Pubdate: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 Source: Leduc Representative (CN AB) Copyright: 2005 Leduc Representative Contact: http://www.leducrepresentative.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2265 Author: Russell Barth GAS PRICES WAY TOO HIGH? PUT A LITTLE HEMP IN YOUR TANK Dear Editor: 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 dependent 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, because that is the last thing that the oil companies would want us to do, and it is actually possible. Russell Barth Ottawa, Ont. - --- MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman