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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: goldworldnet who wrote (714065)	11/18/2005 7:04:43 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Re: industrial hemp has numerous legitimate uses and is drug free. Yes. I recently watched a PBS broadcast about a week ago called Hemp and the Rule of Law (a one hour film) that taught me some interesting things I never knew. Apparently the hemp industry in Canada certifies to the government that ALL of their fields contain 0.03% or less (sometimes, much less) of the psychoactive ingredient THC, far too low for anyone to ever get 'high', and much higher levels of CBD (headache-making, 'buzz'-eliminating natural substance)... and EVERY field is licensed and reported to the government, with exact GPS coordinates filed for every field. The law enforcement folks have an open invitation to inspect ANY field they want to at ANY time (no search warrant is required, that's in the authorizing legislation), so it's a pretty good guess that if they ever seen a plot of marijuana growing somewhere that's NOT on their list... it's likely to be of the 'unauthorized' variety. :) They have recently developed hemp varieties that contain less then 0.00003% THC, and are deploying them commercially. (Drug strains may contain as much as 5, 6, 10% or more of THC.) Furthermore, the hemp is grown for it's STALK, and looks little like drug strains at all... hemp being planted closely together (inches apart, looks like bamboo) and topping out at 20' or more, while most commercial drug strains are short and squat. The most interesting thing to me was that they are promoting it to farmers (and the Agricultural Ministry) for it's abilities to increase the farm yields of other crops, and to greatly reduce pest infestations and majorly reduce the amount of money the farmers must put into fertilizers/herbicides/pesticides. Seems hemp USED to be part of the normally-used crop rotation cycle for farmers throughout North America... while most of America is now on just a two crop rotation (soy and corn). Seems rotating just between corn and soy (or corn/soy/cotton... cotton requiring the highest pesticide inputs of most any commercial crop) does not leave enough time for pests to die off --- unless lots and lots of chemicals are always applied. (Monsanto LOVES that. :) Apparently, with just two (or three with cotton) crops in the rotation, lots and lots of pests can winter-over and last through the off cycle... and then attack in numbers much faster the next go-round. Making a THREE (or FOUR) CROP ROTATION increased the yields, and reduced the inputs, and increased the profits for all three. (Not too much cotton grown in Canada, though. :) With oil prices rising so much, increasing the pesticide/herbicide costs and the costs of applying them, this is projected to give farmers in Canada a price edge over their American competition... and, of course, there is also a lesser run-off of chemicals into the waters. Must be working, because every single year since hemp farming was legalized (again... used to be legal all over the world) in Canada, the acreage under cultivation has increased by double digits.... Apparently, the fibers (two types: long ones from the outer stalk and short fluffy ones from the inside) are extracted by beating, then combing the stalks... and it's much more commercially appropriate to do that part of the work locally, before sending the bales off to the big factories... so it tends to keep some level of manufacturing (like textile mills) in the local farming communities. Quite amazing all the thousands of products that can be made from the fibers (not counting the seed and oil... seed being high protein feed and oil perhaps the only crop that has a marine-like 'heart-friendly' lipid ratio). The most interesting product the film showed was automobile interior plastic items. Apparently, instead of using 100% plastic, you can use 15% plastic and 85% fiber, and mold the same kind of items... only they are lighter and cheaper. The components are sold to Detroit and Japan. Interesting film.