Pubdate: Wed, 17 Jan 2007
Source: Grand Forks Gazette (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 Sterling Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.mapinc.org/media/525
Note: The newspaper does not have an active website.
Author: Russell Barth
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?330 (Hemp - Outside U.S.)

HEMP MAKES CLIMATE DIFFERENCE

Editor, The Gazette:

No matter what is causing climate change, one of the best things 
Canadians could do to reduce greenhouse gasses is grow lots of Industrial Hemp.

We have the people, we have the land, we have the know-how - we just 
have no political will.

Hemp (the legal, non-drug version of the Cannabis plant) produces 
more ethanol fuel per acre than any other crop. It can be used for 
car, truck, boat, and airplane fuel, polymer body parts, lubricants, 
paint, and about 25,000 other things.

Hemp doesn't need the fertilizers or pesticides used to grow corn, 
soy, or wheat grass, or the fuel to spread those chemicals, so that 
would reduce pollution further. This would also help Canada's farmers 
immensely, most of whom are operating under large debts.

Hemp doesn't need the prime soil of those other crops, and can grow 
on even marginal, contaminated, or depleted soil.

Hemp eats more CO2 per acre than any other crop, reducing pollution further.

Hemp is a weed, so it will not be choked off or overgrown by the 
other weeds that will thrive in the warmer, higher CO2 atmosphere of 
the coming decade, and threaten more traditional crops.

Hemp also produces more biomass per acre than any other crop, meaning 
it could - at least partially - replace coal as a hydroelectric fuel. 
Unlike dirty, finite, coal, Hemp is endlessly renewable and burns lean.

Then we wouldn't need more dams or nuclear plants!

Hemp produces more nutrition per acre than any other crop, and it is 
the most easily assimilated protein known to man.

The ironic part is, outdoor marijuana growers would never sneak their 
illegal pot into or anywhere near someone's legal Hemp field (as they 
often do now with corn), because the Hemp plants would pollinate the 
marijuana, causing it to seed, and making the pot absolutely useless 
on the black market!

The main problem is; promoting and using Industrial Hemp for all of 
these clean, green, environmentally friendly industries might send 
the wrong message to youth about marijuana, and undermine the 
government's 70+ year anti-pot propaganda campaign.

So it looks like we are stuck with oil, coal, and prohibitively 
expensive corn for another generation at least.

Russell Barth

Federal Medical Marijuana License Holder

Ottawa, Ont.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman