrial Hemp Amendment to Farm Bill

Organizers Announce Fourth Annual Campaign to be Held June 3-9, 2013

June 4-10, 2012 marked the biggest and most celebrated Hemp History Week to date. The 3rd Annual Hemp History Week featured over 800 events in cities and towns throughout all fifty states, including 100 grassroots volunteer-led events; more than 700 retail promotions; a restaurant program; and a letter writing campaign that generated over 15,000 letters and calls to U.S. Senators encouraging them to support changes to federal policy that would allow American farmers to once again grow industrial hemp. The national grassroots education campaign organized by Vote Hemp and the Hemp Industries Association was designed to renew strong support for the return of hemp farming and processing to the U.S. The 2012 campaign celebrated the theme of Hemp for a Healthy Future: Healthy Lifestyles, Healthy Economy, Healthy Planet. Organizers have announced plans for the fourth annual campaign to be held from June 3-9, 2013. More details on the 2013 campaign as well as an archive of events and press coverage from the 2012 effort can be found at: www.HempHistoryWeek.com .

"This year's Hemp History Week was the most successful yet. We generated over 15,000 letters to the U.S. House and the Senate; produced a record number of events throughout all 50 states; and most importantly saw Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduce an historic hemp amendment to the Farm Bill making it the first time language supporting industrial hemp farming has made it to the floor of the Senate since the 1950's," says Eric Steenstra, President of Vote Hemp. "As more Americans recognize the health and environmental benefits of hemp products, hemp farming promises job creation and economic opportunity for farmers and manufacturers and ensures that nutritious foods and sustainable goods are more accessible and affordable for consumers. We need to keep the pressure on Congress and are encouraging our supporters to take action."

INDUSTRIAL HEMP AMENDMENT TO FARM BILL

On June 7, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) proposed an amendment (S.A.2220) to the Farm Bill (S.3240), the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012, which would exclude industrial hemp from the definition of 'marihuana.' Senator Wyden's amendment will empower American farmers by allowing them to once again grow industrial hemp, a profitable commodity with an expanding market. The cultivation of industrial hemp will be regulated by state permitting programs, like North Dakota's, and will not impact the federal government's long-standing prohibition of marijuana. To view the amendment, please go to: http://votehemp.com/legislation . In the week following Hemp History Week Senator Wyden spoke on the Senate floor explaining why he is sponsoring legislation in support of industrial hemp farming. To view the video go to: http://bit.ly/WydenSA2220 . Vote Hemp is urging supporters to call, email, or write their U.S. Senators today to ask for their support of Senator Wyden's industrial hemp amendment to the Farm Bill by visiting: http://www.hemphistoryweek.com/takeaction.php .

CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS

Hemp History Week is endorsed by a long list of celebrities and high profile wellness experts, including Dr. Andrew Weil, Alicia Silverstone, Phil Lempert, Ashley Koff, R.D., Brendan Brazier, Elizabeth Kucinich, Ziggy Marley, Alexandra Jamieson, Dar Williams, Michael Franti, John Salley, and Kevin Danaher.

GRASSROOTS EVENTS

This year's campaign more than doubled in size and scope compared to last year's event, which mobilized supporters of hemp farming nationwide. With more than 700 participating retail stores and over 100 grassroots volunteer organized events the 2012 campaign was the biggest yet.

RETAIL PROMOTIONS

Hundreds of natural product retail outlets across the country signed up to participate in Hemp History Week through promotions and in-store events. Hemp product promotions in retail stores increased from 400 stores in 2011 to over 700 participating retail stores this year, including most Whole Foods Market locations in the U.S.

NATIONAL RESTAURANT PROGRAM

New to the 2012 campaign, over 20 health conscious cafes and restaurants around the country participated in Hemp History Week by featuring hemp-infused dishes on their menus. Some restaurants also hosted special events.

SHOWCASING THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF HEMP

A renewable resource offering a long list of health and nutritional benefits, hemp is one of the fastest-growing categories in the natural foods industry. Hemp is a rich source of omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids

(EFAs), providing both super omega-stearidonic acid (SDA) and gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), highly-digestible protein and naturally-occurring vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin E and iron, while being a good source of dietary fiber. It is a nearly complete protein, containing all 10 essential amino acids, with no enzyme inhibitors, making it more digestible by the human body. Hemp seeds are also gluten-free.

The 3rd annual Hemp History Week was made possible with the support of leading natural product brands that are known for manufacturing the highest-quality hemp products. Hemp can be used in a wide variety of products, including foods, cosmetics, clothing, building materials, auto parts, and many others. The sponsors of the 2012 Hemp History Week are Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, Living Harvest Foods, Food Should Taste Good, Manitoba Harvest, Nature's Path Foods, Nutiva, and Vega. Sustainable hemp seed, fiber, and oil are also used by major companies such as Ford Motors, BMW, Patagonia, and The Body Shop.

The HIA estimates that U.S. retail sales of hemp products exceeded $419 million in 2010, yet American companies making hemp products have no choice but to import their raw materials due to the federal government's outdated and misguided ban on hemp farming. While demand for hemp products continues to rise, it is becoming a challenge for Canadian growers and processors, currently the primary suppliers of hemp seed and oil to the U.S. market, to keep up and meet that demand.

To date, thirty-one states have introduced pro-hemp legislation and seventeen have passed legislation, while ten states (Colorado, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Vermont and West Virginia) have removed barriers to its production or research. However, despite state authorization to grow hemp, farmers in these states risk raids by federal agents, long prison terms, and probable forfeiture of their farms if they plant the crop, due to the failure of federal policy to distinguish oilseed and fiber varieties of Cannabis (i.e., industrial hemp) from psychoactive drug varieties.

For more information on Hemp History Week 2012, please see: www.HempHistoryWeek.com .

SOURCE Hemp History Week

Oaksterdam Marijuana and Hemp Museum Is Forced to Find a New Home

Press Release
Source: sfgate.com

The Federal raid on Oaksterdam properties in April has forced the not-for-profit downtown attraction to leave it's current location by the end of this month. For the first time in it's history, the marijuana collection may be available for companies or individuals to sponsor individual exhibits, or the entire museum.

Oakland, CA (PRWEB) June 18, 2012

Officials from Oaksterdam University and the Oaksterdam Cannabis and Hemp Museum announced the relocation plans for the Oaksterdam Museum collection. The museum, founded in 2010, features both historic and contemporary items related to marijuana prohibition and the cannabis plant, must move to a new location by June 30. The relocation is a result of concerns raised by the City of Oakland about having the publicly accessible museum in a shared space with a downtown Oakland medical cannabis dispensary.

The museum has been closed to the public since federal authorities raided founder Richard Lee's home and businesses, which were subsidizing the museum's operational costs previous to the raid. The team managing the museum collect is actively seeking companies or individuals to sponsor exhibits or the entire museum.

While several possible locations have been suggested, it looks likely that the exhibit will relocate a block from its current home at 1776 Broadway to the Oaksterdam University Auditorium. Oaksterdam University was founded in 2007 to provide quality training for the cannabis industry. The second floor teaching space at 1600 Broadway is a building internationally recognized by the giant mural reflecting various exciting aspects of the City of Oakland. Oaksterdam University officials have offered to rearrange classroom space to display the museum exhibits. "We're looking for the right permanent location, however it does bring our lessons to life while it is here," said Executive Chancellor Dale Sky Jones. "Considering the current national situation, it is unthinkable we could allow the center for knowledge and American history to go into storage. It is a tremendous challenge for us, however I am preparing to approach this as a partnership with our community because it is so important to keep our American history alive."

The school staff, primarily volunteers, are focused on holding classes, adding new courses and preparing to seek private investment. Oaksterdam University does not have the resources to operate the museum as a full time attraction open to the public, but plans to offer a calendar of special exhibition days each month.

A crew of a dozen volunteers, including expert consultants from San Francisco's most renowned museums, donors, alumni and current students from the school assembled this week to document and begin carefully wrapping the growing array of historic cannabis education artifacts, some extending back to the turn of the last century. The individuals working on the relocation are receiving training on safely handling collections, along with detailed lessons in the US government's role as a major industrial hemp producer and the ancient history of the cannabis plant utilized medicinally in cultures around the world.

Museum Curator Chris Conrad says the cannabis and hemp museum is actively seeking partnerships and assistance in establishing a bigger presence in downtown Oakland's resurgent business district. "The outpouring of moral and political support coming our way since the notorious raid on Oaksterdam is very gratifying, demonstrating not only the effectiveness of Richard Lee's brave example as an instigator of social change, but also the desperate need for more education about this necessary social justice effort." Conrad is the former curator of the Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum of Amsterdam, and designed displays for both museums. "This is the best collection of artifacts about hemp, cannabis as medicine, and the direct results of marijuana prohibition that I have seen on public display in North America."

Oaksterdam University Student Services and Information Center is located at 1734 Telegraph Avenue in Oakland, open to the public Monday through Friday 10:00am - 6:00pm and Saturdays 10:00am - 5:00pm and can be reached at (510) 251-1544 or www.oaksterdamuniversity.com. To reach the museum staff directly email them at museum(at)oaksterdamuniversity(dot)com.

Company Uses Hemp To Help Build Homes, Despite Costly Regulations

Source: cbslocal.com

PRESCOTT, Wis. (WCCO) – Chances are pretty good that if somebody asks you about hemp, your first thoughts might land on the weed that gets rolled into joints. And that’s the unfortunate reality plaguing proponents who seek to strip federal regulations on industrial grade hemp.

“You don’t want to tamp too much or we’re going to lose our insulation properties,” said Ken Anderson as he oversaw the installation of a cement-like hemp mixture into a wall cavity. Anderson’s company, Original Green Distribution, instructed builders Tuesday on the correct use of its product, HempStone. It is a breathable material made of hemp fibers and lime that Anderson sees as a safer and more efficient alternative to conventional building materials.

“Not only does it have great R-value, it also has thermal mass, which will then capture heat and bring it in when it’s cooler in the house and also transfer heat through the house,” Anderson said.

Anderson’s company promotes industrial grade hemp as the perfect building material. It’s non-toxic, mold and mildew resistant and non-flammable. A fully encapsulated wall will not ignite even when the hot flame of a soldering torch is held to the surface for five minutes. In comparison, conventional building products can give off toxins like formaldehyde, which get trapped in today’s air tight construction. So contractors say families are requesting hemp materials for health benefits alone.

And when the hemp fibers, called the hurd, are mixed with lime and a bit of water, the hemp mixture sets up like concrete. The mixture, however, is seven times lighter than concrete.

A 3,400-square-foot hemp home was designed by green builder Anthony Brenner in Ashville, N.C. He says home is heated and cooled for about $45 a month.

“It’s easily about 75 percent less to operate that home compared to a conventional home,” he said.

But until federal laws banning hemp production change, all the raw materials used for hemp construction have to be imported. That’s keeping the cost up and Anderson’s industry from getting off the ground.

“Right now, because of the cost prohibitiveness, we have to sell to a higher end market, whereas this material should be available to everyone,” Anderson said.

Nutiva® Outgrows Headquarters, Moves to San Francisco Bay Area

Press Release
Source: marketwatch.com

Leading Organic Superfood Brand Already Giving Back to New Community

OXNARD, Calif., June 12, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Nutiva®, the world's leading brand of organic hemp foods, coconut oil, and chia seeds, announced today that on September 1, 2012, it will move its corporate headquarters from Oxnard, in Southern California, to Point Richmond, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Having outgrown its home base due to an enormous rise in product sales over the last several years, Nutiva will plant roots in a 200,000-square-foot building--ten times larger than its current locale.

The move comes amid increased mainstream market demand for organic superfoods, doubling Nutiva's sales over the past 90 days on top of a 42 percent annual growth rate since 2005. Inc. Magazine has named Nutiva one of the fastest growing companies in America for the last three years in a row.

"With the surge of demand for Nutiva's organic superfoods, we needed to expand our headquarters to prepare to meet the projected growth," said Nutiva founder and CEO John W. Roulac. "Point Richmond is an ideal location for us, providing ample space for stocking product and increasing our team."

The Bay Area is a popular location for other brands in the market, having the highest concentration of organic food companies in the world. Nutiva's new headquarters is centrally located, has rail car access, and is only 16 miles from the Port of Oakland, the most central West Coast port. The new locale will allow Nutiva to set up a state-of-the art high-speed manufacturing facility and also expand its private label business.

Nutiva is adding 50 new employees to its team, including a group of seasoned executives who have previous experience with such top brands as Amy's, Spectrum Naturals, Calistoga Water, Real Goods Solar, and the Audubon Society.

Reaffirming its commitment to giving back to community, Nutiva is partnering with Common Vision to plant a fruit tree orchard at every one of the 25 public schools in Richmond. Common Vision has already planted 5,000 fruit trees at over 200 public schools throughout California.

"We are thrilled for the company's move to Richmond, and to work with them to grow thousands of pounds of fresh organic fruit for the youth in this town," said Common Vision Director Leo Buc.

Additionally, Nutiva is a long-time supporter of the Farmer Veteran Coalition and donates 1 percent of its sales to worthy sustainable-agriculture projects. This year Nutiva is on track to give away $400,000.

Nutiva's new headquarters will be located at 213 W. Cutting Boulevard in Point Richmond, California. For more information, please visit: www.nutiva.com or follow the company on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/Nutiva .

About Nutiva®

Nutiva is dedicated to a healthy and sustainable world, demonstrating its mission to nourish people and planet by using delicious organic ingredients, enriching the soil, and donating 1 percent of sales to sustainable-agriculture groups. Founded in 1999, Nutiva is the world's best-selling brand of nutritious organic hemp foods, extra-virgin coconut oil, and chia seeds. Its products are offered by 15,000 retailers in the United States, Canada, and the European Union, including Whole Foods, Sprouts, Vitamin Shoppe, GNC, Publix, Safeway, Loblaws, and Amazon.com.

Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap CEO Has Hemp Protest Cut Short By Police With Power Saw

Source: huffingtonpost.com

WASHINGTON -- David Bronner had been camped out in a steel cage in front of Lafayette Park for almost three hours before a truck full of firemen came to remove him forcibly with a power saw.

The long-haired president of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, a top-selling natural soap chain based in Escondido, Calif., was holding court in an 64-square-foot cage to draw attention to the federal prohibition on growing industrial hemp, a policy which fails to distinguish between oilseed and fiber varieties of cannabis.

For Bronner, that means spending over $100,000 a year importing from Canadian farmers the hemp oil he'd rather be buying domestically. "Obama has promised a rational approach to policies," he said into a microphone hooked up to his cage. "So far as president he has blown off the U.S. hemp industry."

More than a dozen members of the U.S. Park Police stood outside Bronner's cage Monday morning, trying to cut the metal with giant red clippers. They then called a tow truck that was unable to move the cage, and at one point threatened to arrest HuffPost for stepping into the street to take a photo.

Inside the cage with Bronner were a dozen industrial hemp plants, which, Bronner said, all contained less than 0.3 percent THC, in accordance with Canadian regulations and had no potential use as a drug. He used an oil press in the cage to make fresh hempseed oil, passing out oil-smeared bread through the bars as he informed passersby of the high amounts of nutritious omega-3 fatty acids it contained. (HuffPost was not there in time to sample the bread.)

"The industrial hemp plants I am harvesting and processing into oil cannot produce a high of any kind, but according to the Obama administration, I'm in possession of approximately 10 pounds of marijuana,” said Bronner. "President Obama's U.S. attorney who handles drug cases in Washington, D.C., will not be able to prove my hemp has any more drug value than a poppyseed bagel.”

The action comes after Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) on Thursday introduced an amendment to the farm bill that would allow farmers to grow industrial hemp.

The legislation would exclude industrial hemp from the definition of "marihuana," thereby allowing hemp farming to be regulated by state permitting programs, bypassing the federal government's long-standing prohibition of marijuana.

A sister bill, H.R. 1831, was introduced in the House earlier this session by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).