Hemp: What the World Needs Now Publishing date not yet announced.
Also from John McCabe:
Sunfood Living "No time has passed when Cannabis has not been an integral part of the worldwide fabric of society. John McCabe has pointedly brought hemp's past into the eyes of the future. Understanding where the issues stem from that surround Cannabis, both industrial and medicinal, allows us to make the right decisions today for a better, more sustainable conscience tomorrow. It has been with much pride that I was able to share with John an American—Canadian hemp perceptive. Governmental recognition of this viable agricultural fiber and grain crop is plausible and necessary for the growth of the future fabric of today's worldwide society." — Anndrea M. Hermann, Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance "In Hemp: What the World Needs Now, McCabe assembles a vast collection of source materials to document hemp cannabis' uses throughout history and frames the quotes with discourse on the economic and environmental issues affecting hemp's status as a modern crop. Importantly, McCabe doesn't avoid the often violate issues of cannabis as a medicine or a recreational herb. Rather than tip—toeing around the tension, he acknowledges that hemp and marijuana are irrevocably intertwined despite the vastly different varietal characteristics of the cannabis plant. In all, McCabe presents compelling evidence and then steps back — allowing the reader to personally consider the possible outcomes of re—introducing legal hemp agriculture in the United States as well as revising retributional drug policies worldwide." — Dave Thorvald Olson, Communications Director, HempLobby.Org; Author, Hemp Culture in Japan; Producer, HempenRoad "John McCabe has written a contemporary and politically relevant book that helps dispel and debunk many of the modern, government—created myths about the cannabis plant." — Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director, National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws/NORML Foundation, Member, Board of Directors, Washington, DC "A thorough study of the myriad industrial uses for hemp. It raises the question, 'Why is the U.S. missing out?'" — Oregon NORML "A very thorough and comprehensive overview of this amazing food, fuel, and fiber plant. I was left with the distinct opinion that our own American hemp history precludes the need for any further research. Prohibition has many negative facets, but eliminating hemp as an industrial crop for struggling American farmers is one of the most ridiculous. Withholding medical cannabis from patients one of the most sadistic, and imprisoning otherwise innocent citizens for personal cannabis use the most hypocritical, destructive and unfair. This book shines a bright light of truth, exposing the lie that is prohibition." — Cher Ford—McCullough, President, Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform; wonpr.org |
Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp © 2007 John McCabe The following is an excerpt from his book, Hemp: What the World Needs Now Hemp in the U.S.A.In January 2007 the state of North Dakota began offering "hemp growers license applications." In April 2007 the North Dakota legislature passed Hemp Bill 1020, deciding that farmers in that state would no longer require state—licensed industrial hemp farmers to carry Drug Enforcement Administration licenses. But the state also acknowledged that it could not protect farmers who decide to grow hemp from being prosecuted by federal drug laws for doing so.
The reason North Dakota has been trying to work with the Drug Enforcement Administration on this issue of allowing farmers to grow hemp is that, as I explain in detail later in the book, hemp has been classified as a drug since the Nixon administration, even though hemp can't get a person high. The DEA has been granted authority by Congress to interpret the statutes of the United States Code, such as the Controlled Substance Act, including rescheduling controlled substances and determining the rules and regulations of the substances. Under the Administrative Procedures Act (5USC 536), the DEA could negotiate industrial hemp farming rules with the states. But the DEA has been refusing to do so. Not only that, but those working for the DEA have made statements confusing the issue, either because they want it that way, or because they are ignorant as to the power the DEA holds. When North Dakota was trying to negotiate with the DEA to allow farmers in that state to grow industrial hemp, a special agent with the DEA, Steve Robertson, was quoted in the Grand Forks Herald saying, "The DEA does not have the authority to change existing federal law_ It's very simple for us: the law is there and we enforce the law_ we are law enforcement, not lawmakers." The lobbying group, Vote Hemp, responded with a press release explaining that, yes, the DEA does have the authority over the laws regulating hemp. Vote Hemp's National Outreach Coordinator Tom Murphy was quoted as saying, "It's interesting that Special Agent Robertson pretends that the DEA is purely a law enforcement entity, as they are not."
North Dakota is a major producer of flax oil, sunflower oil, and canola oil. Allowing hemp to be grown in that state would mean the local economy would benefit from producing hemp seed oil, hemp seed nutrition powders, and other hemp products, including hemp fiberboard and hemp fabric. Allowing another crop to be grown would also help preserve farmland in that state. North Dakota borders a region of Canada where hemp is growing on farms. Many of the hemp products imported into the U.S. are brought through North Dakota. It is frustrating for farmers in North Dakota to see this taking place. In July 2007, Ruth's Hemp Foods began producing a nutritional food bar, the "red, white, and blueberry" Vote Hemp Bar, which is sold with the intent of helping to fund the legal costs of farmers Dave Monson and Wayne Hauge in their lawsuit filed on June 18, 2007, against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
In the last decade the U.S. has lost thousands of square miles of farmland to "land development" in the form of suburbs, shopping centers, factories, and office complexes. Allowing farmers nationwide to grow a new crop would increase the income of farmers and raise the value of farmland nationwide. On February 13, 2007, Republican Representative Dr. Ron Paul of Texas introduced the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2007 to Congress. By the time this book is published, or soon thereafter the hemp industry in the U.S. may be blossoming. In the first half of 2007 there were 11 states that had industrial hemp farming bills introduced. These included California, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, and Wisconsin. On March 5, 2007, New Mexico lawmakers voted 59 to 2 to study legalizing hemp farming in that state. The vote authorized an "in>—depth economic analysis to address the benefits of a legal hemp industry in New Mexico and the long—term impacts of establishing proper permitting and licensing procedures." A goal of the study is "to determine the costs and benefits associated with encouraging economic development in various areas, including textiles, pulping products for paper, biocomposites and building materials, animal bedding, nutritional products for livestock, industries related to seed extraction and resins for potential biofuels, lubricants, paints and inks, cosmetics, body care products, and nutritional supplements." The vote encouraged the U.S. Congress "to recognize industrial hemp as a valuable agricultural commodity, to define industrial hemp in federal law as a nonpsychoactive and genetically identifiable species of the genus Cannabis and acknowledge that allowing and encouraging farmers to produce industrial hemp will improve the balance of trade by promoting domestic sources of industrial hemp and [that hemp] can make a positive contribution to the issues of global climate change and carbon sequestration."
The U.S. hemp farming industry was briefly revived in the early 1940s, and then suddenly halted a few years later when the government ended its Hemp for Victory program to supply hemp fiber and oil to the U.S. military. Because the U.S. government has stupidly classified hemp as a drug, it has been a fight to get the Drug Enforcement Administration to allow hemp farming to proceed. But if things work out, the approval may be granted and fields of hemp may be growing within the U.S. in a couple of years. Or not. Even so, as hemp farming remains illegal in its borders, the U.S. is the world's largest consumer of industrial hemp products — all of which are imported from countries where hemp farming is legal. From 2005 to 2007 the imported hemp products industry in the U.S. has increased by at least 50 percent. It is my hope that this book could play some role in bringing hemp into the modern age. Your Tax Dollars at Work
In early May 2000, as permitted under Oglala Sioux Tribal Law, the White Plume family of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota planted a one—and—a—half—acre field of industrial hemp along the Wounded Knee Creek. The hemp was being grown for the purpose of making fabric and other products for the tribe. On August 24, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) raided the reservation using 25 federal agents wearing bulletproof vests and carrying semiautomatic rifles. The agents surrounded the field as one helicopter and two small—engine planes flew overhead. The field of hemp, which was nearing its harvest stage, was plowed under. The agents left. Nobody was arrested. In 2001 the White Plume Family planted another field of hemp crop. On July 30, armed federal agents once again raided the land and destroyed the crop. Nobody was arrested.
Under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 the tribe is allowed to engage in agriculture and retains the right to grow fiber and food crops. Why did the DEA invade sovereign reservation land to destroy the industrial hemp crop of these hard—working people? This question is explored in the 2007 documentary Standing Silent Nation that was broadcast on public television in the U.S. on July 3, 2007. Among the people interviewed in the documentary is James Woolsey, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Woolsey believes industrial hemp farming needs to be legalized in the U.S. to help farmers and to protect the environment. DVD copies of the documentary are available through VoteHemp.com. (Access: StandingSilentNation.com.) Today, in 2007, like millions of other people in the U.S. you can go to your local natural foods store and purchase hemp chips, hemp food bars, dehulled hemp seeds, hemp bread, hemp salad dressing, hemp waffles, hemp tortillas, hemp shampoo, hemp conditioner, hemp lip balm, hemp body lotion, crunchy hempseed chocolate bars, hemp nutritional powder, hemp oil, and reusable hemp shopping bags. Stopping by other stores, you can buy hemp fabric rugs, hemp furniture, hemp pillows, hemp shower curtains, hemp drapes, hemp mops, hemp dinner napkins, hemp tablecloths, hemp table runners, hemp shirts, hemp pants, hemp ties, hemp socks, hemp jackets, hemp hats, hemp yoga mats, hemp backpacks, hemp wallets, hemp purses, and hemp shoes. At new—car lots you can purchase cars that have hemp fiber used in door panels, dashboards, insulation, and other parts. At artist supply stores you can buy hemp canvas to paint on. Some of the oil paints you purchase may contain hemp oil. At office supply stores you can purchase paper and envelopes made with a percentage of hemp pulp. Music bands and performers including The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jackson Browne, and the Foo Fighters have used hemp —blend paper for CD inserts. The paper was supplied by the Living Tree Paper Co. of Eugene, Oregon. All of the hemp products you can buy in the U.S. contain hemp materials that have been imported from other countries.
In the future there will be cellulosic ethanol made from hemp as well as hemp oil diesel fuel. These fuels burn cleaner than petroleum gasoline and diesel, greatly reducing the amount of lung damaging particulates that result from burning fossil fuels. Hemp ethanol and biodiesel also do not emit the cancer—causing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and benzene found in petroleum exhaust. Hemp fuels also don't contribute to acid rain. Right now the whole world has become the site of the largest oil spill and environmental disaster ever, but it is in the atmosphere and being absorbed into the landscape, rivers, lakes, and oceans — the result of burning hundreds of billions of gallons of petroleum and using enormous amounts of coal, tar sands, oil shale, and natural gas every year. Because hemp plants grow so densely, they absorb air pollution, and are an excellent source of oxygen. Cellulosic ethanol can meet the demands of ethanol where limited starch (corn) ethanol leaves off. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 provides the requirement that the U.S. should be deriving 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol by 2012 from any feedstock. This can and should include hemp. The Energy Policy Pact also requires the production of 250 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol, which excludes corn, beets, sugar cane, etc. (starch or sugar ethanol). But this can include hemp ethanol as well as ethanol made from the number—one crop produced in America: landscape clippings — which can be collected from neighborhoods, schools, sporting facilities, and other places that produce lawn clippings. A friend asked me how we could go about collecting all of those landscape clippings. I told him that we are already collecting huge amounts of it, with trash trucks that treat it like trash and take it to landfills. Instead of landfills it could be taken to biorefineries to make cellulosic ethanol. U.S. farmers are missing out on hundreds of millions of dollars in industrial hemp farming. U.S. farmers can't grow hemp. If they did they would risk arrest and expensive legal battles. In Canada, just north of the U.S. border, industrial hemp farming was legalized in 1998. Now farmers there are legally growing thousands of acres of hemp. In 2006 they grew an estimated 48,000 acres of hemp. The European Union has provided subsidies to industrial hemp farmers since the 1990s. Why not in the U.S.?
For thousands of years hemp was the most common plant grown for industrial uses. It is believe that hemp was brought from Asia into Greece by the Scythians, who also are said to have brought it into Russia and Europe. It is believed that Arabs brought hemp into the Mediterranean port towns. By the Middle Ages hemp farming was well established in Europe and the fiber and seed of the crop was used to make fabric, food, fuel, and shelter. Today it is illegal to grow hemp in the U.S. Farmers can't grow it. Native Americans can't grow it on reservations. If you plant five seeds you are committing a felony. Some of the founders and first presidents of the U.S. grew hemp on their farms. Today they would be arrested. On June 1, 1996, actor and hemp activist Woody Harrelson challenged the legislation making industrial hemp farming illegal in the U.S. It was the day he planted four hemp seeds on his property in Lee County, Kentucky. Arrested on a misdemeanor, Harrelson was entangled in legal issues that lasted four years. Harrelson and his legal counsel argued that it was unconstitutional to prohibit the growing of hemp. Harrelson's attorney was former judge and Republican Governor Louis B. Nunn. Harrelson rejected the prosecutor's plea bargain of a five—hundred—dollar fine and one month in jail. The day he appeared in court to hear the jury's decision Harrelson wore a suit made of hemp fabric. The jury ruled that Harrelson was not guilty. (I include Woody Harrelson's court brief in the Appendix of this book.)
Today the U.S. federal law still prevents the growing of industrial hemp because hemp is considered to be a drug. The laws are mixed up with laws governing a sister plant commonly known in the U.S. as marijuana. A Little Bit of HistoryMarijuana has been known by that name in the U.S. only since the 1920s. There are many ideas of where the name originated, but the story that a cannabis smoker in Pancho Villa's army was a female soldier named Mary seems as likely to be true as a number of other stories. Before the 1920s marijuana was known as cannabis and sometimes as hemp. Although the hemp plant is a member of the cannabis family, the word cannabis is now typically associated with the variety of the plant with psychoactive properties: what we also call marijuana, dank, reefer, bud, tea, chronic, pot, ganja, weed, sense, locoweed, Mary, Mary Jane, skunk, herb, jive, muggles, and other names, including the ancient Chinese name for it, ma. The name hemp is now most commonly used for the plant that contains only trace amounts of the psychoactive substance (tetrahydrocannabinol [THC]) and is grown for industrial uses. As Martin Booth explains in his excellent book, Cannabis: A History, the plant was given the botanical name of Cannabis sativa by a Swedish botanist named Carolus Linnaeus in 1753. In 1783 a Frenchman named Jean—Baptiste Lamarck assigned the Indian variety of the plant the name Cannabis indica. In 1924 a botanist in Russia named Janischewski gave a third variety of the plant the name Cannabis ruderalis. Hemp is one of the easiest plants to grow. The seeds germinate within days, develop into male and female, and sometimes both, and the plant thrives in a variety of climates and soil conditions. Cannabis plants are dioecious, which means there are male and female plants. Those who grow it for the psychoactive properties often destroy plants displaying male characteristics. This is because female cannabis plants produce greatly stronger psychoactive resin than the male plant. The flowering tops of the seedless, unpollinated cannabis plants are called sinsemilla (Spanish for without seed), and are highly sought for psychoactive properties. In his book, Booth explains that the different varieties of cannabis seem to be somewhat more of a singular plant than the names imply. This is because within a few seasons of growth, the plants grown from the seeds of one variety will adapt to the characteristics of the other variety when grown in the region associated with that other variety. Today we associate the name cannabis with marijuana, and hemp with the industrial plant that gets its modern name from hanap, an Old Saxon name, or henap, an Old English name. While all varieties of the plant appear to have originated in some area of central Asia, the difference is that cannabis can get you "stoned" while hemp can get you fed, sheltered, cleaned, moisturized, clothed, and warmed, and the growing hemp plants will provide oxygen while absorbing air pollution and improving soil conditions, but hemp won't provide any psychoactive fun if you smoke or ingest it. Ancient people living in various parts of the world grew hemp for many uses. Some people speculate that hemp was the first crop to be cultivated by humans. They may have produced the first plant—based fabrics out of hemp fiber, making food from crushed hemp seeds and using hemp stalks to build shelter.
Thousands of years ago the Chinese made fabric, food, rope, and utensils from hemp. Upon examining ancient Chinese paper, scientists have found it consisting of a combination of mulberry bark or other bark pulverized with hemp and dried under the sun. Ancient Chinese burial sites have been found containing various hemp materials as well as containers holding hemp seeds.
Hemp was a common material in other parts of the world as well. The ancient Arabs and Egyptians made hemp rope and paper. Hemp rope had been used in the construction of the ancient pyramids. The Romans and Greeks traded in hemp. Hemp materials have been found in the ruins of Pompei. The Vikings made sails out of hemp. By the eighth—century the hemp papermaking techniques from China had spread to Arabia and Persia. In about 1150 the Moors started manufacturing hemp paper in Spain.
Before the Renaissance the Italians were cultivating large fields of hemp to make fabric, cordage, and sails. When the sails had served their purpose and been worn by the wind, rain, and sun, they were turned into clothing, tablecloths, painters's canvases, and paper. In the 1400s Johan Gutenberg took the idea of the Chinese woodblock printing process and created his famed printing press, which he used to print the first printed Bible on paper made from hemp rags. Over the next several hundred years hemp paper was also used to publish political statements, fueling the revolutions. Traditional hemp foods are made by people in the Baltics. In Poland hemp seeds are tossed at weddings. In modern times there have been more laws applied against hemp and cannabis cultivation and more money spent to control the plants than on any plants in history. This is being done to a plant that is closest to the needs of humans than any plant. Because it is illegal to grow hemp in the U.S., all hemp products that are sold in the U.S. are imported from other countries. As a result, the U.S. loses hundreds of millions of dollars by importing hemp products and raw hemp material to make hemp products. If hemp were legal to grow in the U.S., hundreds of thousands of jobs would be created to farm hemp, process raw hemp, and to manufacture and sell hemp products, including fuel, food, nutritional and lubricating oils; cosmetics, clothing, linen, paper, candles, insulation, fiberboard, and many other items. In 1994, when a company called Hempstead got a federal license to grow one half—acre of hemp near the town of Brawley in California's Imperial Valley, they had many companies interested in what they were doing. Sponsors included the Ohio Hempery and the Save the Earth Foundation. Two beds of hemp were planted, one for seeds and one for fiber. As the plants grew and began to produce seeds flocks of birds showed up and began to feast. To prevent the birds from consuming the seed crops ceramic owls were placed on poles to scare away the birds. When the state attorney general's office heard about the hemp fields they sent officers from the Imperial Valley Narcotics Task Force to investigate. On July 29, a week before harvest, drug enforcement workers foolishly plowed under the 20,000 hemp plants. Your tax dollars at work.
In addition to Canada, the U.S. imports hemp from other countries such as Chile, China, England, Finland, Hungary, India, the Netherlands, and Romania. The hemp industry is growing around the world. China is the world's largest exporter of hemp products. The imperial family of Japan owns a small hemp farm to make fabric for their clothing. Korea and Thailand allow farmers to grow hemp. Australia has been developing a hemp market since the 1990s. New Zealand began growing hemp in 2001. Germany lifted its 1982 ban on industrial hemp in November 1995. There are hemp paper manufacturing plants in Slovenia. Poland grows hemp for a variety of reasons, including to decontaminate soil and to manufacture building materials. Russia maintains a hemp industry. Other European countries, such as France and Spain, are also growing hemp and manufacturing products with it. Switzerland hosts a hemp convention called Cannatrade. Great Britain lifted its prohibition on hemp in 1993. Canada has allowed hemp to be grown on a "research" basis since 1995, and now exports hundreds of millions of dollars worth of hemp. Meanwhile, in the U.S., industrial hemp farming remains in a legal limbo. Some blame the limbo on the hydrocarbon industry, some blame it on the paper industry, some blame it on the cotton industry, some blame crooked politicians or businesspeople, or some combination of all of these and others. Read and decide for yourself. Then do your part to help bring the hemp industry into the modern age. |