Do you feel your wallet shrinking as you drive your car? Many people are resorting to carpooling, public transportation, and many other forms of cheaper transportation, but some researchers have found a way for you to keep driving and save money: hemp. Hemp Global Solutions researches the use of hemp as a biofuel. They advocate hemp as a "potential solution to some of the major social and environmental challenges of the 21st century."
Industrial hemp has a long history in America already. During World War II, Japan cut off America's supply of hemp. In response, Congress lifted marijuana prohibition and encouraged farmers to grow hemp. The response was a boom in hemp crops in America, reaching 375,000 acres in 1943. In 1941, Henry Ford built a plastic car made from hemp and wheat straw. Hemp is still used today in most printed currency because of its resilient strength and water resistance.
Perhaps one of hemp's best characteristics is its environmental friendliness. It grows faster than other crops like corn or rice and it comes with the added benefit of improving soil quality where it's grown. Similarly, it does not need cleared land to grow and is naturally pest resistant, meaning that pesticides are not necessary which would help to ultimately reduce CFCs and nutrient leeching. Furthermore, hemp even kills pests in the soil, further reducing the need for pesticides. Unlike fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide and sulfur into the air, hemp actually converts carbon dioxide back into biomass at an astounding rate. The crop itself is extremely diverse and able to grow in conditions that other biofuel crops cannot. Its drought resistance makes it an ideal crop for farmers in the Midwest and other areas that are so-called "dust bowls."
Although researchers have been looking at corn as a possible biofuel, hemp is much more productive and cost-effective. One acre of hemp can produce ten times as much methanol as an acre of corn, with an exponentially faster rate of growth. Capable of producing ten tons of biomass per acre in less than four months, hemp would only take six percent of the American land mass to grow enough hemp to completely eliminate our need for fossil fuels. The infrastructure change would not be a problem either, as traditional farming equipment could be used to harvest hemp.
Hemps psychoactive properties are largely a myth. Industrial hemp contains less than one percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Currently, there are over 25,000 known uses for hemp. It can be used to make wood and pulp byproducts such as paper, and produces four times as much cellulose as trees do, making it ideal in reducing deforestation. Plastic made from hemp is biodegradable while synthetic plastic is not.
As our country starts to look elsewhere for our energy needs, let's hope that the government's irrational stigma against THC containing crops like hemp will not cause them to overlook its inherent benefits. It could be a boom to our nation's economy and a solution to our long-term energy problem all while helping the environment instead of polluting it.
News Hawk- Ganjarden 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: The Retriever Weekly
Author: Brian Tschiegg
Contact: The Retriever Weekly
Copyright: 2008 The Retriever Weekly
Website: Government Should Look Toward Hemp As A Viable Alternative Fuel
Industrial hemp has a long history in America already. During World War II, Japan cut off America's supply of hemp. In response, Congress lifted marijuana prohibition and encouraged farmers to grow hemp. The response was a boom in hemp crops in America, reaching 375,000 acres in 1943. In 1941, Henry Ford built a plastic car made from hemp and wheat straw. Hemp is still used today in most printed currency because of its resilient strength and water resistance.
Perhaps one of hemp's best characteristics is its environmental friendliness. It grows faster than other crops like corn or rice and it comes with the added benefit of improving soil quality where it's grown. Similarly, it does not need cleared land to grow and is naturally pest resistant, meaning that pesticides are not necessary which would help to ultimately reduce CFCs and nutrient leeching. Furthermore, hemp even kills pests in the soil, further reducing the need for pesticides. Unlike fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide and sulfur into the air, hemp actually converts carbon dioxide back into biomass at an astounding rate. The crop itself is extremely diverse and able to grow in conditions that other biofuel crops cannot. Its drought resistance makes it an ideal crop for farmers in the Midwest and other areas that are so-called "dust bowls."
Although researchers have been looking at corn as a possible biofuel, hemp is much more productive and cost-effective. One acre of hemp can produce ten times as much methanol as an acre of corn, with an exponentially faster rate of growth. Capable of producing ten tons of biomass per acre in less than four months, hemp would only take six percent of the American land mass to grow enough hemp to completely eliminate our need for fossil fuels. The infrastructure change would not be a problem either, as traditional farming equipment could be used to harvest hemp.
Hemps psychoactive properties are largely a myth. Industrial hemp contains less than one percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Currently, there are over 25,000 known uses for hemp. It can be used to make wood and pulp byproducts such as paper, and produces four times as much cellulose as trees do, making it ideal in reducing deforestation. Plastic made from hemp is biodegradable while synthetic plastic is not.
As our country starts to look elsewhere for our energy needs, let's hope that the government's irrational stigma against THC containing crops like hemp will not cause them to overlook its inherent benefits. It could be a boom to our nation's economy and a solution to our long-term energy problem all while helping the environment instead of polluting it.
News Hawk- Ganjarden 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: The Retriever Weekly
Author: Brian Tschiegg
Contact: The Retriever Weekly
Copyright: 2008 The Retriever Weekly
Website: Government Should Look Toward Hemp As A Viable Alternative Fuel
...WHERE ARE ALL THE BODIES hidden???? Just asking...
