Our local hemp hero and advocate was recently at the Bioneers Conference. Watch this short video interview with him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKX1Z2ZbwS4
John Roulac, Nutiva Founder at Bioneers
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Some problems with hemp:
Hemp makes heavy nutrient demands on the soil, hemp extracts more nutrients per hectare than grain crops, removing about two to three times as much nitrogen, three to six times as much phosphorus, and 10 to 22 times as much potassium per hectare, owing to fast biomass production.
To achieve an optimum hemp yield, at least twice as much nutrients must be available in an easily assimilable form as will finally be removed from the soil by the leaf-free harvest.
(Source: Government of Canada, Agriculture Canada: Report on Hemp, Bi-Weekly Bulletin, December 16, 1994 Vol. 7 No. 23, by Gordon Reichert.)
I think it would be better to plant trees instead of some exotic sub tropical annual farm crop that needs pesticides and fertilizer. Trees offer an eco system that can support birds and other animals rather than a mono cultured crop. Why would you want to have vast deforested areas to grow hemp when those areas could be growing trees?
There are also logistical problems of storing harvested hemp since it must be protected from the rain, for long periods of time in between harvests. And because of it’s bulkyness it’s expensive to transport compared to wood. As compared to eucalyptus, hemp will only produce approx. three tones per hectare per year, where as, eucalyptus will produce up to seven tones per year per hectare.
BC
Brian brings up several interesting points regarding soil fertility and fiber crops in relationship to industrial hemp.
Like corn, hemp is a heavy feeder and likes a lot of nitrogen. The majority of the 30,000 hemp acres grown in Canada in 2006 were under organic cultivation. Organic farmers use a 6-7 year rotation, and plant hemp following 1-2 years of vetch or alfalfa which fix’s nitogen in the soil. Hemp is a excellent break crop that chokes out weeds and improves the titlth of the soil due to it’s long tap root and high leaf matter which falls to the soil. No pesticides or herbicides are used- including on farms that spray on their other crops.
Hemp is not the ideal crop for making cheap paper or cheap feuls. Yet hemp fiber is great for replacing fiber glass in composites and over 1 million cars in America today(GM/FORD/BMW) use hemp fiber for door paneling etc. Saves them $$ and is ligher thus improves fuel milage.
Hemp is also being used as a green building material for insulation and plaster in Europe.
Hempseed is super high in protein, omega-3,fiber and vital minerials such as zinc and magnesium.
Think of all the jobs we can create once we change the laws in the US and allow this non-drug crop to be grown by family farmers.
To learn more visit
http://www.votehemp.com or http://www.nutiva.com
John W Roulac
Nutiva Founder and CEO
The only objection I would have regarding hemp is when it is promoted as replacing trees (wood) for those materials that wood is use for under the guise of “protecting” the forests. Otherwise I think it has great potential ! It is a proven resource and does have many various uses. It is completely stupid that our government is interfering with the farming of hemp. I guess they’re afraid somebody is going to plant some high grade stuff in every other row or something.
BC
The government blocks hemp farming due to politics and in the 33 countries where hemp is grown such as Canada,UK,Germany, and China their is no law enforcement problem. Planting high THC cannbis inside a hemp field is not done in these countries and is simply a ruse to stop the next billion dollar clean and renewable industry.
If you tell lies enough after awhile people believe them.
A few examples:
Hemp is a Drug,
Free Press,
Free Markets,
Democracy,
Checks and Balances in Government,
The “Federal” Reserve,
Organic Farming will Make the World Starve,
Coconut Oil Causes Heart Disease,
Inflation is 4%( Yes people really believe this amazing but true !) ,
Reducing Smog will Hurt Our Economy,
Trains are Not Economical,
Arabs Hate our Freedom,
Requiring Printers on Voting Machines is a Bad Idea,
Building a LNG terminal in Ventura County is Good, etc.
The leval of brain washing is so amazing you have to hand it to the folks that benefit from this.
For the future’s sake I sure hope folks will think for themselves vs believing little fairy tales that we were taught as facts in grade school.
John W Roulac