HEMP

Hemp is a dilemma. I expect Al Gore will discover it any day now.


Hemp cannot legally be grown in the USA. In Europe and Canada, licenses are issued for the production of industrial hemp. China is the world leader in its production. The prohibition in the US goes back to 1937 when William Randolph Hearst exerted pressure on Congress to produce the Marijuana Tax Act.


Why would Hearst do that? Well, a 1916 USDA report, showed that one acre of hemp could replace 4.1 acres of trees in the production of paper. Hearst was heavily invested in the timber industry which supplied paper to his newspaper business. It was a simple dollars and cents decision for him.


To make matters worse, the manufacturing process of paper from hemp does not require acid nor produce acid byproducts as we have now with paper made from wood pulp. Paper mills are some of the worst polluters in the Country.


Now comes a new revelation. I think it will soon be proved that we could produce engine fuel from hemp as easily as we can from corn.


Someone must tell Al Gore that we could solve the 'global warming' problem by allowing the production of hemp in this country. All those rock musicians playing at his concerts would surely rejoice.