Saving the Farm Economy with Hemp

by Ben Masel

I passed an earlier version of this at a Clinton-Gore appearancein LaCrosse a month ago. Went over well with older folks, farmers. Feel free to reprint, give your address

HOW THE NEXT PRESIDENT CAN SAVE THE FARM ECONOMY

(and balance the budget, and protect the environment)

America cannot return to prosperity without restoring prosperity to its farmers. Subsidies are not the answer, as they only lead to further overproduction of food crops the market doesn't want. We must move toward high yielding agricultural crops as primary feedstocks for industry.

PROTECTIONISM IN REVERSE

Hemp, the single most prolific and versatile plant for these uses is off limits to the American farmer. Russian farmers typically yield 5 tons of hemp stalk per acre per year. They lack modern factories for turning hemp into useful products. The Dutch government has invested $20 million in a research project to develop improved strains and machinery. Unless a similar effort is undertaken here we will find ourselves once again aced out of huge markets.

PAPER

Hemp outyields trees at least 3 to 1. Because of its higher cellulose content, hemp requires less chemical processing, and thus has lower costs and pollution, according to the Dutch Studies.* Last year the first shiploads of Brazilian eucalyptus pulp unloaded at the Port of Green Bay. The US Department of Agriculture has promoted kenaf, a traditional African fiber plant as a paper alternative. Two years ago Pat LeMahieu, a former agronomy researcher at the UW-Madison now director of operations with Agrecol, achieved an impressive 6 ton per acre yield of kenaf. In the Feb 8, 1991 Isthmus, (Madison's weekly,) LeMahieu said hemp has higher quality fiber, more potential uses, the ability to withstand cold better, and possibly higher yields. "If it weren't for the alkaloids [psychoactive ingredients] in hemp, we wouldn't even be talking about kenaf." Hemp is also far more drought resistant than Kenaf.

FIBER

Historically hemp supplied fabrics from the finest linens to the sails for seagoing ships. (Canvass is the Old Dutch word for cannabis.) Cotton, with only 1/3 the fiber yield, is the most chemical intensive crop in production. Hemp chokes out competing weeds, and has few insect pests, so hemp farmers have little use for pesticides. While hemp likes a rich soil, most of the nutrients migrate to the leaves and eventually flowers, which are returned to the soil when growing hemp for stalk, so with appropriate rotation fertilizers are unneccessary. Hemp's long taproot brings minerals from deep soil layers, leaving them accessible to the following crop. Unlike cotton, hemp can be grown throughout the United States, and its lower cost makes it competitive with synthetic fibres. Fabric used to be the most recycled item in commerce. Now it is the least because no one has discovered a way to seperate the cotton from the polyester.

FUEL

Like any biomass (plant derived) fuel, burning hemp releases into the atmosphere only as much Carbon Dioxide as was removed in photosynthesis, with no net contribution to the Greenhouse Effect. Hemp's low Sulfur content contributes little to Acid Rain. Recent advances in Biomass Gasification technologies suggest hemp replacing coal in our electric power stations. Technology for conversion to liquid fuels is farther behind, and still expensive when compared to current oil prices as subsidised by our military presence in the Persian Gulf. Shifting more of the tax burden to environmentally destructive use of fossil fuels would stimulate research, and hasten the inevitable changeover to clean biomass.

FOOD and MEDECINE Cultivation of hemp seed for food and livestock feed dates at least to the ancient Sumerians. While it is second to soybeans in total protein content, hemp seed has a more complete balance of amino acids. More importantly, hemp seed oil is the top plant source for linoleic and linolenic acids, the essential fatty acids for which fish oil is touted to lower blood colesterol and strengthen the immune system. Of course pressing the oil from hemp seed makes these nutrients available at a tiny fraction of the cost of fish oil. Hemp flowers provide a medecine useful for the treatment of such diverse problems as Muscular Sclerosis, Anorexia, Glaucoma, and the Nausea associated with Chemotherapy and AIDS.

ONE OBSTACLE REMAINS.

The flowers of the hemp plant, when smoked or otherwise ingested, produce a mild euphoria, which we have culturally and legally labeled as inherently evil. The law defines any part of the plant other than stalk, fiber, or sterilized seed as marijuana, and there is no way to raise stalks without leaves. While low potency fiber strains are available in Europe, and fiber crops are harvested before the flowers form, (much more potent than leaves,) US law makes no distinction.

No-one has ever died from using marijuana. Indeed, in a review of its medical use, US Administative Law Judge Francis Young found it to be "among the safest therapeutically active substances known to man." The sole remaining argument against it is the so-called "Gateway Effect.," which states that its use leads to hard drugs. In fact, it is the prohibition of the plant which puts it in the same marketplace as heroin or cocaine. When the supply of marijuana is interrupted retailers find themselves without any income, and some shift to selling whatever they can get, luring their customers to truly dangerous drugs. In a legal cannabis market, supply would be continuous and regulated.

DOES GEORGE BUSH REALLY CARE ABOUT DRUG ABUSE?

As Vice President he headed the South Florida Drug Interdiction Task Force, and simultaneously oversaw Ollie North's Contra supply operation, whose planes returned from Cental America loaded with Cocaine. The Task Force decided which drug smugglers would be targeted by law enforcement, and consequently which would not. If he was really "out of the loop" on contra supply, why did he protect their illicit fundraising? Is the government's war on marijuana a cover for continuing intelligence agency involvement in the importation of hard drugs? Can you fool all of the people all of the time? To find out, tune in in November.

Ben Masel, Wiscsconsin State Director<br> National Organization to Reform the Marijuana<br> Laws 911 Williamson St, Madison, WI 53703<br> (608) 257-5456

* Characterization and Processing of Annual Crops (Esp. Hemp) for Pulp and Paper by Marie-Jose de Smet, Agrotechnical Research Institute, ATO- DLO, Haagsteeg 6, 6700AA Wageningen, The Netherlands, as presented at the First European Conference on Industrial Uses for Agricultural Crops, Maastricht, the Netherlands, November 1991.