Growing interest in hemp

SARAH HARRIS - © Fairfax NZ News

A hemp crop ready for harvesting.

Taranaki could be the new centre for hemp in New Zealand, with an estimated 40 hectares to be planted in the next year.
Work has started on the region's first hemp home, to be built in Bell Block.
Hemp insulation is attached to the timber frame and then rendered with a hemp plaster to form the exterior.
Lance Palmer, managing director of Fowler Homes, chose to make his house out of hemp as it achieves thermal mass and insulation, he said.
"It's exciting, but also in the same breath, if you take the romance out of it, being the first means you're the first to go through the trials and tribulations."
It takes around six tonnes, or 1 hectare, of hemp to build one house.
"I just think it's really quite a fantastic plant," Mr Palmer said.
"The more I've learnt about it in the last 12 months, the more I'm impressed with its potential. I think it's going to progressively grow in Taranaki. It's going to come down to public and commercial acceptance."
Taranaki man Greg Flavall founded Hemp Technologies in 2008 after learning about the many benefits of industrial hemp.
He said the industry "has got a lot of legs" and was assisting many new farmers planning to grow hemp this spring. About six new farmers are interested.
The plant grows quickly, efficiently and is beneficial to the environment, he said.
"If only 1 per cent of the agricultural land in this country farmed hemp we'd have enough building insulation material for all the new home construction in this country."
John Earney, a Stratford farmer, hopes to begin growing hemp on part of his 69-hectare farm this October.
"I've known about hemp for a long time. I just know it's the plant [because] it beats trees, it beats pasture, it looks after the planet. It's just such a universal plant."
The licence cost about $760 and the seed $3000 per acre, said Mr Earney. "It will be a good cash crop. The industry could be huge."
Hemp homes are comparable to brick and block construction in terms of cost. However, the material has a lifespan of 500 years, said Mr Flavall.
The oldest hemp home, in Japan, is 350-years-old.
Most people choose to use hemp for the environmental, energy and health benefits.
Hemp is primarily used for food, animal bedding and building. It has a range of environmental benefits, from reducing the amount of CO2 in the air to producing four times as much natural fibre as trees.

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Hemp oil is a nutritional food source as it is the second highest protein crop (after soy beans) and is a good source of Omega 3.
The crop is planted in October and harvested in March or April.
Sarah Harris is an AUT journalism student - © Fairfax NZ News

Hemp Hot Off the Press from Cape Times / R15m hemp project goes to seed

August 12 2013 at 12:00pm

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ECO-FRIENDLY: A house, including the interior and furniture, is all made nearly exclusively of hemp in Noordhoek. It is the brainchild of those behind the hemp company Hemporium. Fourteen years ago, a national project was launched to try to establish a hemp industry in South Africa, but legislation hampered it and has brought it to a near-standstill. Picture: WWW.HEMPORIUM.COM

Caryn Dolley

A MULTIMILLION-rand project launched 14 years ago for South Africa to grow and produce hemp has virtually stalled because of legal glitches, says the government.

Ayabulela Ngoqo, the Eastern Cape’s Rural Development and Agrarian Reform Department spokesman, said the project, launched in 1999, had focused on job creation, but in 2006 had come to a halt. Equipment meant to have been used in hemp processing remained in storage.

“The challenge is the legislation,” Ngoqo told the Cape Times.

Hemp, grown in other countries as a fibre and oil seed crop, belongs to the same family as dagga, and in South Africa dagga is illegal.

A 2011 a Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries document on hemp said the Drugs and Trafficking Act prevented the possession, processing and commercialisation of hemp.

It said the Medicines and Related Substances Act “allows possession and cultivation of hemp for research purposes only”.

The 2011 document said: “The European Union and many South African companies are planning a R25 million five-year project to boost hemp cultivation in South Africa.”

It said the government, with the private sector, was “trying to sort out the hemp legislation” so it could be commercialised.

Despite 14 years having lapsed since the national hemp project’s launch, the envisioned hemp project remains in the research phase.

The national hemp project, linked to various government departments, had an agriculture and commercial aspect.

While the agriculture aspect appears to have ground to a halt, the commercial side continues.

In a speech 12 years ago, then-arts and culture minister Ben Ngubane said the Western Cape was among the best areas in South Africa for growing hemp.

He had said the national project was aimed “at reducing poverty through… the cultivation, processing, manufacturing and marketing of South African hemp”.

“South Africa now boasts a burgeoning hemp industry, with the promise of thousands of jobs, economic empowerment for our previously disadvantaged communities and the stimulation of the small business sector,” Ngubane had said.

But last week, Ngoqo said this was not the case.

He said R15 million was initially invested in the project and research done on where hemp could be grown. “More than anything, we hoped to get jobs out of it… It was aimed at emerging farmers.”

Aside from legislation, Ngoqo said hemp seeds had not been available locally and needed to be imported from Hungary, which was “very expensive”.

He said the department had been ready with equipment, funds and experts to help farmers, but in 2006 the agriculture aspect of the project was halted.

Ngoqo said some of the R15m investment was used for research, and some had been spent on buying oil-pressing machines. The department had kept the balance for when it could use it on the project.

When the project’s agricultural side collapsed, the commercial part of the project was focused on.

In 2001, House of Hemp, a company that sold hemp products, was founded by Thandeka Kunene and launched by Ngubane.

Three years ago, Kunene was tasked with co-ordinating the commercial aspect of the hemp project. She did not respond to queries by yesterday.

Tony Budden, a partner with Duncan Parker in the Hemp company Hemporium, said that with Kunene, it was involved in a three-year “commercial incubation research trial”.

He said that about two years ago, the Health Department issued permits for commercial hemp research which enabled them to grow hemp in four areas – three in the Eastern Cape and one, near Wellington, in the Western Cape.

Through the company, Rapula Farming, five types of hemp had been grown on a two-hectare plot near Wellington. Budden said it was hoped another commercial research permit would be issued this year for more hemp, this time one type, to be grown in the province.

caryn.dolley@inl.co.za

 

Hemp Healthy Today, would Like to "Thank" Caryn Dolley for sharing this Great Information! Thank you!

Kentucky wants to Lead the country Once again with Industrial Hemp, the "Sustainable Crop".

Excellent Interview, Good Luck Commissioner Comer!
Industrial Hemp is the Message that needs to be Handed to Each Governor, and Every States Agricultural Department should be fighting for this crop! Kentucky Lead the States in Industrial Hemp Growth followed by Wisconsin. Wisconsin Once Owned 70 percent of the Hemp Mills in the United States.. Hemp can Help the Farmers our Environment, and Economy!      
                      Please click on the link to play the video.
                                              http://youtu.be/IKgFLeOpLbs

Doctor Sanjay Gupta and Medicinal Cannabis

Hemp Vs. Cotton in Texas, We Need to wake up the Farmers!

 

Texas farmed millions of acres of cotton and netted $1.7 Bil. Industrial Hemp can produce 2-4 x's more fiber, without pesticides! So, on half the land, we can still surpass the fiber output and have seed for biofuel left over! Industrial Hemp is the right choice. Paper, fuel, fiber, food and medicine! Sustainable, good for the environment & the economy! Win/win....

____________________________________________

 

 

(800)-Tell-TDA 835-5832 eServices Public Bridge Hay Hotline LMS Training TX-UNPS

Texas Ag Stats   Texas leads the nation in cattle, cotton, hay, sheep and wool, and goats and mohair production.  Texas leads the nation in number of farms and ranches, with 247,500 farms and ranches covering 130.4 million acres.  Texas also leads the nation in value of farm real estate.        Rural lands, including privately owned forest, total 144 million acres, 86% of the state's total land area.         12% of Texas' population resides in rural areas.              1 of every 7 working Texans (14%) is in an agriculture-related job.               98.5% of Texas farms and ranches are family farms, partnerships or family-held corporations.         The average age of Texas farmers and ranchers is 59 years.      The economic impact of the food and fiber sector totals more than $100 billion.  Cash receipts, including timber, total $19.8 billion. Top 10 commodities in terms of cash receipts: Cattle, cotton, milk, broilers, greenhouse & nursery, corn, wheat, timber, grain sorghum and vegetables. Agricultural exports: to foreign countries totaled more than $6 billion. Texas ranks # 4 overall behind California, Iowa and Illinois.   Texas' national rank for selected commodity exports:   1 - Cotton & cottonseed, $1.7 billion   2 - Feeds & fodders, $509 million     2 - Peanuts, $56 million          3 - Live animals & meat, $740 million     3 - Hides & skins, $341 million     3 - Animal fats, $180 million        5 - Tree nuts, $41 million          6 - Poultry & poultry products, $266 million·   6 - Rice # 6 at $114 million        7 - Feed grains, $836 million        8 - Wheat & wheat products, $603 million   13 - Milk & milk products, $22 million

 

 

 

 

Industrial hemp will grow; will it sell?

Kentucky farmers and politicians eye a new cash crop, but creating a market could take time

By Kara Keeton

Industrial hemp was launched into the limelight less than a year ago when U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer and a bipartisan group of legislators took to the stage at the Kentucky State Fair and promised to move the industrial hemp initiative forward. And move it forward they did.

On the last day of the 2012 legislative session, the Kentucky General Assembly passed Senate Bill 50, legislation that creates an administrative framework for industrial hemp production in Kentucky if the federal government lifts restrictions against it. (Vote Hemp photo)

Since that announcement, the Kentucky Hemp Commission has been revived; a foundation has been established to regulate industrial hemp production in Kentucky if legalized at the federal level; a key amendment to the federal Farm Bill allowing industrial hemp research at universities passed the House and is awaiting conference committee review; and the industrial hemp discussion has led headlines in papers across the state and nation.
“To be at the point we are today with this initiative has taken the bipartisan work of key individuals at the state and federal levels who recognize that this is an economic issue that could provide opportunities for our farmers and our rural communities in Kentucky,” Comer said. “I want to be clear, it isn’t going to be a crop to replace corn or soybeans. It will not replace tobacco. But it could be another piece of the agriculture diversification effort here in the state.”
Comer believes that to give Kentucky farmers an advantage in the industrial hemp market, Kentucky needs to be one of the first states to allow farmers to cultivate this emerging crop. While it appears that congressional leadership is not yet ready to put production of industrial hemp in the hands of the farmer, there might be another way to open the door for production in the commonwealth as early as this fall.
“Recent developments make me believe that we may have been looking at the federal law the wrong way this entire time,” said Brian Furnish, chairman of the Hemp Commission. “It may be legal to produce industrial hemp today, and if that is the case we are ready to move forward.”

Opinion: Maybe it’s already legal

In May, a legal opinion was issued on the implementation of Senate Bill 50 that excited many involved with the industrial hemp initiative.

Agriculture Commissioner James Comer testifies before the House Agriculture and Small Business Committee on behalf of Senate Bill 50. Industrial hemp would be a good alternative to tobacco and other crops and could boost the state’s economy if it is legalized, Comer said.

“The opinion states that industrial hemp in SB 50 is exempt from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), so long as the products from the plants grown in Kentucky are not used for human ingestion,” Furnish said. “Luke Morgan, the attorney who wrote the opinion, formerly was with the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office and served as the general counselor for the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, so he has experience in these issues.”
Morgan, now an attorney at McBrayer, McGinnis, Leslie & Kirkland PLLC in Lexington, centered his opinion upon a 2003 Drug Enforcement Agency Final Rule (FR Doc 03-6805) titled “Exemption From Control of Certain Industrial Products and Materials Derived From the Cannabis Plant.” This rule exempts certain items derived from the cannabis plant from CSA control, specifically industrial products and feeds not intended for human consumption – even if they contain tetrahydrocannabinols (THC).
“By virtue of the DEA’s statement in 2003, there is no need to have that agency grant a waiver for the production of SB 50 compliant hemp, because the DEA has determined that, so long as the product is not absorbed in the body, it may contain unspecified levels of THC,” stated Morgan in a memo to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. “Furthermore, SB 50 authorizes only those hemp plants which have a 0.3 (percent) or lower level of THC for production, thus further reducing the ability of THC to be absorbed by the human body from a SB 50 approved plant.”
In his memo, Morgan recommends that Commissioner Comer begin the process of drafting state regulations to implement licensing requirements and other measures to assist law enforcement and production. He also recommends that the KDA inform the DEA that it will be in compliance with FR Doc 03-6805 and invite it to participate in the process.
“Our federal delegation asked for opinion of the law from the administration and DEA, and we are still waiting on a response from that request,” Furnish said. “It is my intention to ask the DEA for their interpretation of this legal opinion to try to clarify this issue.”
If the DEA does not disagree with the opinion, Furnish said, KDA officials are going to start the process of establishing a licensing program to allow farmers to apply to grow industrial hemp.
“The ball is in the DEA’s court at this point, so they need to tell us if this opinion is right or wrong,” he said. “If it is not wrong, then we need to move forward.”

The political push

Industrial hemp, shown growing here in this photo provided by Vote Hemp, can be used in the production of ropes, fabrics, plastics, cosmetics and other merchandise. Canada, Britain, Germany, Spain and France, along with more than 20 other countries, grow and process industrial hemp. (Vote Hemp photo)

The industrial hemp issue has been front-page news throughout the spring as Kentucky’s leaders on both the state and federal levels began a legislative push to bring this native crop back into legal production.
State Sen. Paul Hornback, a Shelby County farmer, launched the industrial hemp discussion in the Kentucky Senate when he introduced SB 50 to establish a foundation for the regulation of industrial hemp crops if it were to be legalized by the federal government. The bill was championed by Comer, who worked with U.S. Sen. Paul and others to educate the legislature on industrial hemp.
“Education was critical to the final passage of SB 50. We were not promoting the legalization of marijuana; I do not support legalizing marijuana. This bill was about establishing a regulatory foundation for industrial hemp, a commodity similar to traditional agriculture crops,” said Comer, talking about efforts during the 2013 session. “At the state and federal level we were working together, in a bipartisan effort, to bring yet another economic opportunity to our farmers.”
Already going strong in Kentucky, the hemp discussion was launched to the federal level in February when U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie and U.S. Sens. Paul and Mitch McConnell introduced bills in Congress for the federal legalization of industrial hemp.
Massie sponsored HR 525, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2013, in the House while Paul and McConnell were two of the four co-sponsors on the S. 359, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2013. Both bills aimed to allow American farmers to cultivate and profit from industrial hemp. While both bills stalled in committee, their filings brought the industrial hemp debate to the federal level.
Paul said by email that neither he nor U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the primary sponsors of the hemp amendment, serve on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and were unable to offer it for consideration there. Instead they are attempting to build a coalition for floor consideration in the full Senate.
“We’ve come a long way in terms of education on the hemp issue, but we still have progress to make,” Paul said.
“If you look back at those years leading up to the tobacco buyout,” said Furnish, “it looked like it would never happen, and then at the last minute it all came together. I think if the legalization of the production of industrial hemp happens in Congress, it will happen the same way.”

Versatile crop, uncertain market

“Kentucky has the perfect climate and soil to produce industrial hemp and the hard-working farmers ready to grow it,” Comer proclaimed last August when he announced the initiative.

Pressed hemp seed makes a rich oil that can be used in foods, body care items and technical products such as oils, paints, solvents, lubricants and ink. Seed cake, which is made after the hemp is pressed, can be used in animal feeds and to make protein-rich flour. (Vote Hemp photo)

Canada has industrial hemp production that is processed into fiber and oil. However, while farmers here might be ready to sow a new crop, there is as yet no hard data showing it would be profitable.
“We are doing economic research here at the college looking at the potential markets, cost of production and probability,” said Scott Smith, dean of the UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. “The problem at this point is that there is very little concrete information that relates to Kentucky markets.”
In July, the Agriculture Economics Department at UK released a study that attempted to answer the question: “Would industrial hemp production be profitable for Kentucky farmers and be beneficial to the overall Kentucky agricultural economy?” Analysis of world trade and production trends in industrial hemp along with an in-depth look at the Canadian industry identified that demand for products made with industrial hemp in the United States is relatively small, but it is growing.
“Industrial hemp is an extremely versatile crop that is growing more and more popular each year,” Paul said.
Overseas auto manufacturers use hemp fiber to make body panels, doors and insulation, he said.
“Obviously for Kentucky, with our robust auto industry, there is a lot of potential there,” Paul said. “I have spoken with several other manufacturers, and there is interest in producing paper, textiles, biofuel and hempcrete, a concrete-like substance used for construction, all from hemp grown in the commonwealth.”
As for the farmer, several factors required to definitively answer whether the crop would be profitable remain unknown. The UK hemp study points out that many aspects of risk for industrial hemp are difficult to determine. It cites production risk from fluctuating yields, price volatility for fiber and seed, and policy risk because of the possibility of changing legal conditions.

A machine at a Canadian hemp processing facility extracts oil from hemp seeds. The oil has a high content of essential fatty acids such as omega-3 and omega-6, and is used in foods and in cosmetics and other body care products.

Critical to an emerging new industry, the study also points out, would be development of local infrastructure and a local market in Kentucky.
Comer says he and other leaders recognize the need for infrastructure development if industrial hemp is legalized. He said established agriculture businesses in the state are ready to get involved.
“Vaughn Tobacco in Lexington is interested in processing industrial hemp, and Caudill Seed (of Louisville) wants to work on the development of native hemp seed and the processing of the product,” Comer said. “We are working behind the scenes to get all the players in place if we are approved to begin legal production of the crop, and when it happens we will be ready.”
“We all know there is uncertainty in new markets but as with any new industry, the infrastructure, research, and market will take time to develop,” said Furnish. “The fact is we will never know what the potential will be for farmers or how much production the market will bear until we are legally able to produce the crop. That is all we are asking for is the chance, and hopefully soon our farmers will have just that opportunity.”
Kara Keeton is a correspondent for The Lane Report. She can be reached at editorial@lanereport.com.

Groundwork Laid, Growers Turn to Hemp in Colorado

Matthew Staver for The New York Times

“I’m not going to hide anymore,” said Ryan Loflin, who sowed hemp on his 60 acres in Springfield, Colo. The state has a hemp commission to write rules.

By JACK HEALY Published: August 5, 2013


SPRINGFIELD, Colo. — Along the plains of eastern Colorado, on a patch of soil where his father once raised alfalfa, Ryan Loflin is growing a leafy green challenge to the nation’s drug laws.

 

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Matthew Staver for The New York Times

As part of regulation, Colorado will be able to randomly test hemp crops to ensure that they have only trace amounts of THC, a chemical in marijuana.

His fields are sown with hemp, a tame cousin of marijuana that was once grown openly in the United States but is now outlawed as a controlled substance. Last year, as Colorado voters legalized marijuana for recreational use, they also approved a measure laying a path for farmers like Mr. Loflin, 40, to once again grow and harvest hemp, a potentially lucrative crop that can be processed into goods as diverse as cooking oil, clothing and building material. This spring, he became the first farmer in Colorado to publicly sow his fields with hemp seed.

“I’m not going to hide anymore,” he said one recent morning after striding through a sea of hip-high plants growing fast under the sun.

Mr. Loflin’s 60-acre experiment is one of an estimated two dozen small hemp plantings sprouting in Colorado. Hemp cultivation presents a vexing problem for the federal government, which draws no distinction between hemp and marijuana, as it decides how to respond to a new era of legalized marijuana in Colorado and Washington State.

State agencies have worked quickly to create new rules, licenses and taxes for hemp and recreational marijuana. Many towns have voted to ban the new retailers; others have decided to regulate them. Denver, for example, is proposing a 5 percent tax on recreational marijuana sales.

Colorado has set up an industrial hemp commission to write rules to register hemp farmers and charge them a fee to grow the crop commercially.

“It’s something that can be copied and used nationally,” said Michael Bowman, a farmer in northeastern Colorado who sits on the state hemp commission. “We’re trying to build a legitimate industry.”

The state will also be able to randomly test crops to ensure that they contain no more than 0.3 percent THC, the psychoactive chemical in marijuana, far below the level found in marijuana.

Opponents say that hemp and marijuana are essentially the same plant and that both contain the same psychoactive substance. But supporters say that comparing hemp with potent strains of marijuana is like comparing a nonalcoholic beer with a bottle of vodka.

Still, farmers and marijuana advocates worry: will drug agents stand on the sidelines and allow Colorado and Washington to pursue their own experiments with legalization? Or will the federal government crack down to assert its authority over drug policies?

A spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Agency in Denver said hemp farmers were “not on our radar,” but R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Obama administration’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, has offered stern words against both marijuana and hemp, saying that no matter what states did, the plants were still illegal in the federal government’s view.

“Hemp and marijuana are part of the same species of cannabis plant,” Mr. Kerlikowske wrote in response to a 2011 petition that sought to legalize hemp cultivation. “While most of the THC in cannabis plants is concentrated in the marijuana, all parts of the plant, including hemp, can contain THC, a Schedule I controlled substance.”

Lately, hemp has been tiptoeing toward the agricultural mainstream, gaining support from farmers’ trade groups and a wide array of politicians in statehouses and in Washington. In the Republican-controlled House, a provision tucked into the farm bill would let universities in hemp-friendly states grow small plots for research.

A handful of states, from liberal Vermont to conservative North Dakota and Kentucky, have voted to allow commercial hemp. In Vermont, any farmers who want to register as hemp growers under a new state program have to sign a form acknowledging that they risk losing their agricultural subsidies, farm equipment and livelihoods if federal agents decide to swoop in.

Every year, the federal authorities seize and destroy millions of marijuana plants — a crackdown that has rattled the medical marijuana industry in California — but the pace of seizures has dropped sharply in recent years. In 2012, federal officials reported that 3.9 million cannabis plants had been destroyed under D.E.A. eradication efforts. A year earlier, officials said they had eradicated 6.7 million plants.

 

Beyond the risk of federal raids and seizures, Kevin Sabet, a former drug policy adviser in the Obama administration, said the market for hemp goods is still vanishingly small and questioned whether it could really be a panacea for farmers.

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Matthew Staver for The New York Times

Ryan Loflin and other hemp farmers walk a precarious line, as the state said it would not authorize planting until next year.                           

“Hemp is the redheaded stepchild of marijuana policy, and probably for good reason,” said Mr. Sabet, who is now the director of the Drug Policy Institute. “In a world with finite capacity to handle drug problems, my advice would be for people to think less about an insignificant issue like hemp and more about the very real issues of drug addiction, marijuana commercialization and glamorization, and how to make our policies work better.”       

Even without the threat of federal raids, transforming hemp into a cash crop will be like asking a clear sky for rain. Viable seeds are illegal and scarce. Few working farmers or experts in the United States have any expertise in growing hemp. And there is basically no infrastructure to process the plants into legal components like oil, fibers and proteins.

In Colorado, Jason Lauve, the executive director of Hemp Cleans, an advocacy group, said he has spoken with about two dozen small farmers and landowners who are cautiously growing their first hemp crops.

“We’re really walking gently,” Mr. Lauve said. “We don’t want to put people at risk. We want to see how much states’ rights really protect us, versus the jurisdiction of the federal government.”

Even here, farmers like Mr. Loflin are walking a precarious line. Although Colorado voters opened the door to hemp farming last year, the state warned would-be hemp farmers in May that they would not be authorized to plant until early in 2014.

But this spring, Mr. Loflin decided it was time. For years, he had read about how hemp could replenish undernourished soil and be woven and squeezed into a wide array of products. He drinks a shot of hemp oil for his health every day — “It tastes kind of like grass” — and believes the plant could one day lift the fortunes of struggling small farmers.

He spent the winter assembling a seed collection from suppliers in Britain, Canada, China and Germany, where hemp is legal. They entered the country via U.P.S., labeled “bird seed” or “toasted hemp seed.” One bag was seized by customs officials, he said. Some 1,500 pounds of seeds were not.

At the end of June, with more than $15,000 invested in the venture, he planted his crop. He said he alerted his neighbors and has not gotten any complaints from people around Springfield, or from federal officials.

When Mr. Loflin visits the farm from his home in western Colorado, he half-expects to see D.E.A. cars racing down Highway 160 to burn down his crop before harvest. But he believes he can stake a living in hemp’s oily seeds and versatile fibers. He has gotten tired of his day job building ski homes in the mountains. To him, hemp’s outlaw status is just another hazard of starting a business.

“It’s well worth the risk,” he said. “It’s hemp. Come on, it just needs to be done.”

Published: August 5, 2013

Derek Cross Speaks to DFW NORML at the Whiskey Girl Saloon July 2013

Hemp, Lifeline to the Future
by Chris Conrad

Hemp in History -- Cannabis sativa, or hemp, is our first known crop, traced back to 8000 B.C. in the Middle East and China. Hemp textiles go back in history as far as pottery.

Hemp was used in sails, caulk and rigging for the ships that opened worldwide commerce. Most paper was made with hemp for 1000s of years. Early American farmers were reqjuired to grow it. Both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were drafted on hemp. Hemp was the world's largest single industry until the mid-1800s. The U.S. government suspended prohibition and had farmers grow a million acres of hemp to stop Hitler during WWII. Many farming and industrial groups support the return of cannabis hemp today.
A New, Multi-Billion Dollar Discovery --With over 50,000 commercial uses, today's hemp is the most versatile, sustainable and valuable natural resource on Earth. Conservative estimates of its profit potential surpass $500 billion per year and tens of thousands of new jobs, once the trade barriers are removed and this valuable cash crop is again allowed to compete. Restoring hemp to its traditional role as the primary source of food, clothing, shelter, fuel, paper, fiber, medicine and other consumer goods will put money into local communities for an ecological and financially stable economy.
Making It With Hemp -- Hemp is the temperate climate zone's most prolific source of plant cellulose: the basic raw material used for plastics, fabrication material, chipboard, fiber board and other construction boards. France makes a concrete substitute from hemp, and Henry Ford once built and powered a car with hemp.
Hemp for Clothing -- Fabrics made from hemp are stronger, more insulative, more absorbent and more durable than cotton. Natural, organic hemp fiber "breathes" and is biodegradable. With minor retooling, our textile mills can spin and weave hemp fiber as smooth as silk, as tough as burlap, or as intricate as lace. While the garment industry was once a thriving part of our U.S. economy, more than half the textiles we use today are imported, due to environmental concerns and labor costs. Since hemp needs less fertilizer and pesticides, we can have those jobs back&endash;without sacrificing our ecology.
Hemp for Paper -- Paper made of hemp lasts much longer than that made of trees, without cracking, yellowing or otherwise deteriorating: It's the "archivist's perfect paper." Processing hemp for paper uses far less chemical acid than does wood. Over a 20 year period, one acre of hemp produces as much pulp as 4.1 acres of forest land.
Hemp for Fuel &endash; The Dept. of the Interior in May, 1991 projected crude oil costs of $40 per barrel within 10 years. Plant "biomass" fuel is cleaner than fossil fuels and can provide gasoline, methane, charcoal, etc. to meet all our home and industrial energy needs. By developing hemp, the most productive energy crop for America's climate, we can have fuel that is both cheaper and cleaner.
Hemp for Jobs -- As new hemp businesses open, so will tens of thousands of new job opportunities. It offers a basis for creating permanent economic health, even in our rural and "rust belt" communities. Using this sustainable resource means real job security. For example, most timber-related jobs are not cutting trees, but the milling, distributing, shipping, sale and use of end products in the construction and clerical fields.
Hemp for Farms -- Hemp is so valuable that it is now subsidized in every European country; a viable cash crop even if grown on depleted land, between crop seasons or sown to enrich the soil of fallow land. It was a major American cash crop until just before the Great Depression. Today we have a crisis of farm foreclosures, but hemp is banned here.
A Medical & Social Herb -- Contrary to some claims, hemp is not a dangerous drug. However, a few seedlines, grown under proper conditions, produce the therapeutically active herb cannabis. These plants stand out from industrial hemp and are easy to identify. They are not important for large scale seed oil, feed, fiber or pulp production.

As medicine, cannabis has about $6 billion per year in pharmaceutical potential for treating millions of people with AIDS, cancer, MS, epilepsy, asthma, cramps, migraine and other conditions. In addition, these people will retain their self respect and economic productivity, which will save society billions in health care and support services.  As a social activity, over 21 million Americans regularly smoke 'marijuana.' Although cannabis is safer than tobacco or alcohol, tens of billions of tax dollars are wasted on its prohibition. This stymies industrial hemp trades, while we pay ever-higher taxes to build prisons and bailout government debts. A lucrative market for safer smoking devices is also suppressed. Meanwhile Holland has a prosperous cannabis concessions industry, and crime rates have gone down. The potential U.S. market for neighborhood "cannabis coffee shops" is over $5 billion per year.

Saving Taxes & Generating New Revenue for Schools and Health Care -- The states can eliminate deficits, balance their budgets and enjoy new revenues in just a few short years if our farms and industry invest in hemp.
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For the first time in Americas history, Team Hemp House is going to be Building a House Made from Americas own Grown Hemp Crop. Jason Lauve is has become Americas voice to bring this Amazing and Never ending Sustainable Resource to life! Jason has asked if I would become a Team Member! I am honored to be part of this Team, and support this Historic Moment in American History, I am asking you to also be part of History and Help Us Build this Home directly from the farm field of America! Please click on the link and join TODAY, feel free to make a small or LARGE donation! Thank you, and please Share!

http://igg.me/at/TeamHempHouse/x/4055728

America Needs this Golden Resource! Industrial Hemp to America! Hemp Farm in Tochigi 栃木の大麻畑 収穫風景と利用方法

Team Hemp House 2013 / Building a Healthy Sustainable Future

  Make American History! Industrial Hemp is growing in Colorado, Team Hemp House will be building a house from that hemp field! This is an historic time in American History my friends.

   I could not be more proud of Mr. Jason Lauve, the true pioneer whom has given this plant life once again to the farm fields of America, not to go unmentioned, the state of Colorado, and Governor Hickenlooper who signed the Industrial Hemp Regulations Bill SB 13-241 into law this year.

   Mr. Lauve has asked me to take part as a Team Member of Team Hemp House. So, I ask you to Help us fund with a small or Large donation to Build History together, you will be glad you did. I am proud to say, I was the first to donate to this movement!

Thank you for your support, and Please share with your friends.
Have a Hemp Healthy Day,
Derek Cross
http://igg.me/at/TeamHempHouse/x/4055728

States are Going Ahead with Industrial Hemp / America is, IN on this Powerful Crop!!!

Vt., 8 states allow hemp growth; fed law conflicts

LISA RATHK, Associated Press

By LISA RATHKE, Associated Press

Updated 11:58 am, Sunday, July 21, 2013

In this June 24, 2013 photo, John Vitko picks strawberries in Warren, Vt. Vitko would like to grow hemp to feed his chickens. Vermont has passed a law allowing farmers to grow hemp used for everything from rope to clothing. But the law clashes with federal rules that ban cultivation of the plant that is a distant cousin of marijuana. Photo: Toby Talbot

 

WAITSFIELD, Vt. (AP) — Some Vermont farmers want to plant hemp now that the state has a law setting up rules to grow the plant, a cousin of marijuana that's more suitable for making sandals than getting high.

But federal law forbids growing hemp without a permit, so farmers could be risking the farm if they decide to grow the plant that the Drug Enforcement Agency basically considers marijuana.

Hemp and marijuana share the same species — cannabis sativa — but hemp has a negligible content of THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana. Under federal law, all cannabis plants fall under the marijuana label, regardless of THC content.

To grow marijuana for industrial purposes or research, a grower must register with the DEA and meet specific security requirements, such as installing costly fencing for a field of hemp.

A national nonprofit group is pushing to change current law and move regulation of hemp farming from the DEA to the state. In the meantime, the group, Vote Hemp, does not recommend growing hemp while state and federal laws conflict.

"It's literally betting the farm," said Tom Murphy, national outreach coordinator for the group. Farmers who grow it, or even conspire to grow it and import the seeds face jail time and the forfeiture of their land, he said. But it's unclear how seriously the DEA will enforce it.

Murphy said he's heard that people have planted hemp on leased land in Colorado.

"Now if somebody chooses to do it as civil disobedience, knowing full well what's going to happen, then that's on them," he said.

So far, 19 states have passed hemp legislation, including nine that allow its production. Eight states have passed bills calling for the study of hemp, while three states passed bills setting up commissions or authorizing the study of it, according to Vote Hemp.

The states hope to nudge the federal government to change its law.

John Vitko would like to grow hemp on his Vermont farm to use as feed for his chickens now that Vermont has passed a law setting up rules to grow it. He doesn't know where to find any seed and knows he would be breaking federal law if he finds some and grows a small amount of the plant.

With the cost of feed continually rising, he said hemp provides an economical way to feed and provide bedding for his 100 birds, whose eggs are used in the custard-based ice cream he sells to restaurants and in a dessert shop in Waitsfield.

"It's one of the few things that are manageable for a small farmer to handle," he said of hemp, which doesn't require large equipment to plant and harvest like corn does.

"It's complete protein," he said. "It has all their amino acids. It's a seed which birds like."

Hemp has been grown in the U.S. in the past to make rope, fabric and even the paper that used to draft the Declaration of Independence. The country even launched a "Hemp for Victory" campaign during World War II as supplies for other overseas fibers dwindled.

Now most hemp products in the U.S. are imported from Canada, China and Europe and some farmers think the U.S. is missing out on a lucrative crop.

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado was granted a request to fly an American flag made of hemp over the capitol in Washington on the Fourth of July. He held the flag during the U.S. House debate in over a hemp amendment to the farm bill that he introduced with Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon. The measure would have allowed colleges and universities to grow hemp for research in states where its cultivation is permitted. The amendment passed but the farm bill failed.

"Support for our recent farm bill amendment demonstrated that there is growing consensus to revisit the antiquated drug laws that now keep U.S. farmers from participating in the $300 million hemp retail market," Blumenauer said. "A hemp flag flown over the Capitol on the Fourth of July is a powerful symbol of this reform movement."

The figure Blumenauer referenced comes from a Congressional Research Service report that says the industry estimates that U.S. retail sales of hemp-based products may exceed $300 million per year.

The bill that Democratic Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin signed into law last month is intended to push the federal government to change its law after Canada reintroduced industrial hemp in the late 1990s.

"The reason we want to push for a change is that hemp is potentially a valuable crop," said Democratic Rep. Caroline Partridge, chairwoman of the Vermont House Committee on Agriculture and Forest Products. "People want to grow it. Hemp oil is a valuable product, and there's so much of the hemp plant that can be used for very, very productive purposes,"

The Vermont law sets up procedures and policies for growing hemp. A grower must register with the state agriculture secretary and provide a statement that seeds used do not exceed a certain concentration of THC.

The grower also must allow the hemp crops to be inspected and tested at the discretion of the Agriculture Agency, which warns growers that cultivating and possessing hemp in Vermont is a violation of federal law.

It's too late this growing season in Vermont for Vitko to grow hemp, but he hopes to plant just an acre of the plant next spring if the rules are worked out.

"I'm going to be a little farmer that's growing hemp, they've got bigger problems than me," he said of the DEA.

Derek Cross of Hemp Healthy Today Speaks at #DFWNormlCon

  America needs this Vital Crop for a SUSTAINABLE FUTURE!
Please share with your friends, lets (Help Educate More People). The environment can heal when we apply the right methods, and make the changes for humanity!

  I would like to thank, DFW NORML and the other Cannabis Organizations out Educating the public about this versatile Crop: Medicine, Fuel, Fiber, and Food.

  I am amazed at how many people I come in contact with that are unaware of all the beneficial wonders this PLANT has to offer.  I have been Educating ALL Ages of people about the Economic impact as well as the  Environmental issues Industrial Hemp has to offer.

  I urge the Farmers of America to Bring Hemp back to our fields once again, by contacting their Representatives and Congressman!  

Please, Be Hemp Healthy Today with me. Let's make the difference Today for the Future of Tomorrow!

Derek Cross / Industrial Hemp Interview on WFDL 1170 AM with Greg Stensland!

 (The interview from July 12, 2013)
http://www.radioplusinfo.com/Between-The-LInes-Podcast/16168510



  This is a Great interview, letting the Farmers know that Industrial Hemp is on its way back to the Soils of America!

  I urge the Farmers to talk to their Representatives, and Congressmen to Bring back this Vital, and SUSTAINABLE Crop!

Incase you missed my Radio Interview with Greg Stensland from WFDL 1170 AM Radio here is a short cut to it from 7-12-13 labeled Hemp Cooking!

 

Check it out and listen for the announcement at the end!

Please leave me comments and questions. ...

 

A BIG Thank you out to: Greg, T.D. and the rest of the Radio Plus Crew!