Iowa Group studying industrial hemp as crop
(While Federal Government's credibility plummets ever lower.)

http://www.commonlink.com/~olsen/HEMP/fb.htm

The Des Moines Register
Wednesday, December 4, 1996, Page 10S
letters@dmreg.com

Iowa Group studying industrial hemp as crop

A Farm Bureau resolution supports research of the crop, which was widely
grown in Iowa before being outlawed in 1937.

By Jerry Perkins
REGISTER FARM EDITOR

The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation wants to look into adding industrial
hemp, a cousin of the marijuana plant, into Iowa's crop rotation.

On Tuesday, Farm Bureau delegates meeting in Des Moines voiced
tentative
approval of a resolution supporting research of industrial hemp, which was
widely grown in Iowa before a 1937 federal law outlawed its cultivation.

Industrial hemp has much less of the psychoactive chemical THC than its
cousin in the cannabis family known as marijuana, said Bondurant farmer Tom
Towers, who introduced the resolution Tuesday.

"This is not the kind of hemp you smoke, folks," Towers said in
introducing the resolution. "We know marijuana isn't such a hot item, but
industrial hemp has had the hallucinogens removed so you can inhale it if
you want."

Bill Horan, a Calhoun County farmer, said the American Farm Bureau
Federation approved a similar resolution at its annual meeting last
January.

"We want Iowa State University to get started doing the research,"
Horan
said. "In 1937, when hemp was outlawed, all the seedstock and germplasm
was
destroyed."

Other countries, most notably Germany, are far ahead of the United
States in growing hemp for industrial uses, Horan said, and other states
have research projects going.

"We need to catch up," he said.

Industrial hemp is worth looking into as a possible way to diversify
agriculture and add another cash crop to Iowa's Big Two crops of corn and
soybeans.

"We may be on to a legitimate third crop here," Horan said. Horan said
the United States used to grow a lot of hemp for industrial use.

The Declaration of Independence was written on paper made from hemp, he
said, and Henry Ford made a car body out of soybeans and hemp.

Paper made from hemp can last 1,500 years, he said, while paper from
wood pulp lasts just 25 years.

The Farm Bureau resolution was promoted by Roger Gipple of Des Moines,
who owns farmland and is a member of several farm and environmental
organizations.

Gipple said industrial hemp can be grown without pesticides, unlike
cotton, and is better for the environment.

"As environmentalists, we've prohibited farmers from doing so many
things," Gipple said. "Here's something they can do. We can give them
hope
instead of fear."

And, he said, rural communities could process the hemp into industrial
products and create jobs in Iowa's small towns.

"This could be the basis of a whole new value-added industry in rural
communities," he said.

HEMP PRODUCTION

+ Iowa Farm Bureau supports research of growing hemp.

Fiber products:

+ Textiles
* Denim
* Shoes
* Working clothes
+ Technical textiles
* Twine
* Canvas bags
* Carpets
+ Other industrial products
* Compression-molded parts
* Brake/clutch linings
* Caulking
+ Paper
* Cardboard and packaging
* Newsprint
* Fine and specialtiy papers
+ Building materials
* Insulation
* Fiberglass
* Cement blocks
+ Foods
* Salad oil
* Margarine
* Ganola

SOURCE: Nova Institute, Germany

"Not only are we here to protect the public from vicious criminals in the
street but also to protect the public from HARMFUL IDEAS."
John Ingersoll, first director of DEA

}}}Hemp poses a significant threat to the accumulated lies of the past 60
years. I wish there was a face-saving way for the government to admit its
errant behavior. Alas, they appear trapped in their own arrogance and
ignorance. Historically the passage of bright comets usually acts as a
harbinger of great change and the collapse of governments.

EES

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