138 lines
6.6 KiB
Plaintext
138 lines
6.6 KiB
Plaintext
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I passed an earlier version of this at a Clinton-Gore appearance
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in LaCrosse a month ago. Went over well with older folks, farmers.
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Feel free to reprint, give your address
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_____________________________________________________
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HOW THE NEXT PRESIDENT CAN SAVE THE FARM ECONOMY
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(and balance the budget) (and protect the environment)
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America cannot return to prosperity without restoring prosperity
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to its farmers. Subsidies are not the answer, as they only lead to
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further overproduction of food crops the market doesn't want. We
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must move toward high yielding agricultural crops as primary
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feedstocks for industry.
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PROTECTIONISM IN REVERSE
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Hemp, the single most prolific and versatile plant for these uses
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is off limits to the American farmer. Russian farmers typically
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yield 5 tons of hemp stalk per acre per year. They lack modern
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factories for turning hemp into useful products. The Dutch
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government has invested $20 million in a research project to
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develop improved strains and machinery. Unless a similar effort is
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undertaken here we will find ourselves once again aced out of huge
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markets.
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PAPER
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Hemp outyields trees at least 3 to 1. Because of its higher
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cellulose content, hemp requires less chemical processing, and
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thus has lower costs and pollution, according to the Dutch
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Studies.* Last year the first shiploads of Brazilian eucalyptus
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pulp unloaded at the Port of Green Bay. The US Department of
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Agriculture has promoted kenaf, a traditional African fiber plant
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as a paper alternative. Two years ago Pat LeMahieu, a former
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agronomy researcher at the UW-Madison now director of operations
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with Agrecol, achieved an impressive 6 ton per acre yield of
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kenaf. In the Feb 8, 1991 Isthmus, (Madison's weekly,) LeMahieu
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said hemp has higher quality fiber, more potential uses, the
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ability to withstand cold better, and possibly higher yields. "If
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it weren't for the alkaloids [psychoactive ingredients] in hemp,
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we wouldn't even be talking about kenaf." Hemp is also far more
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drought resistant than Kenaf.
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FIBER
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Historically hemp supplied fabrics from the finest linens to the
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sails for seagoing ships. (Canvass is the Old Dutch word for
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cannabis.) Cotton, with only 1/3 the fiber yield, is the most
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chemical intensive crop in production. Hemp chokes out competing
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weeds, and has few insect pests, so hemp farmers have little use
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for pesticides. While hemp likes a rich soil, most of the
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nutrients migrate to the leaves and eventually flowers, which are
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returned to the soil when growing hemp for stalk, so with
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appropriate rotation fertilizers are unneccessary. Hemp's long
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taproot brings minerals from deep soil layers, leaving them
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accessible to the following crop. Unlike cotton, hemp can be grown
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throughout the United States, and its lower cost makes it
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competitive with synthetic fibres. Fabric used to be the most
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recycled item in commerce. Now it is the least because no one has
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discovered a way to seperate the cotton from the polyester.
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FUEL
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Like any biomass (plant derived) fuel, burning hemp releases into
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the atmosphere only as much Carbon Dioxide as was removed in
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photosynthesis, with no net contribution to the Greenhouse Effect.
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Hemp's low Sulfur content contributes little to Acid Rain. Recent
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advances in Biomass Gasification technologies suggest hemp
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replacing coal in our electric power stations. Technology for
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conversion to liquid fuels is farther behind, and still expensive
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when compared to current oil prices as subsidised by our military
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presence in the Persian Gulf. Shifting more of the tax burden to
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environmentally destructive use of fossil fuels would stimulate
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research, and hasten the inevitable changeover to clean biomass.
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FOOD and MEDECINE Cultivation of hemp seed for food and livestock
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feed dates at least to the ancient Sumerians. While it is second
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to soybeans in total protein content, hemp seed has a more
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complete balance of amino acids. More importantly, hemp seed oil
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is the top plant source for linoleic and linolenic acids, the
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essential fatty acids for which fish oil is touted to lower blood
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colesterol and strengthen the immune system. Of course pressing
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the oil from hemp seed makes these nutrients available at a tiny
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fraction of the cost of fish oil. Hemp flowers provide a medecine
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useful for the treatment of such diverse problems as Muscular
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Sclerosis, Anorexia, Glaucoma, and the Nausea associated with
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Chemotherapy and AIDS.
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ONE OBSTACLE REMAINS.
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The flowers of the hemp plant, when smoked or otherwise ingested,
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produce a mild euphoria, which we have culturally and legally
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labeled as inherently evil. The law defines any part of the plant
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other than stalk, fiber, or sterilized seed as marijuana, and
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there is no way to raise stalks without leaves. While low potency
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fiber strains are available in Europe, and fiber crops are
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harvested before the flowers form, (much more potent than leaves,)
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US law makes no distinction.
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No-one has ever died from using marijuana. Indeed, in a review of
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its medical use, US Administative Law Judge Francis Young found it
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to be "among the safest therapeutically active substances known to
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man." The sole remaining argument against it is the so-called
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"Gateway Effect.," which states that its use leads to hard drugs.
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In fact, it is the prohibition of the plant which puts it in the
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same marketplace as heroin or cocaine. When the supply of
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marijuana is interrupted retailers find themselves without any
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income, and some shift to selling whatever they can get, luring
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their customers to truly dangerous drugs. In a legal cannabis
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market, supply would be continuous and regulated.
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DOES GEORGE BUSH REALLY CARE ABOUT DRUG ABUSE?
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As Vice President he headed the South Florida Drug Interdiction
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Task Force, and simultaneously oversaw Ollie North's Contra supply
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operation, whose planes returned from Cental America loaded with
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Cocaine. The Task Force decided which drug smugglers would be
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targeted by law enforcement, and consequently which would not. If
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he was really "out of the loop" on contra supply, why did he
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protect their illicit fundraising? Is the government's war on
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marijuana a cover for continuing intelligence agency involvement
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in the importation of hard drugs? Can you fool all of the people
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all of the time? To find out, tune in in November.
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Ben Masel, Wiscsconsin State Director
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National Organization to Reform the Marijuana
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Laws 911 Williamson St, Madison, WI 53703
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(608) 257-5456
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* Characterization and Processing of Annual Crops (Esp. Hemp) for
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Pulp and Paper by Marie-Jose de Smet, Agrotechnical Research
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Institute, ATO- DLO, Haagsteeg 6, 6700AA Wageningen, The
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Netherlands, as presented at the First European Conference on
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Industrial Uses for Agricultural Crops, Maastricht, the
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Netherlands, November 1991.
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f
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