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For Immediate Release
Monday, March 19, 2007
CONTACT: Adam Eidinger 202-744-2671
adam@votehemp.com
Tom Murphy 207-542-4998
tom@votehemp.com
Poll Shows Strong Voter Support
for Industrial Hemp Farming in California
71% of Californians Support Changing State Law
to Allow Hemp Farming; Hearings on New Hemp Bill AB
684 Scheduled for March 27
SACRAMENTO, CA —
Vote Hemp, the nation's leading grassroots organization
working to give farmers the right to grow non-psychoactive
industrial hemp to be made into everything from food
to clothing, paper, body care, bio-fuel and even auto
parts, has released a new
poll of 801 likely California voters about industrial
hemp. The telephone poll has a 3.5% margin of error
and sampled likely California voters from February 22-26.
The survey was conducted by the respected research firm
Zogby
International on behalf of Vote Hemp and five manufacturers
of hemp food products, including ALPSNACK,
French
Meadow Bakery, Living
Harvest, Nature's
Path Organic Foods and Nutiva.
The poll
results, released today for the first time, confirm
there is strong support for reform on the issue of industrial
hemp. A total of 71% support changing state law to allow
farmers to grow hemp, including 46% who strongly support
and another 25% who somewhat support changing state
law so California farmers can supply manufacturers with
hemp seed, oil and fiber. Presently, U.S. companies
must import their hemp raw materials from other countries.
Over the past several years, the California
legislature has passed various resolutions and bills
to permit farmers to grow industrial hemp. AB
684, the California Industrial Hemp Farming Act,
is authored by Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco)
and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine) and will be
heard in the Assembly Public Safety Committee on Tuesday,
March 27. If passed and signed into law, AB 684 would
regulate commercial industrial hemp farming in California.
Today more than 30 industrialized nations grow industrial
hemp, many of them exporting it to the U.S. Hemp is
the only crop that is illegal to grow here while being
legal to import. Sales of hemp food and body care products
have grown rapidly in recent years, fueling an expansion
of hemp farming in Canada where farmers grew more than
48,000 acres in 2006.
Poll questions and results regarding industrial
hemp farming policy and consumer attitudes on hemp products
and nutrition can be viewed online
here. There is evidence of strong support among
both men and women and both self-identified liberal
and conservative voters on this issue. Among California
Republicans, 60% support changing state law on hemp,
compared to 74% of state Democrats. Support was also
high among all age groups, ranging from 54% of 18- to
29-year-olds to 82% of 30- to 49-year-olds, 74% of 50-
to 64-year-olds and 60% of those over 65 years old.
Assemblyman
Mark Leno, who introduced AB 684 in February, said
that "the Zogby poll underscores that California voters
of all political persuasions support changing the senseless
policy of importing industrial hemp while prohibiting
our own farmers from growing it."
Vote Hemp is a non-profit organization
dedicated to the acceptance of and a free market for
industrial hemp and to changes in current law to allow
U.S. farmers to once again grow low-THC industrial hemp.
More information about hemp legislation and the crop's
many uses may be found at www.VoteHemp.com
or www.HempIndustries.org.
BETA SP or DVD Video News Releases featuring footage
of hemp farming in other countries are available upon
request by contacting Adam Eidinger at 202-744-2671.
END
Zogby
Poll of California Voters
Conducted February 22-26, 2007
(PDF file 116k)
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