Why is hemp off the biofuel menu?

ADVANCES HEMP HAS TO THE US ECONOMY:

(1.) 1 acre of hemp will produce as much fiber as 2 to 3 acres of cotton. Hemp fiber is softer, warmer, stronger, and more water absorbent than cotton, and lasts twice as long as cotton. Hemp is naturally hardy and drought tolerant and grows well without herbicides, pesticides or fertilizers. Twenty-five percent of all the pesticides used in the U.S. are applied to cotton.

(2.) 1 acre of hemp will produce as much paper as 2 to 4 acres of trees. Trees take hundreds of years to grow and hemp only takes 4 months to grow. We just found a solution to saving the trees! Hemp paper can be recycled 7 times, wood pulp 4 times.

(3.) Hemp seed oil can be used to produce non-toxic diesel fuel, paint, varnish, detergent, ink and lubricating oil. We just found a solution to use alternative fuels for cars rather than being defendant on oil! (Or fossil fuels) HEMP ETHANOL! Here's Vanguard Video on Ethanol: http://current.com/items/89110290/food_fight.htm

(4.) Hemp seed is nutritious and contains more essential fatty acids than any other source. Soybeans come in second place. Hemp seed is not psychoactive and cannot be used as a drug because THC levels are too low to get high! Hemp is not marijuana.

(5.) Hemp fiber can produce cars. Over two million cars on the road today have hemp composite parts for door panels, dashboards, luggage racks, etc. They are doing it in Germany for Mercedes and BMW.

FACT: Hemp is Earth's number-one biomass resource. IT IS A BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY and would stimulus the economy and generate jobs in a massive way!

Marijuana FACT:
-Deaths from marijuana use: 0
-Deaths from aspirin (U.S. per year): 180 - 1,000 +
-Deaths from legal drugs (U.S. per year) at doses used for prevention, diagnosis, or therapy: 106,000

Why not legalize marijuana? Why not use it as a medical use nationwide? It would be no diferen't for alcohol use. The harmless drug would hurt the black market. It would save tax dollars from nonviolence offenders. THE DEA SHOULD BE FOCUSING ON THE REAL HARSH DRUGS LIKE COCAINE AND HEROIN RATHER THAN HARMLESS MARIJUANA WHICH CAN BE USED AS A NATURAL RESOURCE OF MEDICINE.

Hey patriots,

The original US flag was sewn from hemp,
so if you really want to show your nationalism
stop buying and waving the plastic chinese
made flags and start sowing and sewing with hemp.

p.s. It was the hemp sails which caught the
wind and blew the ship's ashore..................
and it's been down hill for the Native Americans
ever since.
DHS should have been founded in the 1490's.

Ironically the first bible produced using Gutenberg's movable type was printed on hemp paper.

"Sow it everywhere" -George Washington. He was talking about Cannabis Indica, my skeptical friends, which WB O'Shaugnessy introduced to the Pharmacopoeia in 1839.

Hemp seed has More Omega 3 EFA than salmon without the mercury. Hemp grows more fiber than trees by a factor of 3. THC cures cancer. Prevents AND treats Alzheimers more effectively than ANY pharmaceutical. CBD is anxiolytic and effective for PTSD. Smoked pot relieves asthma and does NOT cause cancer. Reduces IOP by 25% in glaucoma patients, like myself.

Any questions?

-Richard Steeb, San Jose California

I would rather not trade my food for transportation especially with the climate change epidemic in mind.

Alright....
(first if you haven't read the entire thread do so now)

I'm not knocking hemp as a very useful resource. In fact it is. I'm just sick of people claiming it as some kind of band-aid for the ills of the world. The obsession with its capabilities is directly derived from its prohibition. Yes it can be used as a biofuel, yes it can be a good food, and yes it can get you high, mellow, and open your mind. BUT it is not the solution to the worlds problems.

Here on Current there seems to be an obsession with hemp/marijuana. Perhaps its become a mascot for those who feel it's wrong for the government to tell them what they can or can't ingest, grow, or advocate. But the truth has been blown out of proportion-

Nothing will save the world but innovation, education, greater social understanding, and evolution.

Obsession with a single plant and its uses only distracts and discounts EVERY SINGLE OTHER USEFUL ORGANISM on the planet.

Smoke a fatty and think about the usefulness of every other force on the planet- especially the capacity of the human brain for innovation.

Hemp is only a small part of the solution.

Paper products, fuels, clothing, medicines, and recreational activities. If consumed, it's not as disorienting as alcohol. It's less harmful to your body in general. We could quit cutting down trees, quit polluting our atmosphere, and breathe life into a gargantuan industry that would be sure to boost our troubled economy which is in dire need of revitalization (in case you've been living under a rock). I'm not sure why hemp is off the biofuel menu.

it's because the oil companies haven't figured out a way to make billions of dollars off of it. tobacco, boose, caffine and all the others are not the answer either.

it provides many solutions... as long as MONSANTO DOES NOT GET A HOLD OF IT! Save seeds!

The only reason hemp isn't used is because all of two species are smokable.

Q: Why is Hemp off the Biofuel menu?

A: Because the people manipulating our government say so?

P.S. BetterWatching, your point was not made and you didn't prove anything. Vierotchka smacked down everything you tried to say pretty hard. Just accept the fact that Hemp is probably the most useful plants on the planet already...

Fuel of the Future

When Henry Ford told a New York Times reporter that ethyl alcohol was "the fuel of the future" in 1925, he was expressing an opinion that was widely shared in the automotive industry. "The fuel of the future is going to come from fruit like that sumach out by the road, or from apples, weeds, sawdust -- almost anything," he said. "There is fuel in every bit of vegetable matter that can be fermented. There's enough alcohol in one year's yield of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the fields for a hundred years."

Ford recognized the utility of the hemp plant. He constructed a car of resin stiffened hemp fiber, and even ran the car on ethanol made from hemp. Ford knew that hemp could produce vast economic resources if widely cultivated.

Ford's optimistic appraisal of cellulose and crop based ethyl alcohol fuel can be read in several ways. First, it can be seen as an oblique jab at a competitor. General Motors had come to considerable grief that summer of 1925 over another octane boosting fuel called tetra-ethyl lead, and government officials had been quietly in touch with Ford engineers about alternatives to leaded gasoline additives. Secondly, by 1925 the American farms that Ford loved were facing an economic crisis that would later intensify with the depression. Although the causes of the crisis were complex, one possible solution was seen in creating new markets for farm products. With Ford's financial and political backing, the idea of opening up industrial markets for farmers would be translated into a broad movement for scientific research in agriculture that would be labelled "Farm Chemurgy." 2

Henry Ford made his first car to run on biofuel made from hemp.

Louisiana just approved Hemp for biofuel in their state.

Hemp produces higher octane biofuels with less environmental damage.

Its hard to name one world issue that does not have hemp involved with it in some way as a solution.

"Marijuana is great but it's not the solution to this worlds problems."

Prove it - your point has not come remotely close to being made. Can you bring us any other single thing that is closer than hemp is to being the solution to this world's problems?

Marijuana is great but it's not the solution to this worlds problems.

My point has been made.

You all have stressed me out... I'm gonna go get high and enjoy the day.

Betterwatch, There are probably some things you eat other than hemp "shit" that tastes like shit, or how else would you know how to compare it? So, stop dogging hemp products and go eat the other shit you're eating.

Futhermore, I don't know if you've noticed, but the general public may eat things that don't taste like
"shit", instead they eat things that make them look like a sack of shit. So I don't think giving up the luxury of taste is a bad idea for this country, maybe then most will lose some poundage!

And as for this article and hemp being used as a biofuel... Keep your hands off my weed!

The next thing you know they'll (biodesiel proponents) be using that as an excuse to buy up all the hemp crops and then drive the price of a joint up! I already pay top dollar for weed as it is! I don't need a legitimate source of income for drug dealers to be an inconvenience in my ability to purchase a sack! There are such things as sacrifices and then there are things that are completely ludicrous! This is ludicrous! HAHAa.

Kidding, as long as using hemp as a fuel doesn't mean that the price of ganj will go up for personal use, I'm all for it! I know weed isn't legal, but this idea (using it as a biofuel) may be the one that gets the ball truly moving in legalizing it. I just fear that this will mean they (the government) will have a better way of controlling it's personal use since they will argue that it has been designated and legalized for only that particular reason (everything other than personal use during leisure time, such as biofuels, clothing, industrial & health use, etc).

"The Man" has taken most everything from me, he shall not have my most precious resource of relaxation!

It is a great thing for practically all those who eat hemp seed products, hemp seeds, and hemp seed oil.

"and btw. It does taste like shit."

I presume you know that because you regularly eat feces...

Vierotchka- for YOU yes it may be a great thing. And cheers to you for making it so.

But as a solution for the general public it is not.

and btw. It does taste like shit.

"WTF is the obsession with the idea that hemp is the cure for everything??"

Because it is the closest that there is to the cure for everything.

WTF is the obsession with the idea that hemp is the cure for everything?? Right now there is 3 stories on the current front page that is associated with marijuana/hemp. There are much better solutions to these problems!

I'm not denying the health benefits or industrial uses of hemp but just because you like to smoke it does not mean that it's the answer to everything. Have you eaten hemp based products?? They taste like shit and you have to process the hemp seeds. Omega-3 and Vitamin E are a small percentage of the nutrients needed for healthy living. Plus you have to add it to something else, by itself it is not a food.

The obsession with hemp/marijuana on current makes it seem like college freshmen who just smoked their first joint are the only people who post here.

The prohibition of marijuana/hemp is ridiculous and I've been a smoker for a long time but I think everyone needs to back off it here on current and save room for more important topics of discussion. The moronic discussions about marijuana/hemp not only make current seem amateurish but make people (like myself) who wish to use it seem more out of touch (and smoked out) in the eyes of non-users.

BetterWatching, you couldn't be further from the truth. Hemp seed is extremely nutritious, it is the richest vegetable source of protein, as well as of Omega-3 and vitamin E. Take a look at the video I posted (just above your post).

"With all the talk of Ethiopians starving because farmland is being diverted to planting crops that are to be processed into biofuel, but are uneatable"

Last time I checked marijuana was not edible and only makes you more hungry.

Hemp used to be used in this country as a source of fuel, until Duponte Oil, Hearst Papers and Henry Anslinger used the "reefer madness" scare of the thirties, to prohibit any form of cannibis from being grown. Despite the fact that hemp cant get you high, it was outlawed as well, and was thought of as a scurge on society.
And you may ask yourself "why hemp... if it doesn't get you high?"
Well, Duponte oil industry knew that this was a very valuable cash crop and its uses were infinite, but they didn't want to see this. Their intention was to turn this country toward petroleum since that is what their business was, and hemp was ruining their plans for domination over the fuel industry.
Anslinger, a friend of Duponte was almost out of a job at this time. He had brought about prohibition (on alcohol) but since that didn't last, he knew that he needed something new. Since hemp doesnt get you high, Anslinger went after its little sister Mary Jane, in which he used William Randolph Hearst's help.
Hearst, a publicist who owned many papers and magazines, used his rank to brainwash the masses. He used his famed "yellow" journalism to spread gossip about a "deadly plant" that would make you go crazy if you smoked it. People bought into this propaganda and "reefer madness" was formed.
The government was backed into a corner and soon granted Anslinger's wish to prohibit the growth of cannibis(even hemp), without a stamp from the government. However, this stamp could not be gotten without having the product(cannibis) ready. But if one showed up with the product, they were arrested for not having a stamp first.
Anslinger had gotten his old job back. Everybody read Hearst's publications to learn more about this "devil plant" which didn't hurt Hearst's pockets. And as for Duponte, his dreams has come true, a nation dependant on a product that he produces.
Generations have passed . . . and not enough people know about the wonders of that magic plant called, HEMP.