Cleansing Blog

Ghosts may not scare most of us, but phantom loads are a different story.

A phantom load — as you probably know — is the electricity that gets drained away by electronics and appliances, even when they’re in standby mode or switched off.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 75 percent of the electric power consumed in the average home comes from appliances — such as VCRs, televisions, stereos, computers, and kitchen appliances –  that are turned off, but remain plugged into the wall.

In other words, when we leave the VCR or stereo plugged into an outlet, it’s a constant, invisible waste of energy (and money, as most of our electric bills start to skyrocket.) The solution couldn’t be easier. All it requires is pulling the plug or buying a powerstrip and switching it off when its not in use.

So why is it so hard to do?

I’ve long been in the habit of turning off the lights when leaving a room, but it’s not second nature yet to unplug the stereo or TV or phone chargers.

I’m good about powering down rarely used electronics, such as the paper shredder, and fairly good at unpluggging electronics and appliances that I use often (but not daily) like the blender or computer printer.

But I haven’t made the leap to unplugging chargers and other things that stay plugged into the wall for no good reason. I’m not proud of it, but I rarely pull the plug on chargers for my cell phone, laptop and iPod.

Technically-speaking, I know unplugging is easy. In fact, it’s embarrassingly easy. But I’m not in the habit and often forget to do it.

The good news that guilt over-powers my inclination to be lazy and forgetful. Maybe that twinge of guilt will kick in often enough to make unplugging second nature, just like switching off the light when I leave a room.

going green

My first memorable exposure to the possibilities of pedal power was over ten years ago at Chowpatty Beach in Mumbai. After dodging the attentions of eager head-masseurs, and tripping over a pack of drowsing puppies (it was nighttime), I found myself checking out a rickety, 10-foot tall Ferris wheel powered physically by an intense gentleman pedaling a stationary bicycle to which the whole contraption was hitched. India also afforded me my first experiences with the pedicab, or bicycle rickshaw, as well as human-powered water taxis, and by the time I left, I felt properly impressed by the potential of the pedal.

Happily, pedal-power is no longer a phenomenon reserved for far-flung destinations. Thanks to a variety of factors — rising fuel costs, a more widespread interest in do-it-yourself technology, even fashion concerns — serious attempts to harness the energy produced by a pair of wheels and a well-turned ankle are no longer the anomalous terrain of a few fringe thinkers. Touring national events like the Maker Faire and New Belgium’s Tour de Fat, and local culture extravaganzas such as the Bay Area’s Bicycle Film Fest, Cyclecide Bike Rodeo, and Bicycle Music Festival showcase plenty of pedal-powered projects from the straight-up practical (backup generators, battery chargers), to the playful (glow-in-the-dark bicycle dragons, DJ-quality bicycle turntables). But will pedal-powering your cell phone charger really free you entirely from the fetters of the power grid? Maybe not, but it seems like a move in the right direction.

It’s easy to forget (until it comes time to pay the bills) that everything we plug into a wall socket or power strip is sucking up energy every second. The action of spending an hour on a bicycle in order to juice up a single battery can, at the very least, put our rampant power usage into perspective, and might encourage us to cut back on our energy consumption just by providing a concrete example of how much actual energy it takes to power something as minute as an MP3 player.

Tempted to give pedal power a try? Here’s some links to instructions for building your own human-powered generator. Tune up, turn on, and drop off (the grid)!

going green

(NaturalNews) How did the powerful gain power over the rest of us? In a time when the power and freedom of the average American is being eroded at terrific speed, many of us wonder how this could be happening. What we may not realize it that the powerful have specific tools or principles to use to con the rest of us into surrendering our power to them. One of the most effective principles used in the last several years with great success is the Hegelian Principle.

The principle is simple, consisting of only three steps toward a preconceived goal. Once you are able to see how it works, you may want to analyze many of the events unfolding around you in terms of this principle. As the principle is often used today, it can be explained as:

Step One: Create a problem or conflict - Perceive a problem that exists and build it up out of proportion to its actual importance, or create a problem or conflict where none existed before.

Step Two: Publicize the problem and create opposition to it - Relentlessly place stories about this problem in the major media outlets. Report on it daily until it becomes a steady drumbeat and a truism for the public who then begin clamoring for a solution to this problem.

Step Three: Offer a solution - The best solutions are those that appeal to the emotions of the public and make them think something really good is being done for them, when in fact, something really bad is being done to them. This solution is one that the public never knew it needed until the conditioning of Step Two was successfully completed.

A simple example of the Hegelian Principle at work was the food industries’ conning of the public to throw out their butter and run to buy margarine. It goes like this:

Step One: Food industry is geared up to provide food for soldiers during WWII. When war ends, food industry needs to turn its capacity into something it can sell during peace time. It wants to use cheap ingredients to make a high margin product and decides on the manufacture of margarine, but needs to find a way to get the public to buy it. They decide on a scheme to turn the people against butter.

Step Two: Food companies spread propaganda convincing the populace that butter is deadly to their health. Appeal to fear. Get doctors and nutritionists to help in the spreading of propaganda. Sponsor medical studies to “prove” that butter is deadly. Convince housewives who had grown up healthy while eating butter that they are placing their families in jeopardy if they serve butter.

Step Three: Food companies rush in to save the American public from having to put butter on their tables. They present margarine. Women who want their families to love them stampede to buy margarine. Voila!

One of the classic and most sinister examples of the Hegelian Principle involves the Nazi’s rise to power that quickly followed the burning of the German Parliament building, the Reichstag, on the night of February 27, 1933.

Step One: Adolf Hitler, the new Chancellor of Germany, has no intention of abiding by the rules of democracy that installed him into the Chancellor position. He intends only to use those rules to legally establish himself as dictator as quickly as possible, and begin the Nazi revolution. But opposition lurks in his path.

The Nazis, led by Joseph Goebbels, devise a scheme to burn down the Reichstag, the building where the elected officials of the republic meet to conduct the daily business of government, and blame it on the Communist opposition.

Step Two: Hitler acts as though he is enraged over the fire and speaks out that the German people have been too soft on the Communists, proclaiming that “every Communist official must be shot. All friends of the Communists must be locked up. And that goes for the Social Democrats and the Reichsbanner as well!” Hitler directs the newspaper’s coverage of the fire. He and Goebbels put together papers full of lies about a Communist plot to violently seize power in Berlin. The newspaper proclaimed that only Hitler and the Nazis could prevent a Communist takeover.

Step Three: Hitler demands an emergency decree to overcome the crisis. There is little resistance, and the decree is signed “for the protection of the people and the State”. According to the decree, “Restrictions on the personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and association; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.” The Nazi dictatorship is established.

The Hegelian Principle was first described by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a 19th century German philosopher. The principle defined a method used to produce a oneness of mind on any given issue or thought. Since its conception, it has been used repeatedly and very successfully to gain power, status, money and control. The original terms for the three steps were Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis.

Under Hegel’s theory, one type of government or society (Thesis) would give rise to another that was the opposite of this type of government or society (Antithesis). This would result in conflict between the two types since they were opposites. After thesis and antithesis ideas battle each other for an extended time without either side winning, both sides become ready for change. This change (Synthesis) is then brought about by the creation of a third type of government or society.

These three steps are easily seen in the example of the Nazi rise to power, in which the Democratic government battled the Communist form of government. When the public was conditioned to ask for change, a new government system was installed.

The principle is often seen at work in the downhill slide of education toward the goal of ensuring children grow up unable to be intelligent participants in their democracy.

Step One - The federal government wants to assert control over the educational system, previously the providence of the states. As a way of doing this, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is created as a tool to gain power by doling out money to the school districts if they would accept the strings attached. Slowly but surely the pot of federal dollars that could be had is increased, while state support is undermined. Under ESEA mandates, academic programs are replaced by social programs.

Step Two - As academic programs are displaced, test scores drop, and juvenile problems increase as children become more and more illiterate, and parental and public outcry becomes louder. Teachers are made the fall guys for the illiteracy of their students. Attempts at fixing the problems involve the creation of ever more social programs, and fail to address the issue of children’s failure to learn. Parents are blamed as schools make inroads into controlling the parent/child relationship by pitting parents against their own children over school issues. Education reform is officially sanctioned as Bush announces himself the education president, proclaiming that “The people have been heard. We must do something about our ailing education system.”

Step Three - We are in step three now. Progressive socialist education is upon us. We are creating a generation of people incapable of thinking, reasoning, speaking and questioning. The individual will soon be extinct, having been stripped of his uniqueness and become no more than a commodity to be valued accordingly. With the loss of uniqueness goes the loss of independence and the ability to advocate for one’s self. The new generation emerges as a willing participant in its own enslavement.

Health News, going green

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXzsqTFwV3Q

Health News, Videos, going green

I’m up at the Columbia River Gorge for the Gorge Games, an action sports extravaganza with everything from slalom skateboarding to kiteboarding, adventure racing to river boarding. They did their best to be a sustainable event with abundant receptacles for recycling and even composting, which I’ve never seen at an event like this. One other thing they had that really got me thinking was ants — ants strutting across the picnic table, ants crawling up my leg, ants basking in the dog dish, ants absolutely everywhere.

Across the country ants are a typical summertime bummer that can ruin a picnic or make a whole house or apartment feel dirty and creepy. Although most ants don’t bite, sting or cause any lasting structural damage, their presence can be so annoying that spraying pesticides or leaving traps around seems absolutely essential.

Yet, among other toxins, many ant control products contain permethrin, which is a strongly suspected human carcinogen. Plus, toxic pesticides tend to backfire because they only target the 5 percent of a colony that actually ventures out and they split a single colony into multiple colonies, which will then yield more ants.

For a more effective and greener method, consider an integrated pest management (IPM) approach to rid your home of ants. IPM is a chemical-free approach that takes a lot more strategizing and usually a little more time, but given the risks of pesticides, it’s worth it.

Stop being such a good host
The first question to ask is why are they there? You may need to know a little bit about the exact type of bug you’re dealing with and what are their habits and preferences. For ants, it’s pretty easy — food. To get rid of ants you need to quit feeding them. That means cleaning up your counters, garbage areas, and cupboards and putting all shelf food, including pet food, in sealed containers or in the refrigerator.

Close the ant door
Next ask: Where are they coming in? With their in-your-face parade style of travel ants make this one easy, too. Follow the line of ants back to where they are entering your home and block them. That may mean sealing a hole or crack or fixing a screen. If the entryway is not sealable, create a barrier of coffee grounds or any combination of cayenne pepper, lemon juice, cinnamon, or a citrus-oil-soaked string, which will deter them from crossing.

For ants already inside, try making your own anti-ant spray. Combine 2/3 cup vinegar, 12 drops peppermint oil, and 2 cups water in spray bottle and squirt the ants. Or put cornstarch in your vacuum bag or canister and vacuum them up.

If the ants have taken over your carpeting, and the previous methods don’t work, garden-grade diatomaceous earth is a good less toxic alternative. Sprinkle onto the carpets and then use a broom to work it in to the fibers. Let sit overnight and vacuum thoroughly in the morning. Always use a mask when working with DE and it’s a good precaution to keep pets and kids out of the room until you’ve vacuumed it up.

A little IPM strategizing can go a long way in raining on the summertime ant parade and taking back your home greenly and cleanly from the little buggers.
Kimberly Delaney is the author of Clean Home, Green Home: The Complete Illustrated Guide to Eco-friendly Homekeeping forthcoming this fall from the Knack imprint of Globe Pequot Press.

going green

(NaturalNews) Nissan Motor Company has developed an electric vehicle that pivots on its wheel axis, can squeeze into tight spots without backing up, and even tells its driver to relax when stressed out. The car was displayed at the Tokyo Motor show in late 2007.

The Pivo 2 is a three-seater commuter vehicle shaped like a ball. The top portion, where the seats are located, is capable of pivoting independently of the wheel frame, allowing the driver to face in any direction. Combined with the fact that the wheels also rotate 90 degrees, the Pivo 2 has an unprecedented degree of maneuverability. Parking in tight spots does not require complex maneuvering, and no reverse gear is necessary.

… (continues) …

Provide your email address to read the rest of this story now… Enter your email address to get INSTANT access to the full article:   You’ll also receive full access to all 25,000+ articles on NaturalNews.com plus: Over 20 free, downloadable reports Exclusive interviews with top naturopathic practitioners Free instant access to all the summaries of the industry’s top health books offered at HealthBookSummaries.com (If you’ve already registered, just enter your email address again to access the full article.) Unsubscribe at any time. We NEVER send spam. Your e-mail privacy is 100% protected! Praise for NaturalNews and Mike Adams: “Mike Adams is the best health and natural products writer on the scene today.” - Ronnie Cummins, founder, Organic Consumers Association (www.OrganicConsumers.org) “I wish that more people had the level of intensity that Mr. Mike Adams has to get the knowledge in our hands and help us get healthy and stay healthy. I have recommended ALL my friends to sign up for this important newsletter.” - Dr. Jack Singh, founder, the Organic Food Bar Company “I’m so impressed with the work that you’re doing and the information you’re disseminating, it’s just vital for people to get this sort of information.” - Michael T. Murray, author of The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods and The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine “Mike Adams has one of the best websites on the Internet. His articles, podcasts and books will improve your life, and possibly save it. As a journalist he is relentless in his questioning, always asking insightful questions to expose the truth. Masterful!” - Suzy Cohen, R.Ph., Author of The 24-Hour Pharmacist (www.DearPharmacist.com)

According to Nissan, the concept car is still too expensive for commercial sale, but the company is working on making it more accessible.

In a new feature from original Pivo concept vehicle, Nissan has added a talking robotic head to the inside of the Pivo 2’s cabin, in order to keep drivers company. The robot’s computer is programmed to detect a driver’s mood based on their facial expressions, voice volume and speaking speed. When it detects a certain mood, the robot’s head speaks preprogrammed phrases. If a driver appears stressed out, for example, the head would say “Relax, don’t worry.” The head is also capable of bobbing up and down.

According to the vehicle’s chief designer, Masato Inoue, the goal was to make a car that people could see as more than an inanimate object and actually grow emotionally attached to.

“We want people to feel how cars can be so much fun,” said Shiro Nakamura, head designer for Nissan Motors.

The Pivo 2 is fully electric and can travel up to 125 kilometers (78 miles) without being recharged. It can be charged from any normal wall socket, and does not need a special charging station or device.

going green

(NaturalNews) Based on my other two articles on sea minerals here on NaturalNews, (http://www.naturalnews.com/022278.html) and (http://www.naturalnews.com/022309.html) , I have received a lot of questions from readers on how to make a Sole and how to ocean-farm. In this article I attempt to teach you in plain English how to do so. I can be reached at mello_music@yahoo.com if you have any further questions.

Sea Minerals as Building Blocks

Minerals are the building blocks of life. The sea is the ‘primal soup’ from which all life on earth originates. There is no place on earth with a higher concentration of minerals than the sea. Sea water covers 70% of the planet’s surface. Animal and plant life thrive in an unpolluted sea environment, so much so that a double life span is easily reached compared to life on land, and in perfect health. This is because disease is the result of mineral shortages and acidification and this does not naturally occur in a sea environment. If it does occur, man is to blame, not nature.

Sea minerals as a plasma

All cellular life comes from the sea. Blood has been shown to be 98% identical to sea water. The only difference is that sea water needs an extra molecule of magnesium, whereas blood needs an extra molecule of iron (hence the red color of blood). When a sea water dilution comes in contact with blood, however, the magnesium is converted into iron, making the transition 100%. Thus sea water should be seen as a plasma.

going green

Objective

The goal of this project is to make batteries from fruits and vegetables using metal electrodes. You will use a digital voltmeter along with resistors and other loads to determine the voltage, current, and power that your batteries can produce.

Introduction

Batteries are like mini power plants that derive electrical energy from chemical reactions. You can make batteries with some pretty simple everyday materials. In general, all you need are:

• two different kinds of metal to act as electrodes (though not just any kind of metals will work),
• a liquid solution, called the electrolyte, which will react chemically with the metal electrodes, and
• a way to conduct the electricity from the metal electrodes to something that is using the energy that the battery provides.

going green

The hemp plant “has played a vital role in world commerce for at least six thousand years,” according to John W. Roulac, author of Hemp Horizons (27). Originally cultivated in China and used for making rope and fishnets (HH 27), today hemp is grown throughout the world - except in the United States, where it is illegal to grow the plant but not illegal to manufacture and sell products made from it. Many hurdles face the reintroduction of industrial hemp into American agriculture, manufacturing, and commerce.

Hemp is an annual fiber crop with over 25,000 known uses (HH back cover). Common products that can be made from hemp include clothing, paper, and building materials. The advantages of hemp cultivation over traditional crop cultivation are numerous. For example, Roulac suggests that “one acre of industrial hemp can produce up to four times as much paper as one acre of trees” (HH viii). Hemp can be grown in most fields “with little or no herbicides or insecticides” and rotates well with grain, beans, and flax (HH 129).

Hemp’s true botanical name is Cannabis Sativa L. In many countries, including the United States, hemp is grown illicitly to produce marijuana. Virtually all varieties of hemp contain “[t]he potentially psychoactive chemical . . . delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)” (HH 9). Marijuana-producing hemp usually has a THC content of three to fifteen percent or higher while industrial hemp usually contains less than one percent THC (HH 9).

Hemp was cultivated in the colonies that would later become the United States soon after settlement (HH 32). The Declaration of Independence was written on paper containing hemp fiber (HH 32). States where hemp was once an extremely important crop include Kentucky, Florida, Alabama, New York, Georgia, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Each of these states has at least one town whose name contains hemp including Hempfield, Pennsylvania (HH 33).

The first law preventing the cultivation of hemp in the United States was the Marihuana [SIC] Tax Act of 1937, which virtually eliminated a farmer’s right to grow the plant (HH 42). In 1937 THC had not yet been identified as the chemical causing the psychoactive effects of marijuana (HH 48). Although THC was identified as “marijuana’s psychoactive agent” in 1964 (HH 64) Congress passed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act in 1970 (HH 62) which continued to disallow the cultivation of industrial hemp because all hemp was still classified as psychoactive, regardless of actual THC content. The United Kingdom and Canada passed similar legislation following the lead of the United States, but both of these countries lifted their bans on industrial hemp in the 1990s (HH 21).

Jon Gettman, in his 1996 Business Survey entitled Hemp Power, discovered that American hemp business owners believe most of the hemp fiber used in the products they sell are imported from China, Hungary, Romania, and Thailand (13). The most popular hemp items in 1996 were clothing, accessories, hats, and caps (HP 11). Gettman found that hemp imports in Germany and the United Kingdom totaled over $3 million in 1994 (HP 15), and predicted in his report that gross revenues in the United States from hemp products sold in 1996 would total at least $23.3 million (HP 19).

The eyes of those involved in the American hemp industry were focused on Canadian farms in the late 1990s. On March 12, 1998, hemp cultivation was once again permitted with license in Canada (ICPIH). In August 1998, Doug Campbell of Consolidated Growers and Processors of Canada Ltd. announced company plans to build a $6 million hemp processing plant in rural Manitoba (CHF). According to David Kuxhaus, legislative reporter of the Winnipeg Free Press, “Campbell said [Canadian] farmers could gross in excess of $400 per acre” (CHF). In a 1998 study the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Kentucky estimated a typical hemp crop in Kentucky would be worth from $220 in net revenue for grain production to $600 in net revenue for certified seed production (FH 3). Tobacco is the only crop capable of producing higher revenues (FH 3).

The United States Drug Enforcement Administration recently allowed a test plot of hemp to be grown in Hawaii. The University of Hawaii received $200,000 in funding for this project from Alterna, a hair care company interested in using the hemp seed in their products (HBHE). The results of this experimental plot may determine the likelihood of further allowance of industrial hemp cultivation in the United States.

Given the rise in petroleum prices, it is unfortunate that so little attention has been paid to the industrial hemp industry. The oils of the hemp plant have been made into both biodegradable plastics (HH 120) and ethanol fuels (BOH). Both of these uses of hemp oil would be more ecologically sound when compared to using their petroleum counterparts because most petroleum-based plastics are not biodegradable and the burning of petroleum-based gasoline, unlike biomass (plant) fuel, is a major cause of air pollution.

Farmers, corporations, business owners, and consumers will all play a major role in the reintroduction of industrial hemp into American society. According to a United States Department of Agriculture report “Canada’s 35,000 acres [of industrial hemp] seemingly oversupplied the North American hemp market in 1999″ (IHUS). An increase in the demand for hemp products as well as widespread knowledge of the benefits of hemp is ultimately necessary for the reintroduction of this crop to be both feasible and successful.

going green

HISTORY FACTS

*Hemp has been grown for at least the last 12,000 years for fiber (textiles and paper) and food. It has been effectively prohibited in the United States since the 1950s.

*George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp. Ben Franklin owned a mill that made hemp paper. Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper.

*When US sources of “Manila hemp” (not true hemp) was cut off by the Japanese in WWII, the US Army and US Department of Agriculture promoted the “Hemp for Victory” campaign to grow hemp in the US.

*Because of its importance for sails (the word “canvass” is rooted in “cannabis”) and rope for ships, hemp was a required crop in the American colonies.

INDUSTRY FACTS

*Henry Ford experimented with hemp to build car bodies. He wanted to build and fuel cars from farm products.

*BMW is experimenting with hemp materials in automobiles as part of an effort to make cars more recyclable.

*Much of the bird seed sold in the US has hemp seed (it’s sterilized before importation), the hulls of which contain about 25% protein.

*Hemp oil once greased machines. Most paints, resins, shellacs, and varnishes used to be made out of linseed (from flax) and hemp oils.

*Rudolph Diesel designed his engine to run on hemp oil.

*Kimberly Clark (on the Fortune 500) has a mill in France which produces hemp paper preferred for bibles because it lasts a very long time and doesn’t yellow.

*Construction products such as medium density fiber board, oriented strand board, and even beams, studs and posts could be made out of hemp. Because of hemp’s long fibers, the products will be stronger and/or lighter than those made from wood.

*The products that can be made from hemp number over 25,000.

SCIENTIFIC FACTS

*Industrial hemp and marijuana are both classified by taxonomists as Cannabis sativa, a species with hundreds of varieties. C. sativa is a member of the mulberry family. Industrial hemp is bred to maximize fiber, seed and/or oil, while marijuana varieties seek to maximize THC (delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol, the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana).

*While industrial hemp and marijuana may look somewhat alike to an untrained eye, an easily trained eye can easily distinguish the difference.

*Industrial hemp has a THC content of between 0.05 and 1%. Marijuana has a THC content of 3% to 20%. To receive a standard psychoactive dose would require a person to power-smoke 10-12 hemp cigarettes over an extremely short period of time. The large volume and high temperature of vapor, gas and smoke would be almost impossible for a person to withstand.

*If hemp does pollinate any nearby marijuana, genetically, the result will always be lower-THC marijuana, not higher-THC hemp. If hemp is grown outdoors, marijuana will not be grown close by to avoid producing lower-grade marijuana.

*Hemp fibers are longer, stronger, more absorbent and more mildew-resistant than cotton.

*Fabrics made of at least one-half hemp block the sun’s UV rays more effectively than other fabrics.

*Many of the varieties of hemp that were grown in North America have been lost. Seed banks weren’t maintained. New genetic breeding will be necessary using both foreign and domestic “ditchweed,” strains of hemp that went feral after cultivation ended. Various state national guard units often spend their weekends trying to eradicate this hemp, in the mistaken belief they are helping stop drug use.

*A 1938 Popular Mechanics described hemp as a “New Billion Dollar Crop.” That’s back when a billion was real money.

*Hemp can be made in to a variety of fabrics, including linen quality.

LEGAL FACTS

*The US Drug Enforcement Agency classifies all C. sativa varieties as “marijuana.” While it is theoretically possible to get permission from the government to grow hemp, DEA would require that the field be secured by fence, razor wire, dogs, guards, and lights, making it cost-prohibitive.

*The US State Department must certify each year that a foreign nation is cooperating in the war on drugs. The European Union subsidizes its farmers to grow industrial hemp. Those nations are not on this list, because the State Department can tell the difference between hemp and marijuana.

*Hemp was grown commercially (with increasing governmental interference) in the United States until the 1950s. It was doomed by the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which placed an extremely high tax on marijuana and made it effectively impossible to grow industrial hemp. While Congress expressly expected the continued production of industrial hemp, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics lumped industrial hemp with marijuana, as it’s successor the US Drug Enforcement Administration, does to this day.

*Over 30 industrialized democracies do distinguish hemp from marijuana. International treaties regarding marijuana make an exception for industrial hemp.

*Canada now again allows the growing of hemp.

ECOLOGY FACTS

* Hemp growers can not hide marijuana plants in their fields. Marijuana is grown widely spaced to maximize leaves. Hemp is grown in tightly-spaced rows to maximize stalk and is usually harvested before it goes to seed.

*Hemp can be made into fine quality paper. The long fibers in hemp allow such paper to be recycled several times more than wood-based paper.

*Because of its low lignin content, hemp can be pulped using less chemicals than with wood. Its natural brightness can obviate the need to use chlorine bleach, which means no extremely toxic dioxin being dumped into streams. A kinder and gentler chemistry using hydrogen peroxide rather than chlorine dixoide is possible with hemp fibers.

*Hemp grows well in a variety of climates and soil types. It is naturally resistant to most pests, precluding the need for pesticides. It grows tightly spaced, out-competing any weeds, so herbicides are not necessary. It also leaves a weed-free field for a following crop.

*Hemp can displace cotton which is usually grown with massive amounts of chemicals harmful to people and the environment. 50% of all the world’s pesticides are sprayed on cotton.

*Hemp can displace wood fiber and save forests for watershed, wildlife habitat, recreation and oxygen production, carbon sequestration (reduces global warming), and other values.

*Hemp can yield 3-8 dry tons of fiber per acre. This is four times what an average forest can yield.

HEALTH FACTS

*If one tried to ingest enough industrial hemp to get ‘a buzz’, it would be the equivalent of taking 2-3 doses of a high-fiber laxative.

*At a volume level of 81%, hemp oil is the richest known source of polyunsaturated essential fatty acids (the “good” fats). It’s quite high in some essential amino acids, including gamma linoleic acid (GLA), a very rare nutrient also found in mother’s milk.

*While the original “gruel” was made of hemp seed meal, hemp oil and seed can be made into tasty and nutritional products.

Prepared by the North American Industrial Hemp Council, October 1997

going green