Hemp Legalization

Read about the latest articles on the effort to legalize hemp in the United States and around the world, including industrial hemp, food products and more.

Industrial Hemp: An Important Crop with Many Uses for North America

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.  [click to continue…]

2010 Hemp Crop Growing Fast in Canada

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.
[click to continue…]

Unconventional crop – hemp – could sprout new industry

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.

Time for a new course on industrial hemp

01hempThis 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.

Using Hemp to Halt Climate Change

This article comes to us from hempnewstv.wordpress.com, and brings up some very important connections between global climate change and the beneficial CO2 to oxygen conversion created by large hemp crops.  Enjoy!

globalwarmingThe hemp plant can be used in thousands of different products, including large-scale things such as houses and cars. Hemp is also able to be made into smaller goods as well, from health products to paints.

An extremely important goal that hemp must be applied to immediately is the reversal of global warming. Upon first hearing such a statement, it may seem ridiculous that one thing could solve a world problem. However, utilizing hemp on a massive scale could indeed achieve this objective.

To understand how hemp can stop global warming, you need to understand how climate change is occurring. Greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, build up in the atmosphere. This high concentration of gas traps heat inside the Earth, leading to a general increase in temperature.

The negative effects of the advanced stages of global warming would be devastating and destructive. We cannot afford to wait; we must act now to counter these horrible consequences.

Read the rest of this article HERE.

Hemp, an option for farmers, and the public option

This article comes to us from the Progressive Party blog.01hemp

By Rep. David Zuckerman

This week a Vermonter, Will Allen, joined others from around the country in an act of civil disobedience in order to get attention to the laws governing hemp cultivation. By attempting to plant help seeds on the lawn of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) they clearly were pushing the envelope to generate this discussion.

To put this in context, North Dakota and Vermont are the only two states that have adjusted their laws (We did this while I was chair of the Agriculture Committee) to allow farmers to cultivate and harvest hemp. However, both states laws are trumped by federal law due to the interstate commerce clause of the US constitution. This section has been interpreted widely by the US government to take control of many policy areas that used to belong to the states. It does this by the idea that any product that can cross state borders for commercial purposes is to be regulated by the federal government.

Hemp was brought into the federal law jurisdiction back in the 30’s and 40’s when it competed with trees as the main ingredient in paper as well cotton as a fiber. The paper and cotton industries went after it with false media claims and corporate propaganda to tie it to marijuana use as well as to the latino/a culture (racism). While the general public had used and known hemp as a very good product (as both paper and fiber) public opinion was swayed over a very short period of time. Soon, through an act of Congress, it was made illegal to grow by categorizing it a schedule 1 drug under our drug laws. Thus becoming the only drug that has been classified by Congress instead of through the regulatory process (Crack, Cocaine, Morphine, Heroine, all classified by the DEA, not Congress). As a schedule 1 drug, it is deemed to have no useful purpose to society whatsoever.

Click HERE to read the rest of this article at the Prog Blog.

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