cannabisnews.com: A Boost For Hemp!





A Boost For Hemp!
Posted by FoM on June 11, 1999 at 10:55:19 PT
by Editorial, The Lexington Herald-Leader, KY 
Source: Hemptech
Genetic engineers are tinkering with the forest. The goal is a fast-growing tree that’s resistant to disease and pests and is highly pulpable for the paper industry -- the very sort of plant that nature already has created in cannabis sativa, better known as hemp.
Pubdate: June 9, 1999 DEA reviews, states‚ actions bode well for crop. Genetic engineers are tinkering with the forest. The goal is a fast-growing tree that's resistant to disease and pests and is highly pulpable for the paper industry -- the very sort of plant that nature already has created in cannabis sativa, better known as hemp. As timber becomes more expensive and difficult to harvest because of overcutting in some parts of the world and environmental concerns in others, hemp becomes ever more attractive. The legislatures of North Dakota, Hawaii and Minnesota recently enacted hemp-growing initiatives. Hawaii hopes to be growing 10 acres of test plots by September. North Dakota lawmakers looked across the border and saw the successes of Canadian hemp growers and legalized industrial hemp production earlier this year. But these state actions will have little practical effect until the federal Drug Enforcement Administration loosens its ban on the cultivation of industrial hemp. Other countries have proven that confusion between industrial hemp and marijuana is not a problem for law enforcement. The plants are different in appearance. Hemp contains only an inconsequential trace of marijuana's psychoactive ingredient, THC. As a result of pressure from hemp advocates in Hawaii and elsewhere, the DEA is at least reviewing the “security” issues surrounding the crop. The agency is considering what would be an allowable level of THC in industrial hemp. That's progress. Meanwhile, the marvels of genetic engineering also are coming under more scrutiny. The recent news that genetically engineered corn in the Midwest could prove fatal to the monarch butterfly population provides a hint of the possible unintended consequences of such breakthroughs. Even more dire, the food supplies of developing countries could be imperiled as the corporate agribusiness giants corner the world's seed supply by marketing genetically engineered crops that don't produce seeds and, therefore, require cash outlays year after year by subsistence farmers. Hemp isn't the panacea for Kentucky‚s beleaguered tobacco farmers contrary to the claims of some of its advocates. But it is a useful and valuable crop with a multitude of uses. And it's been perfected and tested by eons of natural evolution. 
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