http://www.420magazine.com/forums/ Hemp News Updated Daily! en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:41:02 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.420magazine.com/forums/images_greenish/misc/rss.jpg http://www.420magazine.com/forums/ http://www.420magazine.com/forums/hemp-news/106265-car-parts-made-hemp.html Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:41:48 GMT (Natural News) PSA, the French manufacturer for Peugeot and Citroen, has recently initiated its Green Materials Plan. This plan intends to increase car parts made from natural materials 600 percent by 2015. They are making a few parts now that are based on flax and hemp.

PSA's Green Materials Plan focuses on three areas: Biopolymers to replace plastics derived from oil; Natural fibers from flax and hemp mixed with other materials, such as wood chips; And recycled materials from shredded plastic bottles mixed with glass fibers.

The plastic interior door panels made by PSA are already 50 percent flax fibers pressed with wood chips. Other parts, including mirror and windshield wiper mountings, use hemp instead of glass fiber in their material mix.

Oil based plastics in cars make up to 20 percent of a car's weight on average. Of that 20 percent, only six percent is currently green or cellulose based. PSA's goal is to increase that six percent to 30 percent of the plastic used.

Hemp is legal in France, so further advances with hemp for car parts may unfold. Laurent Bechin, PSA's natural-fibers specialist, pointed out that the hemp used does not produce marijuana. "It would need about two tons of this material to produce one joint", he quipped.

Hemp and flax for building cars is not new. It was actually done in the USA by Henry Ford while hemp was legal in 1941. The experimental model's body was seventy percent made of fibers from field straw, cotton fibers, hemp, and flax. The other 30 percent consisted of soy meal and bio-resin fillers.

Ford's successful prototype was tagged as the vegetable or hemp car.

Ford's motivation was green-based for two reasons. He wanted to increase agricultural involvement for materials in the automotive industry to improve the farmers' economic plight. And he wanted to build lighter, stronger cars with better fuel efficiency.

The car weighed 2000 pounds compared to 3000 pounds for similar all-steel automobiles. In 1941, ethanol had a higher octane and was cheaper to produce than gasoline. Ford designed the car to run on partial or complete ethanol fuels.

But steel and oil magnates lobbied government to ensure Ford's vision would never manifest.



News Hawk- Weedpipe http://www.420Magazine.com
Source: Natural News Network
Author: Paul Louis
Contact: Independent news on natural health, nutrition and more
Copyright: Natural News Network © 2009
Website:Car parts made from hemp ]]> Hemp News Weedpipe http://www.420magazine.com/forums/hemp-news/106265-car-parts-made-hemp.html http://www.420magazine.com/forums/hemp-news/105783-hemp-making-comeback-despite-idiotic-pot-laws.html Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:47:01 GMT The symptoms and side effects of reefer madness are now clearer than ever.

Politicians, even those who never inhaled, suffer paranoid delusions. Over the past century, Canada's ludicrous and draconian marijuana policies wasted billions in criminal-justice resources.

Crime gangs got rich and recreational marijuana users--about as dangerous as contented cats--were fined and jailed by the thousands.

But that's only half of it. What we now know is that the government's marijuana paranoia cost this country a cash crop of boundless potential.

I don't mean marijuana, though some of us wish pot was grown and taxed by government so the windfall could enrich society instead of gangsters.

I refer instead to hemp, a benign super-plant and casualty of Canada's war on drugs.

Fortunately, hemp is finally making a comeback, in part because of the work of the Alberta Research Council.

ARC plant physiologist Jan Slaski is as keen on hemp as he is tired of reefer jokes.

Slaski isn't laughing, he says, because the jokes only perpetuate a bad myth.

Hemp, or industrial hemp as Slaski calls it, is not marijuana. Two different plants.

Slaski says the hardy hemp plant has been cultivated for more than 8,000 years. Its plant fibres were used in everything from clothes to shoes to rope. Its seed oil is rich in health Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids.

When Ukrainian settlers came to Canada, they brought hemp seeds. One record in the archives talked about pioneers using hemp to create a soothing tea.

But while industrial hemp has some of the psycho-active THC found in marijuana, the amounts are far less intoxicating than all-ages, de-alcoholized beer.

Slaski says THC concentrations in hemp are a fraction--one per cent or less--of that in marijuana. You'd die of smoke inhalation trying to get high.

Still, one of the research council's aims is to breed a hemp plant with no detectable THC. Why? Because of marijuana paranoia.

In 1998, 60 years after the feds prohibited the growing of hemp as part of its war on drugs, controlled plots were again allowed.

Modern hemp growers had to jump through high hoops, including a criminal record check and detailed licence application to Health Canada.

The lingering hemp hysteria is summed up nicely by one of Health Canada's rules: No hemp can be grown within one kilometre of a school.

So why is the research council working so hard to redeem hemp? Well, because of its potential to not only give Alberta farmers an economic edge, but also help save the environment.

Hemp literally grows like a weed. It can reach or exceed three metres in height during our short growing season.

It produces biomass--usable plant material--like nothing else.

Researchers have yet to identify a pest threat to hemp. It's early season vigour allows it to out-compete weeds. So unlike cereal crops, hemp is organic, requiring no pesticide applications.

"It truly is a super crop," Slaski says.

Forget hemp's healthy food-oil potential for a moment. That may come if people can get over the fear of taking a trip on hemp-fried foods.

But the fibre from hemp could be used in everything from pulp-and-paper to textiles. Alberta is only one of many jurisdictions in the world that clear-cuts forests for pulp.

Forest companies must travel further and further from the pulp mill to retrieve feed stock, which then takes at least 60 years to regrow.

Put enough hemp in production and you'd get an annual, renewable fibre supply for paper production.

Hemp could also replace cotton, which requires large applications of pesticides. Hemp could also replace glass fibre, which is used in the making of composite materials, like plastics for the automotive industry.

Glass fibre requires high heat and energy in its industrial production. Hemp? Rain and sun. Glass fibres aren't biodegradable like hemp. Hemp fibres are lighter. Lighter cars require less fuel.

The use of hemp in composite plastics is being studied in earnest by the ARC. Slaski has talked to automakers who say they'll sign contracts if hemp composites meet strict requirements. And if production levels can be guaranteed.

The first requirement is being met ARC labs. But we're a long way from widespread hemp farming, largely because of its undeserved reputation.

But then again, marijuana also has an undeserved reputation. It's obvious to anyone who looks objectively at the facts that marijuana causes less harm than alcohol, both to the individual and society.

Is marijuana safe? Any psychoactive substance can be abused. But marijuana doesn't kill brain cells or inspire violence like alcohol does.

So when you consider how this society promotes and celebrates the use of a more dangerous drug, alcohol, our marijuana policies appear silly.

But even sillier is that industrial hemp got caught up in the madness.

In case you're wondering, the answer is no. I don't smoke pot. I tried it as a teenager but I found it made me paranoid.


News Hawk- Ganjarden http://www.420Magazine.com
Source: Edmonton Journal
Author: Scott McKeen
Contact: Edmonton Journal
Copyright: 2009 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Website: Hemp Making A Comeback Despite Idiotic Pot Laws ]]> Hemp News Ganjarden http://www.420magazine.com/forums/hemp-news/105783-hemp-making-comeback-despite-idiotic-pot-laws.html http://www.420magazine.com/forums/hemp-news/105118-unconventional-crop-hemp-could-sprout-new-industry.html Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:10:09 GMT EDMONTON, AB — As combines mowed farmers’ fields across Canadian prairies this fall, there was a scene near Edmonton right out of a time warp: – a crew of workers actually using their hands to harvest plants.

The workers were taking down three-metre-tall hemp plants at a breeding nursery outside of Vegreville, AB. The plants, which dwarfed the workers, were being bundled, numbered, bagged and transported to researchers, who see a high-tech future for the ancient plant.

The Alberta Research Council (ARC) is working to help hemp find its way into everything from homes to cars to clothes. It’s part of a campaign to see our agriculture and forestry industries compete in the global push for sustainable products.

“ARC is evaluating hemp as a fibre crop for mature, large-scale industries looking for green products,” ARC crop and plant physiologist, Jan Slaski said. “Alberta’s soil and climate are perfectly suited for growing hemp crops.

“We analyze the seed and plant for biomass and fibre yield, as part of the breeding program for creating the perfect industrial hemp,” he added. ARC uses advanced breeding techniques to develop traits such as water- and nitrogen-use efficiency, with no useable trace of the psychoactive compound THC, which is found in marijuana. It is hoped the breeding program will ultimately lead to a stronger plant with a bigger yield.

In ARC’s Edmonton facility, advanced materials program leader John Wolodko picked up a boat part made from material pressed from hemp and plastic. “This is traditionally made from fiberglass,” he said. “Products made from biocomposites work as well as those made from conventional materials, with the advantages of being lighter and less expensive. The ability of environmentally friendly products to compete with non-renewable products like fiberglass makes for a competitive and promising future for the biocomposites industry.”

Slaski and Wolodko are part of ARC’s biofibre development team, the largest of its kind in Canada, offering solutions from “seed to final product.” Hemp is only one aspect of the biofibre program, but its unrivalled fibre and biomass yield make the fast-growing and versatile crop a potential biocomposite superstar. While wheat straw yields about three tonnes of fibre per hectare, hemp weighs in at 10 to 15 tonnes.

Slaski peeled a hemp stalk, held the outer fibre in both hands and yanked with force. The fibre is unrelenting. The peeled outer and inner layers each have different industry potential. Applications for the resilient, long outer (bast) fibre include car parts, textiles, reinforced cement and panel boards for construction. Hemp’s inner core (hurd) fibre, only a half-millimeter long, has recently seen an increase in demand. “It is appealing as an absorbent for the oil and gas industry or bedding for livestock operations, since it has no dust,” Slaski said.

Alberta’s new ally for the agriculture and forestry industries is the Alberta Biomaterials Development Centre (ABDC), a $15-million facility set up by the province to bring advanced products and sustainable solutions to market. “The hemp processing challenge is an example of where ABDC will fill technical gaps in processing biomaterials and business gaps to get products to market faster,” ARC business development manager Richard Gibson said.

ABDC offers access to expertise, test facilities, scale-up equipment, validation prototyping and customer-demonstration support. “Bio-industrial entrepreneurs will be able to test their business cases at ABDC,” Alberta Agriculture program leader and ABDC spokesperson Trevor Kloeck said. “Industry will have access to staff and specialized equipment, such as technology used to separate the different hemp fibres. Then the market applications are endless.”

ABDC’s resources work in tandem with those at ARC to form a bridge between the field and the final product. “We have a patent-pending decortication process. This technology produces 10 to 50 mm-length fibres, for biocomposite products and pulp and paper applications,” says ARC research engineer Laura McIlveen. “ABDC has slightly different technology: a long-line decorticator, which processes one-third-metre-length fibre at one tonne an hour.” Both technologies are available through ABDC for pilot scale market assessments.

Hemp is currently grown in Alberta for the high-quality oil niche market. But the case for using a new and improved strain of hemp for a broad range of products is becoming stronger by the day. “It also makes sense to include hemp in rotation with wheat and canola,” Slaski said, “since it can reduce the spread of disease and increase the life of the fertility of the soil.”

That could mean that scene out of the time warp will vanish, as hemp becomes a lucrative industrial crop, harvested with high-tech machinery to provide solutions for green products.



News Hawk- Weedpipe http://www.420Magazine.com
Source: Troy Media Corporation
Contact: Troy Media Corporation
Copyright: 2009 - Troy Media Corporation
Website:Unconventional crop ? hemp – could sprout new industry | Troy Media Corporation ]]> Hemp News Weedpipe http://www.420magazine.com/forums/hemp-news/105118-unconventional-crop-hemp-could-sprout-new-industry.html http://www.420magazine.com/forums/hemp-news/105061-hemp-seed-may-have-potential-poultry-feed.html Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:38:36 GMT Researchers with the University of Manitoba are confident the nutritional benefits of hemp seed in human food products can be effectively applied to livestock rations, reports Bruce Cochrane for Farmscap Canada. Hemp products are not currently approved for use in any class of livestock diet but... Researchers with the University of Manitoba are confident the nutritional benefits of hemp seed in human food products can be effectively applied to livestock rations, reports Bruce Cochrane for Farmscap Canada.

Hemp products are not currently approved for use in any class of livestock diet but hemp-based products are widely used in human nutrition.

To generate data to support the registration of hemp products in livestock rations researchers are evaluating the safety and effectiveness of hemp seed as a feed ingredient in poultry diets.

Dr Jim House, the head of the University of Manitoba's Department of Human Nutritional Sciences, says studies have shown hemp protein to be highly digestible and that should carry over to most major classes of livestock.

“Right now we're looking at 3 different classes of hemp products - the hemp seed, the hemp oil and the hemp meal or the protein concentrate,” House said at Farmscape.

“We're looking at doing production trials in both laying hens and in broiler chickens and generating data on performance, on any issues related to health indices and we're also going to be collecting data on the quality of the eggs and on the meats of the broiler chickens.”

“Once we've got all that data we'll be able to generate significant evidence in support of the use of hemp in livestock diets, in particular poultry diets at this stage.”

Omega-3 fatty acids

Another unique aspect that House and his co-workers are going to look at is because hemp is a nice oil in terms of its fatty acid composition, it has a significant amount of omega-3, in particular the alpha-Linolenic acid.

“We're looking to see whether of not the use of hemp seed or hemp oil will allow us to make claims relative to omega-3 content within either boiler meat or in eggs... This carries over from some studies that we're also doing looking at omega-3 enrichment in poultry products.”

Dr House is confident the nutritional benefits of hemp products in human nutrition can be applied to poultry as well as to other livestock species.


News Hawk- Ganjarden http://www.420Magazine.com
Source: World Poultry
Contact: World Poultry
Copyright: 2009 Reed Business
Website: Hemp Seed May Have Potential In Poultry Feed ]]> Hemp News Ganjarden http://www.420magazine.com/forums/hemp-news/105061-hemp-seed-may-have-potential-poultry-feed.html http://www.420magazine.com/forums/hemp-news/104846-first-montana-license-grow-hemp-issued-woman.html Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:00:58 GMT Montana this month issued its first license for an industrial hemp-growing operation to a woman who said she wants to develop a domestic market for the plant despite federal law barring its cultivation. Laura Murphy, of Bozeman, was the first to apply for the two-year license since the state... Montana this month issued its first license for an industrial hemp-growing operation to a woman who said she wants to develop a domestic market for the plant despite federal law barring its cultivation.

Laura Murphy, of Bozeman, was the first to apply for the two-year license since the state Legislature approved hemp's commercial cultivation in 2001.

Federal law prohibits such activity, but the license issued by the Montana Agriculture Department on Oct. 14 could challenge whether the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is willing to override the state.

Hemp is similar to illegal marijuana but without the mind-altering ingredient of the drug. It is grown in parts of Canada and Europe and has a range of uses, from fibers for clothing to a source of biofuels.

Murphy called the application process "pretty easy."

"I went in and had a criminal history check and fingerprints and said I had land to grow it on," she said. "They didn't have an official license for me; it's just a letter."

She said she intends to lease 160 acres of unused ranch land near Ennis and is trying to arrange contracts with buyers.

Murphy, 42, said she is a former dog groomer who works as the office manager for a Bozeman medical marijuana business. She said there would be a separation between that business, which is run by her fiance, and the planned hemp growing operation.

The Obama administration last week loosened guidelines on federal prosecution of medical marijuana operations, which grow potent forms of the plant used to treat Parkinson's disease, chronic pain, glaucoma and other ailments.

The Justice Department told federal prosecutors that targeting people who use or provide medical marijuana in compliance with state laws was not a good use of their time.

Montana applied to the DEA in 2002 for recognition of the state's hemp growing law. The request was denied, but Montana Agriculture Department attorney Cort Jensen said it could be reconsidered now that a license has gone out.

"Obviously hemp is a little different than ordinary marijuana, but they have declined in the past," he said. In the meantime, he added: "We will administer the state law."

In her license, Murphy was warned by Jensen that "growing hemp is still illegal."

"You still need to get permission from the Drug Enforcement Agency in order to grow it without facing the possibility of federal charges or property confiscation," he wrote.

DEA spokesman Mike Turner said federal drug agents will be watching to see if Murphy moves ahead without the federal permit _ something she said she has no intention to seek.

"We try to concentrate our investigations on major criminal organizations that traffic drugs. That's our priority," Turner said. "We can't speculate about what's going to happen until somebody actually does something."

He said some hemp operations had received clearance to grow after installing fencing and security to prevent public access, but he could not say how many permits have been issued.

Jensen also said that if she wished to use pesticides, Murphy would have to make arrangements through the Agriculture Department since none is currently approved for hemp.

The advocacy group Vote Hemp lists Montana as one of nine states that have removed barriers to hemp production or research.

Angela Goodhope with the Montana Hemp Council said the license given to Murphy marks "a big deal as far as state's rights go."

"The wheels are turning to allow our farmers to have another good alternative rotational crop," Goodhope said.


NewsHawk: User: http://www.420magazine.com/
Source: phillyburbs.com
Author: MATTHEW BROWN
Copyright: 2009 Calkins Media Incorporated
Contact: phillyBurbs.com: Contact us
Website: PhillyBurbs.com: 1st Mont. license to grow hemp issued to woman ]]> Hemp News User http://www.420magazine.com/forums/hemp-news/104846-first-montana-license-grow-hemp-issued-woman.html http://www.420magazine.com/forums/hemp-news/104518-bill-revives-kentucky-hemp-industry.html Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:00:33 GMT Not so many years ago in the United States, the hemp plant was widely grown for its fiber and seed. But hemp has fallen out of favor in the United States, partly due to its close relation to marijuana. Cultivating either is illegal, although that may change. Kentucky, once one of the leading hemp... Not so many years ago in the United States, the hemp plant was widely grown for its fiber and seed. But hemp has fallen out of favor in the United States, partly due to its close relation to marijuana. Cultivating either is illegal, although that may change. Kentucky, once one of the leading hemp producers in the nations, is looking to revive the industry. Angela Hatton has the story.

Shirts, bags, jewelry, and twine are among the hemp merchandise that Murray retail store owner Valerie Hancock sells.

"I don't pick things because they're hemp, but I know that I have customers that come in who look specifically for hemp items or items that do contain hemp."

Hancock says the hemp for her products is cultivated and refined overseas, in countries like Turkey and Tibet. However, legislation headed for the 2010 Kentucky General Assembly would allow Hancock to buy her hemp from regional farmers. Senator Joey Pendleton of Hopkinsville is sponsoring a measure to legalize industrial hemp. Pendleton has backed the bill before, but he says this time is different.

"Now that the federal government is saying we're going to give it back to the states; if they want to legalize it and be able to grow it, that's up to them.' And that's why I got excited about it, and I think honestly that's the reason you're seeing this thing's catching on now."

Pendleton expects the Obama administration to formally announce in November or December that it will not interfere with a state's desire to legalize hemp. Pendleton believes Kentucky would greatly benefit from hemp production. Advocates for the plant point to its many uses over 25,000 to date according to information from to the North American Industrial Hemp Council. Those uses include cosmetics, car door panels, sun tan lotion and pressboard. As the Commonwealth focuses on a renewable energy plan, Pendleton says he's become interested in hemp's use as a bio-fuel.

"You make more bio-diesel or ethanol from an acre of hemp than you can from an acre of corn."

In the past, Pendleton says he's heard outcry from law enforcement at the proposition of legalizing hemp, but not so this time.

"But I think they're understanding more. Now the industrial hemp doesn't have the THC that the smoking kind has."

Hemp leaves contain less than one percent of the psychoactive chemical tetrahydrocannabinol, while marijuana leaves contain three to twenty percent THC. But not so fast, says Kentucky State Police spokesman Trooper John Hawkins. He says the KSP still very much opposes industrial hemp. Hawkins says it and marijuana are the same species, cannabis sativa.

"It's very difficult for us to determine by sight which one is hemp and which one is marijuana. So from an eradication standpoint it would make our job much more difficult."

Also Hawkins says the results of cross pollination between hemp and marijuana aren't known.

"You may get a lower THC content in marijuana, but you also may get a higher content with the hemp plant."

Senator Pendleton says this wouldn't be an issue because illegal drug growers wouldn't want to take the risk of diluting their crop. According to hemp farmers, their plant is usually harvested before the buds that contain THC develop. Farmers also plant hemp close together, further distinguishing it from marijuana, where plots are spread out.

Even though the organization opposes industrial hemp, Hawkins says the KSP won't move to block the measure.

"We just don't do that. If the legislature requests information from the state police, we'll provide that."

Pendleton believes Kentucky stands poised on the frontlines of hemp production, with a growing season twice as long as Canada's, the state's potential rival to the north. They've been cultivating hemp for over a decade. Other states too, including North Dakota and Maine, are working toward their own hemp infrastructures. In Kentucky, Pendleton says the hemp issue is win-win.

"I think with the way the economy is now, the agriculture community is looking for another crop. We're looking at biomass as to have an alternative there to corn. And then people are looking at number of people that's laid off; this will create jobs to get factories to come here to make things out of the product."

The 2010 General Assembly is still months ahead and there's no way to know for sure what greeting the hemp bill will receive in the legislature. But if Pendleton and his supporters are correct, this could be one seed that doesn't die on the Senate floor.


News Hawk- Ganjarden http://www.420Magazine.com
Source: WKMS
Author: Angela Hatton
Contact: WKMS
Copyright: 2009 WKMS
Website: Bill Revives Kentucky Hemp Industry ]]> Hemp News Ganjarden http://www.420magazine.com/forums/hemp-news/104518-bill-revives-kentucky-hemp-industry.html http://www.420magazine.com/forums/hemp-news/104453-could-time-pass-industrial-hemp-law.html Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:17:13 GMT Will U.S. farmers one day be able to grow industrial hemp? North Dakota and Montana are two of nine states that have approved legislation allowing industrial hemp farming or its research. Minnesota is among 28 states that have introduced legislation at some point to allow farmers to grow hemp. ... Will U.S. farmers one day be able to grow industrial hemp?

North Dakota and Montana are two of nine states that have approved legislation allowing industrial hemp farming or its research. Minnesota is among 28 states that have introduced legislation at some point to allow farmers to grow hemp.

In Minnesota, researchers are looking at developing a totally THC-free hemp plant. University of Minnesota researchers have identified the genes that produce THC, the psycho-active substance in marijuana, a distant cousin of hemp.

Even though industrial hemp cannot get anyone high, these researchers are studying the genes to help produce a more acceptable hemp plant for producers to grow. It could also lead to new and better drugs for pain, nausea and other conditions.

North Dakota was the first state to ever pass industrial hemp farming legislation, the first state to regulate industrial farming, the first state to issue licenses, and the first state to approve growing industrial hemp varieties at its land grant university for eventual use by state farmers.


Farmers in the Upper Plains are in a unique position to grow industrial hemp as it is a cooler season type crop and it has been grown successfully right across the northern border in Canada.

They have seen the crop first-hand, and would like to be able to add it to their rotations. It produces a high quality oilseed, and with its height and mass, could one day be an ideal candidate for cellulosic ethanol.

There is currently a proposed bill in the U.S. House called the the Hemp Farming Act of 2009. If passed, that bill would allow U.S. farmers to grow the crop.

Currently, hemp can be imported and the raw product can be used in all sorts of goods including clothing, food with high Omega 3s, 6s and 9s, auto paneling, building components, and more. Like sunflowers and canola, industrial hemp yields a highly desirable top oil.

This could be the time to pass industrial hemp farming legislation. The current administration has sent out a directive asking federal agencies to respect state rights.

The actual directive from President Obama stated, “Executive departments and agencies should be mindful that in our federal system, the citizens of the several states have distinctive circumstances and values, and that in many instances it is appropriate for them to apply to themselves rules and principles that reflect these circumstances and values. As Justice Brandeis explained more than 70 years ago, ‘it is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country'.”

Applied to industrial hemp farming, that means that states ought to be able to pass legislation regarding hemp farming.

If a state such as North Dakota wants industrial hemp farming for its states' producers and is willing to regulate it, why should the federal Drug Enforcement Agency care?

North Dakota has been fighting for industrial hemp farming for two decades. Past governors and past Legislatures have all supported it. It is well understood that there is so tiny of a drug connection to the crop that it is miniscule at best.

Industrial hemp is simply a viable, productive, profitable rotational crop that can help break up the disease cycle. There are willing businesses in the U.S. who will pay well for the oilseed.

Potentially, with the federal push for energy independence, it could be an ideal biomass for cellulosic ethanol.

Clothing manufacturers could also be interested in the hemp fiber. It lasts longer and is tougher than cotton. That could be another industry that could be brought back to America if farmers could grow the crop right here in the U.S.

Presumably, one of the main reasons it has not been part of the discussions in other states surrounding North Dakota is that there is little point in passing legislation when the feds don't allow it.

With grain prices taking a dive this year, agriculture could certainly use a boost in terms of another good rotational crop. This could be the ideal time to pass this bill.

The buyers are there. Every other industrial nation grows it and exports it. Why not the U.S.?


News Hawk- Ganjarden http://www.420Magazine.com
Source: The Prairie Star
Contact: The Prairie Star
Copyright: 2009 The Prairie Star
Website: This Could Be The Time To Pass Industrial Hemp Law ]]> Hemp News Ganjarden http://www.420magazine.com/forums/hemp-news/104453-could-time-pass-industrial-hemp-law.html http://www.420magazine.com/forums/hemp-news/104335-hemp-lots-could-one-climate-solution.html Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:03:04 GMT In New Zealand, the tiny political party Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party (ALCP) promotes a platform that it says can "reverse" damaging climate change by planting hundreds of thousands of hectares of cannabis hemp, ALCP says, at a density of around 300 plants per square meter, to replace NZ's energy and fuel needs.

Yes, it sounds far-fetched, especially since in the US farmers have labored long and hard to get lawmakers to stop confusing non-cannabis industrial hemp grown for its myriad uses in industrial fibers and foods with its cannabis cousin.

Longtime hemp activist Jack Herer is offering $100,00 to anyone who can disprove his hypothesis that hemp is a silver bullet for climate change. Here's Herer:
If all fossil fuels and their derivatives, as well as trees for paper and construction, were banned in order to save the planet, reverse the Greenhouse Effect and stop deforestation, then there is only one known annually renewable natural resource that is capable of providing the overall majority of the world's paper and textiles; meet all of the world's transportation, industrial and home energy needs, while simultaneously reducing pollution, rebuilding the soil and cleaning the atmosphere all at the same time. That substance is the same one that has done it before: Cannabis Hemp.

Herer's mixing of cannabis hemp with industrial hemp is a little unfortunate, for according to Hemp Global Solutions, hemp could be a good short term climate tool, because the crop is rapid-growing for carbon dioxide uptake, less vulnerable to climate variations than agro-forestry, and might be a good cash crop for farmers. HGS calculates each ton of hemp grown represents 1.63 tons of CO2 absorption.

Whether in the U.S. the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009 can come to a vote during this session is uncertain. But Jack Herer isn't the only person to espouse hemp. Dr. Bronner's president, David Bronner, is among a small group of hemp farmers hoping to get more coverage for the bill.

Eight states (including Oregon as the most recent) have allowed industrial (non cannabis) hemp research or production, but thus far implementation has been hampered by the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Bronner, whose company has used hemp oil in its products for over a decade, was arrested in Washington, DC last week for planting hemp on the DEA front lawn. He said he'd rather buy his hemp from U.S. farmers instead of importing it, and "save on both import and freight charges."


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Source: huffingtonpost.com
Author: Graham Hill
Copyright: 2009 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
Contact: Contact us
Website: Graham Hill: Hemp, and Lots of It, Could Be One Climate Solution ]]> Hemp News User http://www.420magazine.com/forums/hemp-news/104335-hemp-lots-could-one-climate-solution.html