Pubdate: Tue, 06 Sep 2005 Source: Parksville Qualicum Beach News (CN BC) Copyright: 2005 Parksville Qualicum Beach News Contact: http://www.pqbnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1361 Author: Russell Barth OIL COMPANIES DON'T LIKE HEMP Whatever you do, don't go to Google and type in "industrial hemp." If you do, 'Big Oil' will be very mad at you! The oil industry would be really upset if the media were to let the general public know that we could entirely replace crude oil - a finite commodity - with a clean-burning, easy-growing, cheaply-processed, endlessly-renewable plant material. They would be absolutely furious if all of us - who are entirely dependant on them - were to suddenly find out that hemp has 25,000 industrial applications, including car fuel, polymers (plastic), food, fiber, medicine, building materials, and paper. We might actually realize that we don't even need crude oil, and where would their profits be then? Who will pay for their luxury, if not the general public? We should all take a moment to imagine a future where the air, soil, and water were clean, fuel was cheap, and where multi-billion-dollar oil corporations didn't rule the world and start illegal wars. Russell Barth Ottawa - --- MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman