It’s Time to Grow Again! Let Hemp Loose.-Production buried by past needed now in America

The Los Angeles Free Press announces hemp production in Canada; LA Free Press urges support for hemp production in USA…..

It’s Time to Grow Again! Let Hemp Loose.-Production buried by past needed now in America
‘Farmer’ Joe Zeev - LA Free Press Contributor

The Los Angeles Free Press announces hemp production in Canada; LA Free Press urges support for hemp production in USA…..

"Hemp is anti-microbial and highly resistant to insects. It NEVER requires the use of herbicides, pesticides or chemical fertilizers.
Hemp, unlike cotton, does not deplete the soil of nutrients. This makes it cheaper to produce, eliminates groundwater pollution due to pesticide run-off, and curtails farming community exposure to toxic and cancer-causing products.
Growing hemp reduces our dependence on petroleum products such as petrochemical fertilizers. Currently 15,000 lakes in the US are so contaminated by toxic agricultural runoff that NOTHING can live in them.
Hemp paper requires less chemical processing and can be whitened without producing dioxins. Unlike wood pulp paper, hemp does not harden, yellow, or crack with age. "......Boulder Hemp Initiative Project

Hemp should be as American as Apple Pie and Baseball. It was here first; it’s rooted into the earliest history of the United States.

The Puritans (for gosh sakes!) grew high quality hemp in the 1600's. These settlers in Massachusetts found it necessary to grow fibers for clothing to last the winter months. And by 1629, Salem's shipbuilders required a great deal of hemp for rigging and sails; no other material was as strong and durable. In 1639, the General Court of Massachusetts passed a law requiring every householder to plant hemp seeds.

"Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country." - Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President He risked his life to bring hemp seeds to America... while in France, Jefferson placed himself in harm’s way when he paid some Turkish spies to help him smuggle prized hemp seeds out of China. The Chinese had developed the very best strains of hemp for every use, paper, fabrics, food, and more. They treasured the seeds so highly, they made it illegal to export, punishable by death.

Early ‘America’ then grew and rolled hemp into rope and wove its fibers into cloth. Jefferson even invented the ‘Hemp Brake’ that separated the woody hurd from the fibers, quicker. If it had only been named the Hemp Gin, he might still be famous to this very day!

And more - All the drafts of the US Constitution were written on it and, in writing about it, President Jefferson suggested hemp was the single element which sustained America’s freedom and independence, both on land and at sea.

The first American Flag was made from Hemp.

Benjamin Franklin had the first paper mill in America - and all of the paper it made was made out of hemp.

It is said in many circles that the Revolutionary War would have been lost if we did not have Hemp. Strong and durable, it was used for our uniforms as well as ropes, maps, oil, sails, and riggings.

Fact - Cannabis hemp was legal tender (money) in most of America from 1631 until the early 1800s.

The first Levi jeans were made out of hemp.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched the "Hemp for Victory" program during World War II, urging farmers to grow the crop for military use, from boot laces to parachute webbing and backpacks, ropes and hawsers to secure ships at the wharves. From 1942 to 1945, the campaign was supported by posters, even a government-sponsored film documentary on its benefits telling citizens to grow it at home. (See link below.) And 4-H clubs urged teenagers to serve their country, too, by cultivating hemp for the nation’s good.

(Here’s the reason: In 1942 the US found itself cut off from Russia, our dependable supplier!)

Henry Ford's first Model-T was built to run on hemp seed oil and parts of the car itself were constructed from hemp fibers – making those lighter and up to 15 times stronger than steel!. The Model T, back in 19441, got 13-21 MPG (max speed 45 MPH); according the US Department of Energy’s website, FuelEconomy.gov, the 2008 gas powered Ford Ranger Pick-Up gets 15 MPG (highway, city combined).

"Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?" asked Mr. Ford.

Rudolf Diesel intended to use hemp as a fuel source as well.

Hemp fuel is biodegradable; spills become fertilizer not eco-catastrophes. Hemp fuel and is nontoxic and only a mild skin irritant. And, of course, it can be grown here, rather than imported from ‘there’.

So what happened to the plant that gave us so much? And why is it still in use all over the globe, but now not permitted to be produced here in the USA?

Hearst, Mellon, DuPont and the Rockefeller family.

Heart owned hundreds of acres of forest from which he wanted to manufacture paper. His newspapers helped to hemp synonymous with "marijuana", associating all cannabis with psychopathic teenagers who killed their parents after the first high. (The fact that Hemp cannabis and "marijuana" cannabis have far different chemical properties did not matter.)

DuPont also had a plan for making paper, and hemp paper did not require DuPont’s chemicals for their manufacture. Additionally, they were in the business of making ‘fibers’. The DuPont Company claims there is no relationship between the patent of Nylon and hemp becoming illegal in the same year.

Mellon, of Mellon Bank, is said to have also pushed for the prohibition of hemp, as he was one of only two bankers with whom DuPont did business.

DuPont also had interests in General Motors, and supported oil production. Another company that wanted hemp out and oil in was Standard Oil (owned by the Rockefeller family).

Fortunately (for them), the government re-thought its position on hemp, agreed that it was a dangerous drug, nixed its need to turn it into good-value products – and even put an agency in motion to uproot its remnants.

But time’s are achangin’: the myths of marijuana are largely dispelled, both as many of the ‘adults’ of our time have first hand knowledge of it, the kids have the internet – if they really wanted to get facts more than flavor, but the vibe is, generally, that it is innocuous compared to all else that’s out there, and even the new Administration has ‘inhaled’ enough knowledge on the subject to remove much of the stigma on the one that has pulled the other from useful, industrial production.

This policy, here in America, created by the politics of greed, have denied us the possibility of producing better products for less with fewer harmful health effects (in fact- Phil Lempert the "Supermarket Guru" eats and recommends hemp foods, hemp seed, hemp shakes, milk, bread, waffles, snack bars – as incredible, nutritional pluses!). All in all, hemp is a truly ‘green’ product AND one that would help create jobs, too!

For a general overview of why we really do need to get back into producing this old product – how it will work specifically and especially in this new time – check out this video, featuring Woody Harrelson, Willie Nelson, Julia Butterfly, Merle Haggard and others: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GZjwTnKSAg

So you can be BEST informed on the very latest news, I am including here the links to the most recent articles in the Los Angeles Free Press. This includes the one that announced the new production facility coming to Canada (to produce building materials – did you know that when hemp is added to concrete not only is it lighter and stronger, but it takes the harmful CO2 out of our way?). There is also the link to the posting on the American farmer’s movement to ensure that they can begin growing hemp (seems to be one of the most profitable crops available; more so than soybeans which, unlike hemp, require irrigation, pesticides, and herbicides) and the push to have legislators pave the way.

You should actually go to these two links right NOW; the second one giving quite a bit of info on hemp’s unusual benefits. But do come back to this storyto go over all the Links and YouTubes about Hemp below) Here they are:

http://lafreepressarchive09.blogspot.com/2009/03/first-commercial-hemp-processing-plant.html

http://lafreepressarchive09.blogspot.com/2009/03/heartland-hemp-farming-needs-iowa.html

Finally, I give you this USDA's official’s official response to a query on hemp: "Given the state of the law [banning hemp], that's the same side we're on". Well, Mr. Jim Petterson, hope you had a chance to read your issue of the Los Angeles Free Press as well – and check out your new boss’ thoughts on the matter. Please get back to us on that, willya?

And just in case the Los Angeles Free Press is not the last word for you, here’s a word from other hemp sponsors: join the movement; Watch the YouTube videos, go to festivals, get products, and on.

Please click here to ask your Congressional representatives to consider becoming an original cosponsor for the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009.
http://www.votehemp.com/

Barack Obama and Joe Biden: The Change We Need | Industrial Hemp ...
http://www.my.barackobama.com/page/group/IndustrialHempAdvocatesforObama

A Peaceful Solution with Hemp | Willie Nelson The US Hemp Museum has created BARACK OBAMA — A PEACEFUL SOLUTION, featuring the song written by Willie Nelson and Amy Nelson.
http://www.willienelsonpri.com/peace/672/a-peaceful-solution-with-hemp.html

Hemp TV: Henry Ford's "Hemp" Body Car (1941) This vintage 30-second clip is from Henry Ford's hemp fiber body car made in 1941
www.crrh.org/hemptv/misc_ford.html