Governor Jerry Brown Vetoes Hemp Legalization in California

In a veto message, Jerry California Governor Brown said federal law considers industrial hemp to be a regulated, controlled substance, and that failure to obtain a federal permit would subject California farmers to federal prosecution.

“Although I am not signing this measure, I do support a change in federal law,” Brown said in a veto message. “Products made from hemp – clothes, food, and bath products – are legally sold in California every day. It is absurd that hemp is being imported into the state, but our farmers cannot grow it.”

Nutiva CEO John W Roulac commented ” This is a sad day and this veto will only hurt California farmers, workers, and business’s such as Nutiva who want to grow this renewable non-drug crop.”

September 14, 2011

Governor Jerry Brown                                                                      Sent via Fax: 916-558-3160
c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814

RE: SB 676 (Leno) California Industrial Hemp Farming Act – Please Sign

Dear Governor Brown,

I am writing to ask you to sign SB 676 (Leno), which would permit California farmers to grow industrial hemp to produce hemp seed, oil and fiber for sale to manufacturers. All hemp products are legally for sale in the United States and are currently imported from Canada and other nations. Current law prohibiting California farmers from producing these legal products hurts our economy and simply does not make sense

Nutiva is the world’s leading organic food brand, with a 44% annual growth rate since 2005. Inc. Magazine has named Nutiva as one of America’s fastest growing brands for the last three consecutive years (2009 – 2011).

Because of our growth rate, Nutiva has hired 25 workers in the past year at our new 18,500 SQ FT facility in Oxnard, California.

We will process three million pounds of organic hempseeds in factories in Canada in 2011. We would prefer to do this in California and the U.S.  This would save us in shipping costs, and further enable us to offer more local jobs. Hemp fiber is among the strongest, natural fibers in the world and it can be used to replace wood pulp, as well as synthetic fibers in numerous applications.  Hempseed is nutritionally rich in protein and healthy Omega-3 fats.

The demand for hemp products has been growing rapidly in recent years and California farmers would benefit from this growth. The benefits for farmers are not only financial, the bill is also practical. Industrial hemp is an excellent rotational crop because it naturally reduces nematode populations, while its dense growth smothers out weeds.  Therefore, hemp requires less water and agricultural chemicals than all other crops and has deep roots that leave the soil in excellent condition for the next crop.

The environmental benefits of hemp as a replacement for wood pulp and a reduction of pesticide use will help create a cleaner and healthier California. California law should be changed to permit the cultivation of industrial hemp as an agricultural crop. SB 676 would enable California farmers and processors to take advantage of industrial hemp and we strongly urge you to sign the bill into law.

Sincerely,

John W. Roulac
CEO and Founder
Nutiva

You too can make a difference in the fight for Hemp Legalization at the Vote Hemp website. Take action NOW and let our voices heard!

Check out the recent news about Hemp legalization in Vermont.  The battle is far from over, but awareness is up and progress is underway.

With your help we can raise awareness and get Hemp legalized.  Please call and write to your Representative in Congress.  Take action HERE, at the Vote Hemp website.

Vermont is the Latest Battleground in the Fight For Hemp

By Tim Johnson, Free Press Staff

August 21, 2011

Like most other products, hemp has its own trade associations. It has lobbyists. It has publicists. Together they churn out literature touting hemp’s extraordinary versatility and its ecological and agronomic virtues – a kind of wonder crop.

Hemp does not have a political action committee, however, which could explain partly why the campaign to legalize industrial hemp in the United States hasn’t gained much traction.

Advocates complain that American farmers are being shut out of a lucrative market. More than 30 countries grow hemp as an agricultural commodity, and hemp-planted fields in Canada – which legalized cultivation in 1998 – increased to 26,815 acres in 2010.

The United States “is the only industrialized country that will not allow its farmers the economic/environmental benefit” of growing hemp, laments Ben Brown, a farmer in Orwell.

Read the rest of the Article HERE or download the PDF HERE.

Hemp products have been misunderstood for quite some time. Hemp’s potential as a cash crop and its nutritional value have been overshadowed by the stigma of Marijuana. However, with the passing of SB 676 in the California State Senate hemp’s day just got a little brighter. This article from IVN does a great job of outlining this historic event and the potential it brings to California.

We’ve all heard about how the Declaration of Independence was penned on hemp paper and how our founding fathers grew the stuff like it was, well, a weed. Their reasons for growing it were sensible enough: hemp offered unparalleled capital potential as a cash crop with its seemingly limitless industrial applications, not to mention its nutritional properties. A couple of centuries and a failed Drug War later, a California state senator is making an effort to revive some of the common sense found in this earlier, agrarian era.

On Tuesday, the California State Senate passed SB 676, Sen. Mark Leno’s (San Francisco) bill, that would effectively legalize the production of hemp in the state for industrial purposes. Two prior attempts by the senator to regulate hemp production were vetoed by former Governor Schwarzenegger.

This measure would redefine “marijuana” to exclude industrial hemp. The new definition for hemp would include non-psychoactive fiber or oilseed crops with no more than 0.3 percent of THC. Crops would have to undergo testing to certify that their THC content was within the legal limit, mimicking established protocol in Canada.

So why is Sen. Leno so bent on legalizing hemp? He expounds on the “golden opportunity” hemp offers California in a recent blog post:

“If you like shopping at your local natural foods or specialty grocery store, you’ve probably noticed the growing popularity of hemp as an ingredient in food and skin care products. Hemp seed, which is high in protein and essential fatty acids, is found in everything from bread, energy bars and waffles to coffee and protein powder. Thanks to its natural antioxidants and moisturizing oil, hemp is also a common ingredient in soaps, shampoos and lotions. Perhaps your favorite T-shirt is even made of hemp, which is an excellent alternative to cotton.”

“Even though most of these consumer products are created by California companies, our farmers are prohibited from growing industrial hemp. Instead of buying hemp from local farmers, local manufacturers are importing thousands of dollars of hemp seed, oil and fiber from growers overseas.”

“California farmers are missing out on a golden opportunity to tap into the growing industrial hemp products business of food, clothing, shelter, paper and fuel, which would greatly benefit our state’s economy and family farmers. Industrial hemp is a perfect, environmentally sustainable crop for our state. It requires little or no pesticides and herbicides and produces two to four times more fiber than an acre of timber. Hemp grows quickly, can be harvested every 90 days and is a great rotational crop, especially for organic farmers.”

Read the rest of this Important Article HERE.

Article Credit: Chris Hinyub

On March 29th, 2011 UCLA hosted “Hemp for Performance, Profit and the Planet,” a panel discussion featuring hemp advocates and activists Brendan Brazier, John W Roulac, and Steve Levine, as part of Hemp History Week 2011.

There are 6 videos below.  The first is a “trailer” video for the event and Hemp History Week.  The other 5 videos are the complete discussion from the event, broken up into 15-minute segments.

For more information, visit www.HempHistoryWeek.com

Trailer:


Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

This is pretty interesting: The Organization Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is currently looking at whether or not to legalize hemp as a food product in Australia and New Zealand.  They have progressed as far as recognizing that eating hemp foods does not constitute a public health risk.  We’re watching as this important movement unfolds, and we’ll keep you updated too!  Viva la Hemp!

Enjoy.

Article From: The Sydney Morning Herald

ONCE you could smoke it, then you could wear it, now maybe you can eat it. Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is seeking public comment on requested changes to the food code to allow hemp to be eaten. But it will not make you high. While industrial hemp belongs to the cannabis family, it is a distant cousin of the kind that produces marijuana.

Deemed to have no pyschoactive properties due to low levels of delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), hemp is produced in Australia for fibre, food for pets and livestock, and oil for cosmetics, but to date the oil may not be used for human food.

FSANZ yesterday announced a period of public comment on two requests for changes to the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code including the hemp request, raised by Dr Andrew Katelaris.

Chief Executive Officer, Steve McCutcheon, said in a statement that FSANZ’s responsibility was to ensure that the use of hemp in food should be safe for consumers.

“We have concluded that the consumption of hemp foods does not pose a public health and safety risk”.

It is the second time FSANZ has come to such a conclusion about hemp, but the last time it made a submission to the government, in 2002, it was rejected by the state, territory and federal health ministers.

A spokeswoman for FSANZ, Lydia Buchtmann, said hemp was a healthy oil which was already used extensively in the cosmetics industry in Australia and in the many other countries for food such as muesli bars, non-soy cheeses and tofu, general oils. The seeds can also be eaten raw or roasted.

Read the rest of the Article, HERE.

Article Credit: Jen Rosenberg

John Roulac standing in a field of Industrial Hemp

The benefits of Hemp Food products, including hemp oil,  hemp protein powder, and shelled hempseed are just now starting to enter the mainstream, and many health-conscious people are stocking these products in their homes.  What many people don’t know is that Industrial Hemp is a vital crop which has many important qualities and uses which we can’t take advantage of in the United States until we’re able to legalize hemp and begin to grow it here.  Nutiva is committed to spreading the word about the values, uses, and benefits of the Hemp Crop, and one of the most important methods is education.  We’ve put together this Hemp 101 page, and we also want to share this report with you. 

The contents of this important report on the many uses of HEMP (DOWNLOAD PDF HERE) have been Reprinted from: Trends in new crops and new uses. 2002. J. Janick and A. Whipkey (eds.). ASHS Press, Alexandria, VA.  This document is hosted at VoteHemp.com.  VOTE HEMP is a non-profit organization dedicated to the acceptance of and free market for industrial hemp and to changes in current law to allow U.S. farmers to grow low THC industrial hemp. They educate people on the issues surrounding hemp, register voters, and build coalitions to fulfill their mission.

DID YOU KNOW?

Henry Ford recognized the utility of industrial hemp in early times. In advance of today’s automobile manufactur- ers, he constructed a car with certain components made of resin stiffened with hemp fiber (Fig. 19). Rather ironically in view of today’s parallel situation, Henry Ford’s hemp innovations in the 1920s occurred at a time of crisis for American farms, later to intensify with the depression. The need to produce new industrial mar- kets for farm products led to a broad movement for scientific research in agriculture that came to be labeled “Farm Chemurgy,” that today is embodied in chemical applications of crop constituents.

Nutiva sources all its hemp seed from Canada.

The photo below is from of one Nutiva’s farmers in Saskatchewan.  Western Canada was very wet and cold in June this year.

So many farmers in Canada did not seed their hemp fields until late June and in this field early July!  It is common practice to plant in early June.

Let’s hope this fall is dry so the late hemp seed harvest can be taken off the field and not get too wet and rot in the field.

Growing any crop can be challenging, and hemp is no exception.

Nutiva processes the hempseed into organic hemp oil, hemp protein, and shelled hempseed (sometimes called hulled hemp see, hemp hearts or hempnut).  Hemp is the most nutritious seed in the world.  A great source of balanced protein, omega-3 fats, fiber and minerals.  Try some today !

Another great story on hemp research to provide cutting edge green raw materials for industry. If  folks in Canada can grow and research hemp, why not America ?

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.”

Continue reading this article at Troy Media Corp, HERE.

This important story comes to us from The Bismarck Tribune, and covers one fourth-generation farmer with the courage to speak out in favor of Industrial Hemp farming in America.

Author Credit: WAYNE HAUGE.

Enjoy!

I am a fourth generation farmer, grandfather of three, and have never been arrested for anything. I traveled to Washington, D.C. to join hemp business leaders in a symbolic planting of hemp seeds on DEA headquarters’ front lawn. This action was taken to raise awareness of the distinction between industrial hemp and marijuana. Today non-dairy milks, protein powders, cereals, soaps and lotions are made from the nutritious omega 3 rich hemp seed, while everything from clothing to building materials to automobile paneling is made from the fiber and woody core.

Along with another North Dakota farmer and state Rep. David Monson, I am involved in a lawsuit against DEA, now in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, to prevent DEA interference with licensed North Dakota farmers cultivating and processing industrial hemp under North Dakota’s state industrial hemp program. However, it has been almost a year since the case was given to the judges to decide if states can act without federal government intervention.

I personally do not harbor a grudge nor have an agenda against the DEA, I have the greatest respect for those who serve our country, whether local police or members of the armed services who are now abroad. The DEA is carrying out its Bush-era mandate to not allow cannabis in the United States, just as any soldier given an order by a superior officer and I respect that. It is time, however, to change the order and make the international non-drug standard of 0.3% THC the point at which hemp cultivars of cannabis are under control and regulation by USDA as an agricultural crop.

The ideal immediate policy approach, similar to the recent medical cannabis directive from the Dept. of Justice (that oversees the DEA) directing DEA and US Attorneys to respect states’ medical cannabis laws, is for the DOJ to simply direct DEA to respect and not interfere with state industrial hemp programs.

The story continues at The Bismarck Tribune. Click HERE to continue reading.