Hemp History Week, a look back at America's hemp heritage

(NaturalNews) Let U.S. farmers grow hemp! This is the battle cry of those who recognize the value and history of hemp and lament the fact that domestic farmers have been unable to legally grow it for over 50 years. In an effort to change this, Vote Hemp and the Hemp Industries Association have announced May 17-23, 2010, as Hemp History Week, a time when patriotic Americans are encouraged to anchor and organize events in their hometown as part of a national grassroots, media and public education campaign about hemp.

Contrary to popular belief, hemp is not marijuana. At least not Cannabis sativa L., the kind that has been grown worldwide for food and industrial purposes for thousands of years. A look back at American history reveals that hemp was also widely grown and used by early Americans.

To set the record straight, cannabis sativa L. has no drug value. Its seed contains no tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component of marijuana. Cannabis sativa L. will not cause a person who consumes it to test positive on a drug test. It is a completely different plant than the marijuana plant.

As far as functionality, there are literally thousands of uses for hemp. Its seed and oil are powerful superfoods and its fiber is useful in a host of various textile applications. For example, hemp is used to make clothing and paper, and is also used in composite door paneling, fiberboard and concrete foundations.

For food, hemp seeds are a rich source of highly-digestible essential fatty acids (EFAs), or omega-3s. In fact, they contain a perfectly balanced omega-6/omega-3 ratio of 1:3, which many believe is perfect for the human body. Hemp seeds have a nutty flavor similar to that of pine nuts, and they can be used in all sorts of food applications.

Hemp oil is delicious and nutritious as well. Unlike flax and fish oil, hemp oil is rich in Super Omega-3 Stearidonic Acid (SDA) and Super Omega-6 Gamma Linolenic Acid (GLA) which together help to reduce inflammation and improve mental functionality. These also assist in improving the metabolization of necessary fatty acids.

As opposed to cotton, which accounts for nearly 25 percent of the world's pesticide use in order to grow it, hemp requires no pesticides or agricultural chemicals in order to thrive. It is an entirely non-toxic, renewable resource that actually helps to suppress weeds and regenerate soil naturally. It is a favorite among farmers who use it as a rotation crop.

Back in the early days of America's founding, hemp was a commonly grown and used resource. America's hemp heritage includes the following little-known facts:

-Early laws in some American colonies actually required farmers to grow hemp.
-Many of our earliest presidents, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, all grew hemp.
-The American Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper.
-Abraham Lincoln used hemp seed oil to fuel the lamps in his home.
-The U.S.S. Constitution was rigged with 60 tons of hemp sails and rigging.
-In 1942, Henry Ford built an experimental car body out of hemp fiber, which is ten times stronger than steel.

Other interesting discoveries about hemp include a USDA bulletin published in 1916 that found that hemp produces four times more paper per acre than trees do. In 1938, Popular Mechanics published a piece about hemp called the "New Billion Dollar Crop" that explained how hemp could be used to manufacture over 25,000 different products, "from cellophane to dynamite".

Unfortunately, domestic hemp growing ceased in the 1950s due to misinformation and confusion about hemp's relation to marijuana. Around the same time, government incentives were launched that propped up the fossil-fuel plastics industry at the expense of the hemp industry. As a result, all the key hemp producers went bankrupt and hemp quickly became an industry of the past.

In recent years, however, the truth about hemp has been resurfacing. Following a 2004 Ninth Circuit Court decision that permanently protects the sale of hemp foods and body care products in the U.S., there have been major initiatives to once again allow hemp to be grown domestically. As it stands, nearly all of the hemp sold and used in the U.S. is imported from places like Canada, but many hope that will change.

In 2007, two North Dakota farmers were given licenses to grow hemp. This is the first time in over 50 years that hemp has been grown in the U.S., and it represents a shift back towards this valuable and environmentally-friendly crop. Hemp has the potential to revolutionize our economy and bring real prosperity back to America.

Most American farmers today raise subsidized crops like corn and soy, which generate less than $50 per acre in net profits. The average net profits for Canadian farmers who grow hemp in some cases is upwards of $500 per acre. If American farmers are once again permitted to grow hemp, and American industries are able to effectively use hemp for industrial purposes, the American landscape would change dramatically for the better. The possibilities are endless.

Please visit www.votehemp.com to learn more about hemp. Also, be sure to take a look at the information there about Hemp History Week and do your part to bring this nutritious, sustainable and versatile crop back to America.

Lawsuit seeks to ban genetically modified sugar beets

(NaturalNews) A group of Oregon farmers are seeking an injunction against this year's planting of Monsanto's genetically engineered sugar beets. The groups of organic farmers, food safety advocates and conservationists, is seeking to persuade a judge to ban the crop until the USDA provides a proper environmental impact statement proving that the crops are safe and that they will not cross-contaminate nearby fields.

The debate over whether or not to allow GE crops into the food supply has been a hotly debated one, but the biotech industry has been the side unable to prove that its products are safe. Those concerned about the negative consequences of GE crops have plenty of unresolved questions that demand answers prior to any GE crop being approved. Yet in reality, the USDA has succumbed to industry pressure instead, jeopardizing the entire food industry.

Nearly half of the nation's sugar beets are genetically modified. They can be found planted on more than one million acres across ten states. The beets have been engineered to be resistant to Monsanto's "RoundUp" herbicide, but their components are not limited to the fields in which they are planted, spreading across the landscape via pollen and seeds carried in the wind. Because it is impossible to track where GE plant fragments end up, there is no ensuring that any crop is truly non-GE or organic.

Concerned groups already won a previous lawsuit that required federal officials to reevaluate their 2005 approval of unrestricted GE beet plantings in light of allegations that the government agencies failed to properly evaluate their environmental impacts. Now they hope to stop any further plantings of the crop until the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service conducts a proper analysis, a process which could take upwards of three years.

Until then, the plaintiffs hope to eliminate all sales of GE beet sugar because it was unlawfully deregulated in the first place. "Legally, they shouldn't be on the market," explained Paul Achitoff, an attorney for Earthjustice, in an AP article.

"The sugar beets were unlawfully deregulated," he opined. "The court has already found that."

Frank Morton, one of the Oregon farmers who is suing the USDA, explained that he has already found GE pollen on his own crops. He grows organic seed for vegetables on his farm, but because of the pollen contamination, his crops are now worthless in the organic market.

Sprouts from GE sugar beets are also randomly showing up in people's farms and gardens, including in compost sold at local garden centers in Oregon.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/art...