10 Questions: Anita Roddick
Which are your own favourite products from the store?

Hemp Production Legalized in ND
Video from KXMA-TV, Dickinson, ND.

Hemp Production Rules Meet Legal Requirement
North Dakota Department of Agriculture Press Release.

With Falling Global Prices for Sugar and Cotton, Cannabis May Become an Alternative
More on the possibility of hemp farming in Swaziland.

By James MacPherson
Associated Press
InForum
December 4, 2006

BISMARCK, ND (AP) Ñ David Monson plans on being one of the first in line to apply for a license to grow industrial hemp legally in North Dakota.

Monson is a state representative from Osnabrock and a farmer who watches his Canadian neighbors grow the crop just 25 miles north of his farm. Hemp production has been legal in Canada since 1998, after 60 years of prohibition.

Monson said it's time for North Dakota to cash in on the crop.

"We know it will grow here," Monson said.

North Dakota farmers may start applying for state licenses to grow industrial hemp on Jan. 1, but no seed may be sown until federal drug agents approve, Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson says.

Kristin Bien
KMOT-TV NBC 10
Minot, ND
December 7, 2006

Watch the Video

North Dakota farmers are the first in the nation to be able to grow industrial hemp.

After January first farmers can begin applying for a license to grow the crop.

The rules require a criminal background check, the sale and location of hemp fields must be documented, and the farmer must obtain a permit from the Drug Enforcement Administration.

North Dakota farmers are now allowed to grow industrial hemp ... and while it does look a lot like marijuana, it has no value for drug use.

"It is broken down to a genetic level. There is a genetic difference, a DNA distinction between the two," says Rob Robinson.

By Jordan Smith
The Austin Chronicle
December 8, 2006

On Nov. 15, North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson announced that his state is one step closer to approving and issuing its first-ever hemp-farming license. The announcement followed state Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem's final sign-off on the state's hemp-farming rules, signaling that they are in compliance with state law.

For nearly a decade, North Dakota has been at the forefront of the push to reauthorize hemp farming, as state lawmakers Ñ from both parties Ñ have worked to craft laws that would allow North Dakota's farmers to cultivate industrial cannabis, the non-narcotic cousin of marijuana that contains just trace amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. When the rule finally takes effect, North Dakota will be first in line to challenge the near virtual ban on industrial hemp farming imposed by the feds in 1937 with the Marihuana Tax Act and championed with myopic vigor by the Drug Enforcement Administration since the 1970s with the passage of the Controlled Substances Act.

Hemp cultivation was an integral part of the American farming economy from colonial times (when it was illegal not to grow) through the mid-Thirties, when reefer madness took hold and federal narcos Ñ and not the Department of Agriculture Ñ were given the authority to also regulate industrial hemp, a move that in turn has led to the near total ban on cultivation of the environmentally-friendly crop. (Hemp fibers are among the strongest and have been used to make a variety of products Ñ from paper, clothing and sails to, in more modern times, composite panels used in a variety of cars, including the Ford Explorer, Dodge Viper and BMW 3 series.)

Guardian Unlimited
December 5, 2006

You would have to have been on another planet for the past couple of years to have not noticed the intensive campaign to put Omega-3 in everything we eat at the moment Ñ it's even in eggs. Nutritionists, however, say that the amount of Omega-3 in these foods is usually minute, compared with the quantities you can get by eating oily fish.

The trouble is, environmentalists, along with vegetarians, are more than a little concerned by reports suggesting that at least 75% of the world's fish stocks are either exploited or significantly depleted. So where do we go for an Omega-3 fix?