Industrial Hemp

[SHRED]

Do you think we can finally see any movement to put forth legislation the frees up this valuable commodity?
Will a Democratic Congress make any difference?

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Saturday, April 22, 2006
Spring 2006 Editorial


It's an interesting new era for Canada's hemp industry. We're nine years in and companies are, well, seeing green. Not just the green that spreads its serrated leaves across field sections every summer, or the Green that comes with making and selling sustainably produced products (and no, it isn't the green of jealousy) it's the green of money.

After a few years of steady growth, the current North American market for hempseed-derived products is now calculated to be about $40 million. Some companies have been consistently growing sales at 50% or more per year. New products continue to hit the shelves and distribution of these new products continue to reaching new retailers.

(According to the most recent SPINS data, the largest selling categories of hemp foods are over 2004-05 were 1. Hemp flour: protein bread, 2. Nut Snack/Energy Bars and 3. Hemp Protein Powder.)

And so for the fifth year running, cultivated acreage of hemp is increasing.

MORE >>> http://www.hempreport.com/


Here are some good links:


http://www.jackherer.com/chapters.html

http://www.hemp4fuel.com

http://www.naihc.org/

http://www.tinroofvideo.com/

http://www.hempline.com/index.asp

[skids]

1. All for it, and so are a LOT of people.

Dems should work up some nerve, build up an anti-DEA PR fortification because the DEA will come out swinging for no good reason (all the reasons they give against it have been proven bullshit over and over but they still use them) and go for it.

(EDIT: It's probably not a good issue to lead with, but something that would fit for the 111th session or end of the 110th.)

[SHRED]

3. Even with a THC free hemp variety

The DEA has jobs to protect.

[skids]

4. Not sure that's the reason.

I think the DEA's opposition is more a matter of hard-line idealism than it is job protection. At most, industrial hemp would cost them a few jobs in wild hemp eradication, because the pollen from those fields would make growing drug quality marijuana outdoors more difficult (by fertilizing/contaminating the female plants.)

But that's a very small, insignifigant amount of the DEAs overall activity, and the DEA would pick up "desk jobs" in inspecting legal fields.

Mostly the opponents that step forward from the DEA and illegally "lobby" while on the government payroll are hard-liners who view any concession however minor in the "war on marijuana" to be a travesty.

[SHRED]

5. It's almost like a religion....

...for those zealots.

[whistle]

2. Go for it

[hobbit709]

6. Did you ever see

"Hemp For Victory"-Government film made in 1943?

[Cerridwen]

7. Hemp plastics and hemp biofuel...

From an article in Popular Mechanics 1941...

Henry Ford in straw hat. Here is the auto Henry Ford "grew from the soil." Its plastic panels, with impact strength 10 times greater than steel, were made from flax, wheat, hemp, spruce pulp.

"After twelve years of research, the Ford Motor Company has completed an experimental automobile with a plastic body. Although its design takes advantage of the properties of plastics, the streamline car does not differ greatly in appearance from its steel
counterpart. The only steel in the hand-made body is found in the tubular welded frame on which are mounted 14 plastic panels, 3/16 inch thick. Composed of a mixture of farm crops and synthetic chemicals, the plastic is reported to withstand a blow 10 times as great as steel without denting. Even the Windows and windshield are of plastic. The total weight of the plastic car is about 2,000 pounds, compared with 3,000 pounds for a steel automobile of the same size. Although no hint has been given as to when plastic cars may go into production, the experimental model is pictured as a step toward materialization of Henry Ford's belief that some day he would "grow automobiles from the soil."

"When Henry Ford recently unveiled his plastic car, result of 12 years of research, he have the world a glimpse of the automobile of tomorrow, its tough panels molded under hydraulic pressure of 1,500 pounds per square inch from a recipe that calls for 70 percent of cellulose fibers from wheat straw, hemp, and sisal plus 30 percent resin binder. The only steel in the car is its tubular welded frame. The plastic car weighs a ton, 1,000 pounds lighter than a comparable steel car. Manufacturers are already talking of a low-priced plastic car to test the public's taste by 1943." images and text from 1941 article

It would have to be put forth, in my opinion, from an economic standpoint as a way to save the farmer. A money crop with, so rumor has it, has over 30,000 uses.

Given it's uses to create plastic, fuel, paper, cloth, etc. it would be up against the paper industry, oil companies, the cotton industry and the chemical companies who may have had much to do with its demise in the first place.

I think it's a wonderful idea and I think we should promote it as corporations taking food out of the mouths of farmers. The family farmer, rather than agribusiness conglomerates, could once again support their families while providing, again, for the American people.

[skids]

9. A lot of advanced uses but also several direct uses.

When the hemp industry first started in Canada, they were expecting demand for the hurd part of the plant to grow slowly because processing plants would need to be invested in.

Not so -- they found that they could sell their hemp hurds directly to eager buyers who were using it for "horse bedding" -- the stuff you throw on a stable floor -- and it was very popular as it was very absorbent.

While plastics and particle board are something we could easily see down the line (people have siccessfully done both in small batches) there are some uses for hurd and fiber with almost no post-harvest processing applied. For example hempcrete/isochanvre:

http://www.hempbuilding.com/



http://www.hempology.org/

[Cerridwen]

16. Exactly. What I like about the advanced uses...creates jobs...n/t

[mcg]

18. corn plastic

At a green conference I bought a plastic bottle of water,
the bottle is made PLA plastic which is made from corn.
Here's an article that is critical of PLA:
http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2006/august/pla.php
another article
http://jscms.jrn.columbia.edu/cns/2005-03-15/russell-cornplastic

[Cerridwen]

19. My understanding is that hemp is more drought tolerant (uses

less water), pest resistant (less need of chemical pest control) and better for the soil (no need to rotate crops) than corn.

While corn is definitely a better alternative to petroleum based plastics, I get the impression that industrial hemp is a better alternative to corn.

I could be wrong; and this being DU, I'm sure someone will let me know if that's the case. :D

[formercia]

21. Just think of all the Carbon Dioxide sequesterd.

Don't tell me it fixes Nitrogen too?

[Cerridwen]

24. Is this what you mean?

Hemp needs fertilization, as it consumes a lot of nitrogen. Because it is fast-growing and has an extensive root system, it might be useful in removing excess nitrogen fertilizer from fields, thereby reducing agricultural runoff problems. On fields where nitrogen is the limiting factor to crop growth, hemp requires about 50% of the nitrogen fertilizer as corn.(emphasis mine) The Environmental Benefits of Using Industrial Hemp

[formercia]

25. Like most 'weeds'

Hemp is very efficient at obtaining nutrients from the soil. Needing 50% the Nitrogen of Corn means, either it is very efficient at converting the Nitrogen in the soil to Proteins or it supplements soil nutrients by having the properties of a legume of using symbiotic root nodule bacterium that convert the Nitrogen in the air to a form that the plant can utilize.

[jayctravis]

31. Couldn't it also make it unecessary to cut so many trees?

[Cerridwen]

32. Exactly. A bit of a blurb below.

Forest Conservation

Industrial hemp has great potential to displace much of the wood currently being used for fiber in this nation. In the Upper Midwest and South, it appears that hemp fiber can be grown less expensively than wood fiber for use in paper.

One of the largest paper companies has told NAIHC Board President Bud Sholts, that if hemp can be grown in Wisconsin, they will be using it for 45% of their feedstock at their mill on the Fox River within five years. Similarly, Another huge paper company intends to move 90% of their world feedstock to non-forest sources within 10 years and see hemp as a major component of that. Being international, if they can't grow hemp in the US, they will grow it where they can.

A very large and diversified construction products firm, believes that hemp can supplant wood and make better panel products.

(See The Larch Company paper Potential of Industrial Hemp to Displace Fiber From Forests.) From this article

[Greyhound]

8. Beautiful and thank you for getting this out.

:kick: & R #5

[IDemo]

10. Hemp bill was introduced in 2005,

by Ron Paul of Texas, H.R.3037, but the "last major action" was referral to Health subcommittee; translation: tabled permanently.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.03037:

- edit to add: Jim McDermott of WA. may be the one to contact now, if this is true:

"McDermott would move up on the Ways and Means Committee, which handles tax legislation. He is in line to become chairman of the panel's subcommittee that deals with social services, but he has his eye on the Health subcommittee."

[SHRED]

13. link not working

[Cerridwen]

15. Found it...try this one

H. R. 3037

To amend the Controlled Substances Act to exclude industrial hemp from the definition of marihuana, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

June 22, 2005

A BILL

To amend the Controlled Substances Act to exclude industrial hemp from the definition of marihuana, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2005'.

SEC. 2. EXCLUSION OF INDUSTRIAL HEMP FROM DEFINITION OF MARIHUANA.

Paragraph (16) of section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802(16)) is amended--

(1) by striking `(16)' at the beginning and inserting `(16)(A)'; and

(2) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:

`(B) The term `marihuana' does not include industrial hemp. As used in the preceding sentence, the term `industrial hemp' means the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of such plant, whether growing or not, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration that does not exceed 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis.'.

<snip>

link to printer friendly version

edit to indicate snip

[IDemo]

17. Not sure why. Try copy/pasting the url to your browser address bar

The final colon doesn't seem to follow the link directly..

[Cerridwen]

14. Assembly OKs bill letting farmers grow hemp

Assembly OKs bill letting farmers grow hemp

By Tom Chorneau, Associated Press
San Jose Mercury News

January 26, 2006

SACRAMENTO – A bill approved by the state Assembly Thursday would add California
to the growing number of states seeking to legalize the cultivation of industrial hemp – a
biological relative of marijuana.

Supporters claim that despite its family links, hemp is a completely safe product that
could become a cash crop for California farmers because of its use in a long list of
products from soap and cosmetics to rope, jewelry and even luggage.

But even if the measure eventually becomes law, farmers would still face hurdles to
actually cultivate the plant because hemp contains trace amounts of a banned substance
and may still fall under federal anti-drug rules.

The bill's author, Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, said the Assembly's
passage of the measure marks an important milestone.

<snip>

text version of article

[Cerridwen]

11. I'll add more information here...

FARMERS MUST BE ALLOWED TO GROW an energy crop capable of producing 10 tons per acre in 90-120 days. This crop must be woody in nature and high in lignocellulose. It must be able to grow in all climactic zones in America.

And it should not compete with food crops for the most productive land, but be grown in rotation with food crops or on marginal land where food crop production isn't profitable.

When farmers can make a profit growing energy, it will not take long to get 6% of continental American land mass into cultivation of biomass fuel--enough to replace our economy's dependence on fossil fuels. We will no longer be increasing the C02 burden in the atmosphere. The threat of global greenhouse warming and adverse climactic change will diminish. To keep costs down, pyrolysis reactors need to be located within a 50 mile radius of the energy farms. This necessity will bring life back to our small towns by providing jobs locally.

HEMP IS THE NUMBER ONE biomass producer on planet earth: 10 tons per acre in approximately four months. It is a woody plant containing 77% cellulose. Wood produces 60% cellulose. This energy crop can be harvested with equipment readily available. It can be "cubed" by modifying hay cubing equipment. This method condenses the bulk, reducing trucking costs from the field to the pyrolysis reactor. And the biomass cubes are ready for conversion with no further treatment. more information here

[texanwitch]

12. The hemp plant might just save us one day.

:headbang:

[Cerridwen]

20. Six U.S. states have passed laws to allow farmers to grow ind. hemp

'Industrial' hemp support takes root

By Donna Leinwand

USA TODAY
November 22, 2005

David Monson is a conservative Republican in North Dakota's legislature.
He's also a farmer who believes that a new cash crop could revitalize his
state's agricultural industry, which has been suffering from poor harvests
and depressed soy and corn prices.

<snip>

Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Montana and West Virginia also have passed
hemp-farming bills. U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, introduced such a bill in
Congress in June, but it hasn't advanced in the face of opposition by the
Drug Enforcement Administration and the White House's anti-drug office.

<snip>

(poster's note: and the U.S. Fed's argument?)"Let's not be naïve," says Tom Riley of the White House Office on National
Drug Control Policy. "The pro-dope people have been pushing hemp for 20
years because they know that if they can have hemp fields, then they can
have marijuana fields. It's ... stoner logic."

<snip>

Other North Dakotans say they resent attempts to cast an agricultural and
economic issue as a "pothead" movement. "It's a silly argument," says North
Dakota Agricultural Commissioner Roger Johnson. "Does (Monson) sound like a
druggie?"

<snip>

link to USA Today article posted at organicconsumers.org

[mcg]

22. Hemp protein tastes great.

I eat hemp protein powder and bread with hemp protein. Both taste great and are very nutritious. I buy them from an organic foods store. Alas, I don't get any kind of buzz.

I think bigotry towards 'hippies' is a big factor in the irrational opposition to hemp and also for why marijuana, even medical marijuana, is still illegal. Alcohol causes far more problems than marijuana but marijuana is considered a liberal drug by the rightwingers. Their thinking is that 'hippies' are evil, 'hippies' use marijuana, so marijuana is evil, marijuana comes from hemp, so hemp is evil. If it wasn't for their HATRED, hemp, including marijuana, would be legal. This is an issue of political repression.

They don't care that American farmers are given the shaft by all this, they don't care about American farmers.

I'd bet that lobbying by competing industries is also a big factor.

[Greyhound]

26. The bigotry you so correctly point out is, not exclusive to the right

there is plenty of it all over our Party too, and it is disgusting. When irrational discrimination stops real progress it is a crime against us all.

Of course the Oil, Chemical, Pharmaceutical, Timber and Paper industries stand to lose the most from legal hemp, so you bet your ass they will pony up the campaign donations in limitless amounts to keep our politiwhores in their pockets.

[Greyhound]

23. If we could just get the sheeple to stop being afraid of, well everything

really, but especially the mythological Devil's weed. This irrational terror that is so deeply instilled in them just makes it feel like it is hopeless, much like livestock that will stay in the burning barn and die because they are too afraid of making that dash through the door.

[Cerridwen]

27. Congressman Dennis Kucinich supports re-legalizing industrial hemp

<big huge snip>

I stand in support of a major renewables effort and of spurring research and investment in alternative energy sources. As an environmentalist, my view is always holistic and global. It is time this country put an end to the demonization of hemp, paving the way for renewed commercial hemp cultivation in the United States and breaking down the unnecessary barriers that keep American farmers from enjoying the benefits of this thriving, sustainable industry.link to Dennis Kucinich on Industrial Hemp

[donsu]

28. a big yes to industrial hemp - it's use can help reduce global warming

for one thing.

but the oil and gas barons will fight tooth and nail to keep hemp out of the US

[Catchawave]

29. I will support this 150% !!!!

With hopes our newly elected Democratic Congress has awoken this sleeping giant :D

[Bjorn Against]

30. Everyone who opposes hemp is just plain ignorant

Opposing hemp is kind of like opposing corn, except since hemp has even more uses than corn does it is actually stupider to oppose hemp than it would be to oppose corn.

If you were to take some dried up corn and crush it up to be rolled into a joint it would get you about just as high as smoking hemp rope would get you.

[ms liberty]

33. Had to K&R - one of the hobbyhorses I like to climb on! n/t

[all.of.me]

34. the emperor wears no clothes, free, online!

http://www.jackherer.com/chapters.html

[mcg]

37. The Emperor Wears No Clothes (The Original Hemp Bible) - Wow, highly recommended.

A lot of this information is news to me.

[FernBell]

35. k&r

[SHRED]

36. ---* Here is a brief history *---

Basically, in a nutshell, here is what happened:

In the early 1900's our country made a very detrimental choice.
This is when we definitely had a chance to not become a petroleum and wood based society and instead could have become an agriculture based society with hemp playing the key role.
We chose heavy environmental destruction and subsequent pollution instead.

Most of the oil could have been left in the ground.
Most of our ancient forests could have been preserved for our children instead of the tree farms we have now.
heir ecosystems that are so vital to the health of the planet could have remained.
This climate change happening from the forest canopies being destroyed (lungs of the earth), and the burning of fossil fuels into the atmosphere now unfiltered, could have remained a non-issue.

Fact is that mankind blew it.

Why this is not a required course in schools and how to turn it around is something that our kid's kids will not forgive us for.

See the links in my original post for more info on potential products and history.

peace

[Greyhound]

38. Weekday kick

:kick:

[Zhade]

39. Unlikely. Too many of them are ignorant of it.

Too many others are stupidly pro-Drug War, even though it's utterly failed.

Hell, too many Dems think marijuana is a deadly plant, so you know the kind of ignorance we're up against.

Still, the attempts to inform continue, so I for one will hope to see the day when both hemp AND marijuana are completely legal again.

[mhatrw]

40. I fear that it's too good an idea that would hurt too many entrenched

interests.

[Cerridwen]

41. I'm gonna kick this up for further dissemination of information

I'm also going to recommend people read the copy from the 1938 Popular Mechanics article at this link. I'd post here but I don't want to steal the guy's bandwidth and I don't know copyright rules on this article.

A snippet from the article to entice you:

BILLION DOLLAR CROP

American farmers are promised a new cash crop with an annual value of several hundred million dollars, all because a machine has been invented which solves a problem more than 6,000 years old. It is hemp, a crop that will not compete with other American products. Instead it will displace imports of raw material and manufactured products produced by underpaid coolie and peasant labor and it will provide thousands of jobs for American workers throughout the land.

The annual value needs to be adjusted to 2006 dollars and the jobs it could create would now be to those Americans whose family farms have been bought out by agribusiness and manufacturing jobs that have gone overseas. It would also offer serious competition to industries which currently account for dangerous environmental damage as well as monopolistic petrochemical conglomerates.

[benEzra]

42. I hope this logjam gets broken...

to me, this is a no-brainer.

[SHRED]

43. Legislation

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.3037:

[Cerridwen]

44. G'morning Shred...time to kick this back to the front page

Let's see, what information should I add here for further educational purposes...

Here we go, a couple of Myths and Realities about Industrial Hemp

Myth: United States law has always treated hemp and marijuana the same.

Reality: The history of federal drug laws clearly shows that at one time the U.S. government understood and accepted the distinction between hemp and marijuana.

Myth: Smoking Industrial Hemp gets a person high.

Reality: The THC levels in Industrial Hemp are so low that no one could get high from smoking it. Moreover, hemp contains a relatively high percentage of another cannabinoid, CBD, that actually blocks the marijuana high. Hemp, it turns out, is not only not marijuana; it could be called "anti-marijuana". more debunking at this link

[DinahMoeHum]

45. Hemp seed oil is rich in essential fatty acids. . .

http://www.ganjaland.com/oil.htm#Numbers

www.naturespath.com

:9:9:9

[jpwhite]

46. this sounds great

I am very hesitant to legalize pot as far as smoking it, but for using it for clothes and for other reasons I am all for that. It makes economic sense. Go check out the web sites that are listed on the original post.

James
[e-mail]

[InvisibleTouch]

47. DU botanists, please clarify:

The hemp plant and the marijuana plant are not the same species, right? Presumaby they're in the same genus? Can they cross-pollinate? Just curious.

[mcg]

48. Same genus, they can cross-pollinate, can't get high from the result.

Industrial hemp is actually bad for those who want to grow
the marijuana plant for its drug effect.

http://www.gametec.com/hemp/hybrids.html

The offspring tend toward characteristics intermediate between the parents. Nobody wants them. They're "good for nothing."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp