72 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
72 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
****** HEMP ******
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*** THE PAPER CROP OF THE FUTURE ***
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By John Birrenbach The Institute for HEMP
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Hemp is it the wonder plant of the next century, can it be as
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great a boom to the planet as is predicted by so many, is it truly
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the cash crop that is predicted ? All of these were questions of
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mine when I formed the Institute for HEMP. I was out to find
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the real truth about the hemp plant and either confirm or deny, separately,
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the information being told on both sides of the issue.
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What I discovered was this. That since the early thirties of
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this century a campaign of misleading information has been
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disseminated about this plant. Also that there is hard evidence
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to prove that hemp can indeed be used in the manufacture of
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thousands of products. Further that hemp can relieve the
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pollution stress on our environment. As I will show in detail
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hemp can save the world from economic and environmental disaster
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all we have to do is demand the switch be made.
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The Institute has finished a study on the feasibility of using
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hemp for paper. What we found was astonishing. First we found
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that the United Sates alone uses some 54.1 million Metric Tons
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(MT) of trees in the production of paper each year. Of that some
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is imported the rest is U.S. cut. These trees are also worth
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between $750 to $1,000 per MT depending on if the tree is either
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of hard or soft wood, soft being more expensive. This makes the
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tree pulp paper industry worth $40.5 to $54.1 Billion Dollars per
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year.
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During our study we searched for agricultural records. We found
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that the U.S. has approx 950 Million Acres (MA) of available farm
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land. Of that land we planted, in 87, some 450 MA's. This leaves
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some 500 MA of land unplanted each year. We also found out that
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the farmer on average receives $350-400 per acre for corn, of
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which some is government subsides. We discovered in old USDA
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Literature, 1942, that the farmer can produce 2-3 tons of hemp
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stalks per acre. These stalks are the raw material for a number
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of products of which paper is one. We could easily pay the
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farmer $350 per MT for hemp stalks to be used in the manufacture
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of paper. At the rate of only 2 tons per acre the farmer could
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receive approx. $700 per acre. If the farmers of the US were to
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supply the raw material for paper they would need to plant some 27
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MAUs, or 5% of the UNPLANTED FARM LAND to hemp. That 27 MAUs
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would be worth conservatively $18.9 Billion Dollars per year.
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This would also reduce the paper cost to consumers by 50-70%. If
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we wanted to keep the pulp industry as it is the farmers would
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finally reap the benefits they truly deserve.
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When we examined the viability of hemp for paper we concluded the
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following. First that hemp as a paper source is an extremely
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viable alternative. Unlike Kenaf, a plant the USDA has high hopes
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for and can only be grown in the south west, hemp can be grown on
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any farm land in the continental U.S. Even marginal land should
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be able to produce 2 tons of stalk per acre. Hemp also does not
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require the use of fertilizers, like kenaf. Hemp when
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manufactured into paper does not require the use of the toxic
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chemicals, like tree paper. Instead hemp paper only requires the
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use of lye, or lime stone, to break the lignan down and hydrogen
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peroxide to bleach it white. While the factories currently making
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trees into pulp will have to retool for hemp the cost of this
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retool will be far cheaper than the lawsuits that will be filled
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by environmentalists against them if they donUt stop the pollution
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they create.
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We must ask our selves and elected official if we want to remain
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the same and die on a burned out planet or do we want to save
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ourselves and our children's world. Hemp is a plant that can
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indeed save the worlds trees.
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