Hemp

Allegedly, the food staple of days gone by, “gruel”, was made from hemp seed.

Meanwhile, the petrochemical and wood-based paper industries are capital intensive. It takes hundreds of millions of dollars to cut down forests and process them into paper. And in the process, it causes the wholesale destruction of such things as the Brazilian rain forest, which might well be a wonderful source of new, improved medicines.

It takes billions of dollars to drill the earth for petroleum and to process crude oil into fuel, plastics, and chemicals. These industries realize that the capital-intensive nature of their endeavors blocks entry and competition. They want this monopoly and they want all the money and power they can get from it. This is just one aspect of Corporate Rule.

The cotton-growing states also played a lead role in the prohibition of hemp, since cotton is far less durable than hemp fiber. Cotton is also the most pesticide-intensive crop and grows less than 2 feet tall in a season, while hemp grows 15 to 25 feet. Since cotton cannot compete with other weeds and insects when cultivated as a monoculture crop, 28% of all pesticides we produce on our planet are applied to the cotton crop.

Hemp, on the other hand, produces more than a dozen times as much textile fiber as cotton and is virtually pesticide-free since it kills weeds.

Interestingly, Rudolf Diesel invented his engine to run on... Hemp oil.

It is apparent that hemp prohibition is a hugely important part of the concentration of capital wealth in the fewest possible hands.

For example, one can peruse:

<http://www.crrh.org/cannabis/industrial.html>

<http://www.marijuananews.com/dont_smoke_this_house.htm>

<http://www.hempro.com/hemptrade/info1_toc.htm>

Several years ago, an interesting Sovereignty issue arose when the Oglala Sioux Nation decided to test the waters by passing an ordinance allowing cultivation of industrial hemp. The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council voted to amend the tribe’s penal code to make a clear distinction between industrial hemp and marijuana.

This action set the stage for industrial hemp to be grown as an income-producing crop, an important opportunity to employment in a high unemployment area. The issue also raised a key test on the rights of tribal sovereignty. The vote, in fact, took place despite a letter to the Council from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), which maintained that the cultivation of industrial hemp would violate federal law.

Excerpts of the Ordinance are particularly enlightening. For example:

“WHEREAS the Oglala Sioux Tribe recognizes that industrial hemp is a safe and profitable commodity in the international marketplace and is grown in more than thirty countries including Canada, France, England, Russia, China, Germany & Australia, and;

HEREAS treaties signed between the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the US government acknowledge the tribe retains the right to grow food and fiber crops from the soil, and;

WHEREAS the Oglala Sioux Tribe recognizes that industrial hemp was a viable and profitable crop grown in the Pine Ridge region when the treaties were entered between the US and the Oglala Sioux Tribe, and;

WHEREAS the Oglala Sioux Tribe seeks to develop sustainable, land-based, economic opportunities for tribal members, and;

WHEREAS international treaties and trade agreements including the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) specifically classify industrial hemp as a commodity that is separate and distinct from any narcotic;

THEREFORE BE IT ORDAINED, that the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council does hereby expressly reserve and retain jurisdiction to enact legislation relating to industrial hemp agriculture...” (END)

There is definitely an entertainment value in that the Oglala Sioux are using the tools of the World Trade Organization (WTO) with respect to nullifying laws, which conflict with Corporate Rule, such as growing industrial hemp. Something to watch for!

Sweat Shops Hierarchy Corporate Rule

Forward to:

Project Independence The Fat Lady Is Singing

Hemp

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