Canadian Video on Industrial Hemp

Industrial hemp organizations have put together an excellent summary of centuries of hemp history: “Hemp – The Environmentally Sustainable Alternative (Part 1).” Calling hemp “the world’s most valuable plant,” the nine-minute YouTube video tells the story well, pointing out the absurdity of the United States still banning a crop which was a major crop until it was made illegal in 1937 — only to be heavily promoted by the U.S. government during World War II — and then banned once again. For background on the video and more info, visit Kate Weldon’s post on Barry’s Bay This Week, reporting that “Hemp video number two is already in the works. ‘The Hemp Revival – 1994 to 2008′ will feature footage of hemp used for carbon negative building, car parts, plastics and health food” — reminding us that hemp growing is once again both legal and profitable in Canada.

Reason Foundation Report on Industrial Hemp

A comprehensive Reason Foundation report on the environmental and economic benefits of industrial hemp was released March 13 by the Reason Foundation, a non-profit research and educational organization. Contrasting industrial hemp with competitors such as cotton, corn, polyester and fiberglass, the report states that:
“Cannabis sativa L. is the most politicized plant in U.S. history—so much so that science too often falls to the wayside as factions attempt to either demonize or venerate the plant. Complicating the debate, two very different varieties of the plant are common: the pharmacological variety, marijuana, and the agricultural variety, hemp. Hemp is the subject of this study.”
“Hemp offers three products: the long ‘bast’ fibers, similar to flax or jute fibers; the short ‘hurd’ fibers, which have a number of industrial uses; and finally the seeds. Emerging industrial applications include composite construction materials and biofuel sources. Hemp is often evaluated for performance alongside biomass and oilseed crops, fiberglass and agricultural byproducts like wheat straw.”
“Hemp cultivation is not permitted in the United States today. In its final decades as a domestic crop prior to 1958, government regulation hindered its competitiveness in world markets.”
“This study seeks to add to the discussion about hemp prohibition by comparing the environmental efficiency of hemp to its substitutes in a few key applications.”
  For the Reason Foundation’s full 50-page report, Illegally Green: Environmental Costs of Hemp Prohibition, Click Here. For the Executive Summary, Click Here.

DVD – “Hemp and the Rule of Law”

DVD - “Hemp and the Rule of Law” – http://www.tinroofvideo.com/page/page/5566214.htm
Now on DVD — a documentary by Kevin Balling premiered at the Asheville Film Festival and at the ARTIVIST Film Festival in Hollywood. The one-hour documentary traces hemp’s legendary past in U.S. agriculture and chronicles the heated debate to return the crop to American farmers.

Just Published in UK: Hemp for Victory

Kenyon Gibson’s new book Hemp for Victory: History and Qualities of the World’s Most Useful Plant,  is out in  paperback at $29.95, printed on tree-free hemp paper. Mina Hegaard of Minawear Hemp Clothing is one US distributor. Bulk orders can be made via Kenyon Gibson, or from the publisher’s site, www.whitakerpublishing.co.uk. More information is available on Kenyon Gibson‘s web site which includes a link to a recent Guardian article about hemp and the book.

Dr. Mahlberg’s Cannabis Research

NAIHC Board Member Dr. Paul Mahlberg’s  cannabis research over more than 30 years has explored topics important to the definition of cannabis as either a drug or a fiber and food plant.  Click here for a list of Dr.  Mahlberg’s technical reports on cannabis with Internet links where available.

America Must End its Dependence on Oil

“America must end its dependence on oil” according to Robert McFarlane and James Woolsey in a Financial Times article published  January 23, 2006

“A little over a year ago we helped organize an effort among a wide range of groups in the US to draw public attention to the potential for two emerging trends to bring down the global economy. These trends, which affect the price and availability of energy, are the greater-than-expected pace of increased demand for oil in China, India and other emerging markets and the threat of disruption of Persian Gulf supplies by a terrorist attack. They have helped push the price of oil to more than $60 a barrel with forecasters seeing little prospect of it ever going below $50 again.”

“The sober awakening to these two trends by governments and the oil industry was underscored by a new round in the debate concerning the ‘peak’ of oil reserves – the top of the bell-shaped curve that represents the world’s oil reserves and the lower production and higher cost of oil products that lie ahead when the peak is reached. Most experts agree that we will reach the peak within 25-30 years.”

“Because the impact of growing demand and dwindling supplies is long-term, it is not surprising that there has been only a cautious response to these factors from governments, with no noticeable action. It is less understandable that political leaders from Tokyo to London and Washington have failed to deal with the threat of a disruption in oil flows from the Gulf.”

McFarlane and Woolsey call for four responses: 1. Blend ethanol with gasoline as Brazil does, 2. Use existing technology to enable cars and trucks to burn a variety of fuel mixtures, 3. Improve hybrid-electric vehicles, 4. Develolp lighter, stronger carbon composite materials to reduce vehicle weight.

McFarlane and Woolsey point out that “Predictably there has been resistance towards such technologies within the automobile and energy industries, but their concerns over safety and cost can be answered. Alternative fuels are affordable and the practicality of the vehicle technologies is being shown in Japan by Toyota and other manufacturers. Odds are there will be a plug-in hybrid from Japan within two years and it will take away even more market share from Detroit.”

McFarlane and Woolsey conclude their commentary with a warning: “Even if all these measures were adopted it would take 20 years to replace the 150m vehicles on the road in the US. But the cost of not taking action could be catastrophic.”

To read the complete article, available to Financial Times subscribers or trial subscribers, Click here.

Industrial Hemp Offers Great Promise

For a comprehensive perspective on industrial hemp past, present and future, read the 43-page chapter “Hemp: A New Crop with New Uses for North America” in Purdue University’s Trends in New Crops and New Uses, edited by Jules Janick and Anna Whipkey.