New York Could Grow Strong On Hemp

[Ganjarden]

Gov. David A. Paterson would welcome any offer to realize a revenue stream to help get his budget in line. There is a way: legal hemp farming.

This plant is so diversified that industrial applications are still being explored for both fiber and seed. There are jobs in research, work in adapting present equipment to harvest sturdy hemp stalks, work in manufacturing of fiber for textiles, and work in farming, where farmers' profit is $250-300 per acre.

Annual retail sales of all Canadian hemp seed products are now estimated as high as $40 million. Sixty percent of Canada's hemp exports are sent to the United States, which has no hemp industry. And the 60,000 acres of hemp that 180 Canadian farmers have under cultivation keeps adding to the revenue stream, where 500 pounds of seed per acre are harvested.

Hemp seed exports from Canada grew 300 percent from 2000 to 2007. In the last five years, sales of Manitoba Harvest, the largest integrated producer of hemp food products in North America, have grown more than 500 percent.

A hemp industry relies on an economical supply of high-quality seed, supplied by a plant-breeding program. Without hemp varieties and certified seed, there can be no growth within the industry, but the Canadian industry grows on, generating profitable niche markets as the future of hemp as food, fuel or fiber is explored.

Hemp is the best source of plant derived Essential Fatty Acids necessary to regulate immune system functions and blood pressure. Clean burning fuel is possible while the fiber industry is wide open for merchandising ideas. The United States needs an industry that can take us from growing to research to diverse applications in paper, textile and seed products.

For example, the finest fiber comes from the outer core of the plant, while inner core fibers are suitable as building products. Markets for both must be developed simultaneously in order to be economical.

There is a market for Hempcrete, a product mixed with lime and used for construction. Hempcrete is seven times stronger than concrete, half the weight of concrete, as well as being more elastic and not prone to cracking.

The University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, this year appointed a Research Community Director whose mission is devoted entirely to hemp. Over $500,000 in research is taking place.

Vermont has passed legislation to grow hemp and to study its benefits. North Dakota is on board, while 17 states have insulated laws allowing for the study of hemp in applications within the state.

By its very nature, hemp is local. There is expansion going on in the worldwide hemp industry, where the crop is government subsidized and infrastructure work to efficiently transport and handle the heavy bulky hemp is ongoing - another niche industry.

New York is making a huge business mistake in not growing eco-friendly hemp.


News Hawk- Ganjarden http://www.420Magazine.com
Source: Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin
Author: Earl Callahan
Contact: Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin
Copyright: 2009 Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin
Website: New York Could Grow Strong On Hemp

[michaelkaer]

The arguement you get from the Anti-hemp people (mostly DEA and Police) is that somehow growing hemp is sending the wrong message to children. What message is that? The cops say they cannot tell the difference between industrial hemp and medicanal cannabis. I could give them a lesson in less than 30 seconds that they could use and be correct every time. That sounds like stupidity mixed with laziness when they say crap like that. Getting back to this message- They are basically saying that children of today are too stupid to understand the differences between pot and hemp. I strongly disagree. Kids these days a smarter about such things and that 30 second lesson I could give the police could most likely be given by those children. They say other things but those are the main pleas-protect the children and cops from a 30 second lesson.