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Dear Reader,
In this issue of The Hemp News Update, we
continue our efforts to
show the progress being made around
the world to bring back agricultural hemp
farming. The government of Canada has
released a 400-page National
Industrial Hemp Strategy and is actively
supporting their farmers and industry. Another
state in Australia has successfully passed
legislation to regulate the growing of hemp and is now
licensing farmers. Industry
leaders in that country are laying the
groundwork necessary to legalize the sale and
consumption of
hemp foods as well. It is interesting to note that hemp
fiber is even being exported from Australia and Canada
to China!
President-elect Barack Obama continues to
put together his Cabinet and
yesterday nominated former Iowa Governor Tom
Vilsack to be Secretary of Agriculture. Vote
Hemp and the Hemp Industries Association
(HIA) are hopeful that Mr. Vilsack, who as an
Iowa State Senator voted in committee to pass
a hemp study bill in 1997, will see oilseed
and fiber varieties of Cannabis as
a valuable agricultural opportunity for U.S. farmers.
Unfortunately, the last two presidential
administrations have had the contention that
"hemp cultivation may be a stalking-horse for
the legalization of marijuana" and have seen
the hemp issue solely as a drug policy issue
rather than as the agricultural, environmental
and economic development issue it truly is. In the
process, sadly, they have spent untold vast sums of
money fighting losing legal and public
relations battles.
All of the hard work that the hemp industry
has done in the past decade has also been costly
in both time and money. If not for that
investment, however, we would not now have a market
for hemp foods or hemp-based cosmetics and
bodycare. This effort was made possible in large part
by Dr.
Bronner's Magic Soaps and you, the numerous
supporters of Vote Hemp and the HIA. We have won
many battles along the way, but the war is not yet over.
So, won't you please consider making a year-end contribution
to Vote Hemp today to help us continue fixing the
situation here in the U.S. With your help, we will win
the fight.
We need and truly appreciate your continued support!
Best Regards,
Tom Murphy
Hemp News Update Editor
| Hemp Shorts: |
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Freshly harvested hemp seeds. Photo credit:
Manitoba Harvest.
Green
With Envy
A well-done story from
Capitol News Online, an online news
magazine run by students in the Journalism
program at Carleton University in Ottawa,
Canada. Please be sure to also check out the
narrated slide show "Nature's
Multitasker" (requires Flash player).
Industrial
Hemp Growers Launch National Plan
The
National Industrial Hemp Strategy was
recently introduced at the Canadian Hemp Trade
Alliance (CHTA) Conference and Annual General
Meeting in Winnipeg, Manitoba. You may
download the 400-page document on the Vote Hemp Canada page.
Hemp
Rules Under Review
The bylaw that
restricts the sale of hemp products in the
British Columbia City of Langley is on the
city council agenda. Be sure to check out the
quote from Councillor Gayle Martin. The HIA
provided background information on legal hemp
products to Mayor Peter Fassbender and his
staff and received a positive reply.
Industrial
Hemp Production in Canada
The numbers
are in from Health Canada for industrial hemp
production in 2008.
Building Sustainably: Low Energy Construction
Learn about building with hemp at this seminar being
hosted by Hemp Technologies Inc. in Asheville, NC on
January 23-24, 2009.
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| End Hempseed Food Ban: Businessman |
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Kim Hough of Hemp Resorces Ltd. Photo
credit: John Mokrzycki / The West Australian.
By Cathy O'Leary
The West
Australian
November 29, 2008
A Perth businessman wants the Federal
Government to lift a ban on the sale of
hempseed foods and oils for human
consumption, arguing they have a better
balance of essential fatty acids than popular
fish oil.
Hemp Resources chief executive Kim Hough has
written to his local MP and Foreign Affairs
Minister Stephen Smith calling for an
exemption from the Australian food standard
which makes hemp foods illegal for human
ingestion.
Hempseed and its oil come from the leaf of
the Cannabis plant but do not have any
psychotropic properties [Ed. Note: the seed and oil
actually come from the flowers]. They are already
used in food products such as health bars,
salad oils and dairy substitutes overseas.
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| Grow Your Own Hemp Industry |
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Hemp researcher and grower Keith Bolton.
Photo credit: The Northern Rivers Echo.
By Andy Parks
The Northern Rivers Echo
November 27, 2008
China's insatiable demand for iron ore has
been the basis for Western Australia's
booming export industry, but another natural
resource has been making its way to the East.
According to Nimbin-based hemp researcher and
grower Klara Marosszeky, a Western Australian
hemp grower is exporting all of his crop to
China, including a contract to supply the
Chinese military. The military are using the
material to create "hemp food packs" that
include hemp milk, hemp chocolate, hemp cake,
hemp coffee and hemp protein powder, amongst
other food products.
"You can use the meal like flour. It was used
by most cultures of the world in the last
century," she said.
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| HIA Featured Member - French Meadow Bakery |
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Gazing out onto the pristine fields of French
Meadow, Lynn Gordon was attending a cooking
class and pondering a new recipe for bread
that would accommodate her macrobiotic diet.
The diet prohibited her from eating breads
loaded with yeast and sugar; the natural
leavening process breaks down complex
carbohydrates and glutens, rendering the
bread more digestible and the nutrients more
easily absorbed. Thus, the idea for the
all-organic and functional French Meadow
Bakery was born.
Opened in 1985, French
Meadow Bakery is the longest
continuously-running certified organic bakery
in the U.S. Lynn's early vision for a variety
of delicious, innovative, healthy breads and
sweet goods has blossomed into an extensive
and award-winning product line of
gluten-free, vegan, yeast-free and kosher
parve foods known for their great taste,
texture and performance qualities. French
Meadow Bakery uses natural ingredients and no
artificial colors, flavors or preservatives.
The bakery is USDA Certified Organic, Quality
Assurance International Certified Organic,
Certified Gluten-Free by the Gluten Free
Certification Organization, a program of The
Gluten Intolerance Group, and Certified Low
Glycemic for Diabetics by The Glycemic
Research Institute.
Lynn's passion for unique and trend-setting
functional foods for all consumers manifests
itself in such popular products as Healthy
Hemp Bread, Men's Bread, Women's Bread,
Healthseed Spelt Bread, delectable cookies,
cakes and desserts. Fourteen new and trendy
products were introduced within the last
year, and a dozen more are currently in
creation. All products are available at
mainstream grocers and natural food stores.
French Meadow Bakery continues its founding
commitment to be a sustainable company that
educates its customers on the lifelong
benefits of organic foods and healthy eating,
and the company supports small farmers. The
bakery uses certified organic grains and
non-GMO ingredients, which are grown in
balance and harmony with nature, further
sustaining the health of the planet.
Twenty-three years after Lynn's auspicious
vision in that now-famous field, French
Meadow Bakery's mission reaches a welcoming
international audience with its new strategic
business alliance with Rich Products
Corporation. French Meadow Bakery's future is
ripe with community involvement, education
and environmental sustainability on a global
scale, leading the industry to new peaks in
healthy and delicious eating innovations.
[If you are a member of the HIA and would
like to have your company featured here,
please submit a small selection of graphics
and a profile of no more than a few
paragraphs to tom@thehia.org,
or call 207-542-4998 for more information.
Space is limited and is first-come,
first-serve. Your member profile will be seen
in The HIA Member Newsletter, as
well as here in
The
Hemp News Update which is read by
thousands of subscribers.]
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The DEA's Dopiness: Hemp Farmers Growing Nothing But Impatient at Government Roadblocks |
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North Dakota House Speaker and hemp
farmer David Monson. Photo credit: Scott T. Samson /
The Austin Chronicle.
By Jordan Smith
The Austin
Chronicle
November 28, 2008
Two North Dakota farmers were back in court
Nov. 12, arguing before the 8th U.S. Court of
Appeals that the federal government should
not be allowed to block their attempts to
farm non-narcotic industrial hemp.
Specifically, the farmers argue that because
their proposed cultivation is an entirely
intrastate proposition, sanctioned by state
law, the Constitution's commerce clause
precludes the Drug Enforcement
Administration's (DEA) ability to regulate their
hemp farming within the state. "The question
is whether the mere existence of the [hemp]
plant on the farmers' property can affect
marijuana commerce," the farmers' attorney Joe
Sandler argued to the court. "The answer to
that is no."
North Dakota lawmakers in 1999 passed
legislation that would allow state farmers to
cultivate industrial hemp — a cousin of the
drug marijuana that contains only trace
amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the drug's
main psychoactive ingredient. Hemp was once a
major American staple crop (the federal
government actually encouraged farmers to
grow it during World War II), but by the end
of the 1950s (thanks to a variety of factors,
including a weakened market), the crop
disappeared from the landscape.
[More...]
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