Hemp Hemp Hooray!

In support of the upcoming Earth Day, we at The Clock find it imperative to highlight the most significant agricultural, environmental, and economic opportunity that has been suppressed by amoral corporate entities and their legislative lackeys. We’re talking about the industrialization and mass production of theCannabis Sativa plant, which would ignite a worldwide social and economic revolution, curbing environmental destruction and, quite possibly, end world hunger. For thousands of years, Cannabis Sativa (hemp) has been a bountiful source of food, fiber, and fuel for humanity. In fact, hemp produces more protein, oil and fiber than any other plant on Earth. Because of this, cotton fiber, petrochemical, plastics, and wood based paper industries perpetuated a propaganda campaign in the early twentieth century (see Reefer Madness) which injected fear and ignorance into the masses, allowing these centralized and environmentally unsound industries to shape our modern economic landscape. Flash forward to today, where hemp’s illegality is simply a matter of control. Here are the facts: Fabrics made from hemp fiber last longer than fabrics made from cotton. Compared to cotton (the most pesticide intensive crop on the planet, using 28 percent of the world’s pesticides), hemp produces a dozen times more textile fiber per harvest, and requires zero pesticides. Forty percent of trees cut down in the world are dedicated to making paper. Hemp paper is just as good as wood-based paper, if not better, and yields much more fiber per acreage compared to slow growing trees. 10,000 acres of fast growing hemp would save 41,000 acres of slow-growing, oxygen producing forest habitat. Hemp would make our noxious oil industry obsolete (along with their imperial grip over geo-politics), yielding three hundred gallons of bio-diesel per acre, per bi-annual harvest. The first internal combustion engine-invented by Rudolph Diesel in 1894-ran on hemp derived bio-diesel, and even diesel engines today can run cleanly on the stuff unconverted.Hemp creates a useful byproduct: nutritious food. Hempseed itself contains the essential building blocks of life. It’s very high in protein, plus, the oil extracted from hempseed consists of eighty percent of the essential fatty acids the human body requires. If the modern world embraced hemp as the industrial boon it truly is, the tremendous amount of nutritious byproduct would sustain the poor and starving populations of the planet.To deny the people Hemp-with its practically endless range of environmentally sound uses-is to deny people freedom and control over their own destinies, to corral them into accepting expensive and ecologically destructive alternatives. Since our state motto in New Hampshire is “Live Free or Die,” we must heed these timeless words and reform the corrupt legislation that prevents us from utilizing hemp. Hemp would give our state the ability to be completely self-sufficient, providing fuel for electricity and transportation, textile fiber with limitless potential for local businesses, and sustenance for the people of New Hampshire. The core of revolution is to revolve, to look away from an existing standard you don’t agree with. Look away from heartless conglomerates and their ravenous hording of resources, their manipulation of our public figures and social norms, and their systematic oppression of the voiceless and powerless. Look toward a world where our air is clean and our water is safe to drink, and everyone has a full belly. Look toward sustainability and self-preservation. Look toward hemp, and let the revolution be local.