Hemp: The Solution for America's Greening Economy
Let’s do an experiment. Access in your mind everything you are wearing and what it’s made out of.
Now think about the last time you bathed. What kind of soap did you use?
Look at the paper you’re reading these words on. What is it made out of?
Finally, what did you eat today? Was it organic and healthy? Did you answer “hemp” for any of these questions? If you did, kudos to you for saving the planet by just being yourself—you’re a remarkable environmentalist.
We at Vote Hemp, a non-profit hemp advocacy group, salute your conscious consumer choices. You deserve a tax cut for all the savings to the planet’s ecosystems you are generating.
Oh, you’re not eating, wearing and bathing in hemp? Well that’s cool, because if you’re reading this, you can make a change to green your life today.
If you are having a hard time answering any of the questions above, you’re not alone. The vast majority of Americans are consuming unhealthy, synthetic products every day. While more people want a greener lifestyle, chances are that you’re wearing at least some petrochemical-based clothing (or cotton sprayed with chemical pesticides), you bathed in petroleum-based detergent soaps, the paper in your hand came from trees, and the food you ate wasn’t as nutritious as it could have been.
Because those products are not organic, biodegradable, or sustainable, they negatively impact the environment long after we are through with them and make it harder for people to have a healthy diet.
The big question in the media this year has been how to be a consumer and not destroy ourselves and the planet at the same time. How do we feed, clothe, and house a rapidly multiplying global population organically and sustainably?
How do we print paper and not sacrifice forests? How do we get easily digestible protein and nutritious omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs) into our diets without eating meat or fish?
Cannabis, perhaps the most versatile plant known to humans, has been grown for thousands of years to make everything from durable fabric, nutritious food, and a plethora of environmentally friendly products. Because nearly everything can be made out of hemp and none of the plant goes to waste, it’s the crop America needs to grow if we are to maximize our farmland while reducing pressure to cultivate and chop down all our remaining wild places.
Yet in America, farmers will be sent to jail if they grow hemp, which today is legally imported into the U.S. at a value of $330 million a year.
It’s not a surprise that the media and major corporations have recently figured out that the answer to creating many needed environmental improvements in our lives can be found in hemp. Hemp is not grown in the U.S. because the federal government continues to ban it, along with its cousin, marijuana. Essentially, our greener future is on hold because of a 51-year-old irrational fear held by politicians in Washington, DC which says that if we legalized hemp, children will be corrupted and smoke even more pot than they already do. Should we settle for the next president irrationalizing that a healthy hemp breakfast cereal eaten by an eco-conscious child wearing hemp clothing that is durable and biodegradable is justification for a war on farmers and our economy?
So are you ready to do something about this? Then it’s time to make conscious decisions about how and where you spend your money.
With more hemp products in the marketplace than ever before, it is possible to be a consumer without contributing to ground water pollution from pesticides or discarded formaldehyde-treated plywood. A discarded hemp fiber board is 100 percent biodegradable and renewable every year. Paper, auto parts and building materials are just a few of the innovative uses of hemp stalks that now must be imported from other countries such as Canada, China, and Germany.
Hemp is a crop that in one season can simultaneously feed, clothe, fuel and save our forests and doesn’t require pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. Hemp leaves the farmer’s field in good shape for the next crop, too.
So why is hemp banned? Marijuana remains illegal because of the fear that it is a dangerous drug. The same can’t be said of non-drug cannabis which has no drug potential, because it contains only trace amounts of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive substance found in marijuana. It’s not clear exactly why it is banned. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), there is no difference between hemp and marijuana. Drug enforcement officials have also argued that if hemp were legalized, marijuana plants could be hidden among their harmless cousins. The problem with that argument is that no marijuana grower would dare do so. Grown together, marijuana plants would soon be pollinated by the hemp plants, turning the buds into seed pods. While the DEA serves the public in many ways, like reducing the unlawful sale of legal prescription drugs, this federal agency, which is responsible for regulating controlled substances, they couldn’t be more wrong about hemp.
More than 30 industrialized nations grow hemp for popular products, including cosmetics, auto body parts and dietary supplements. Walk into health food stores and you’ll find many hemp products like bread, cereal, non-dairy milk, energy bars, salad dressing, protein powder, and shelled hemp nut, which can be used in thousands of recipes.
Some people are calling hemp the new soy because it’s rich in protein and is actually far healthier as a great source of omega-3 essential fatty acids, which help to promote normal cell function.
Once you get past the confusion over the fact that hemp is not a drug, there remains no rational argument against industrial hemp. It is the answer that can lead us to a sustainable future.
News Hawk: User: http://www.420magazine.com/
Source: Vote Hemp
Author: Adam Eidinger
Copyright: 2008 Vote Hemp
Contact: Industrial Hemp Information and Advocacy - Vote Hemp
Website: Industrial Hemp Information and Advocacy - Vote Hemp
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