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MAKING CONTACT Transcript: #25-98 Hemp: The Forbidden Alternative Program description and audio files at http://www.radioproject.org/archive/1998/9825.html Phillip Babich: Welcome to "Making Contact," an international radio program seeking to create connections between people, vital ideas and important information. This week on "Making Contact": Bud Sholts: The U.S. Department of Agriculture recognizes that hemp is the far superior and profitable agricultural renewable fiber. However, they can’t grow it because of the current administrative language. Kathleen Chippi: Well, we have to get out products that are high in protein, high is dietary fiber, high in iron, also. Hemp seed is the most nutritionally complete seed on the planet for human consumption. Phillip Babich: Once a mainstay of U.S. agriculture, growing hemp has been illegal in the United States since the 1930s. Hemp fiber and seeds can be used to make a variety of products, such as clothing and food. But since hemp fiber is derived from the same plant as marijuana, it’s been difficult for supporters of industrial help to overturn the ban. On this program you’ll hear from farmers and hemp activists in the United States and Canada who are developing cooperatives and other programs to bring hemp back to the agriculture scene. I’m Phillip Babich, your host this week on "Making Contact." Bob Winter: Well, America can revitalize itself if we are given the chance to have a crop that we can process at home and have value added to it. Phillip Babich: Bob Winter is a farmer in Colorado who is fighting against what some activists term "depression era economics," with a vengeance. Out of the dust of the depression came the marijuana tax act, which banned industrial hemp. To farmers like Winter, this decade-old prohibition has been costly. Hemp is easy to farm and potentially profitable. Bob Winter: Farmers have a need for an alternative crop, something that’s good for the country, to save our trees, reduce pesticide use, everything that everybody wants environmentally, and farmers want profitability, industrial hemp can fill the bill. David Almquist: The family farm started to erode about the same time soil did, about the same time hemp prohibition had come about, in 1937. There’s no coincidence in that. You have to really...there’s such an... about that that really rings a bell. Because the family farm really started to lose out when it lost its one commodity that was to provide real value to the farm, and that’s hemp. Phillip Babich: Dave Almquist makes food products using hemp and hemp seeds. He and his business partner, Kathleen Chippi, sell cookies, pancake mixes, burger mixes, and now hemp chips. Correspondent May Jerril visited with them in their home in Boulder County, Colorado, as they prepared to fill orders for local health food stores. Kathleen Chippi: Well, we’re real happy that our products are high in protein, high in dietary fiber, high in iron, also, and low in saturated fats...zero saturated fat. Totat fat grams in our products is never more than 3 grams of fat per serving, which is phenominal. And this is good fat, anyways. Hemp seed is the most nutritionally complete seed on the planet for human consumption. It contains a perfect 3 to one ratio of omega 3, omega 6 essential fatty acids, gamelineric and gamelinelinic acids and they are the building blocks of your entire system. David Almquist: We’re talking 28% protein. And this is comparable to a steak, or any other lean meat like whale, lean steak, lean ground beef. 28% protein, by volume, per ounce, is very hard to beat. May Jerril: The two met a couple of years ago and started the Boulder Hemp Company. Kathleen Chippi: I passed through Lawrence about a month prior to that after leaving, I believe, Hash Bash, and stopped in a music store, an alternative store called "Creation Station," and saw a poster about Omega Music Festival. Sky Lister, the guy, owner of Creation Station told me that his partner, Dave Almquist, would be selling hemp food there, and he thought our hemp food would go well, so we headed out to Kansas where we met Dave. May Jerril: But it’s been a rocky road to success. Kathleen Chippi: There’s been a lot of confusion, partly because police officers have been miseducated about the hemp plant. And in 1996, while vending with a peddlers permit in Denver, at the monthly smoke-in at the State Capital, unbenounced to us, we arrived to find at least 100 training officers for the State Patrol learning how to handle crowd control and riots, and they were practicing on the hemp event. And I was arrested at the very beginning for my cookies. The police officers checked my permit and said I was free to go because I hadn’t done anything illegal but they refused to give me my 500 cookies back, and I asked them for a receipt, and they said no receipt and that I would never see my things again. I told them they couldn’t steal from me and I began to walk away with my cookies, and seven grown police officers, grown men, jumped on top of me, threw cuffs on me, for interfering with police officers who were confiscating my things. So I was put under arrest and released after two hours of verbal education, I should say, to the police. I was released and returned all my cookies. But we also, recently, in November of ‘97, had a package confiscated at the UPS by the Milwaukee Police Department. The package was headed to Madison and it contained 50 pounds of sterilized hemp seed. Well the Milwaukee Police Department is confusing sterilized hemp seed with cannibis, for some reason, and burned our product and told us we would not see it again. So right now the Boulder Hemp Company has filed a suit against the Milwaukee Police Department. We’re merely asking for 480-some dollars, whatever our package was worth, plus time we’ve put into this. But there’s a lot of controversy because police officers, and just regular Jim and Joe on the street, cannot...they’ve been miseducated on what hemp and cannabis are, and the legalities of it. And I think right now in the United States, all over the country, we’re still deciding on how we feel about hemp and cannabis. Î don’t think all the laws that are out there are going to be around much longer. Phillip Babich: Kathleen Chippi and David Almquist, of Boulder Hemp Company, speaking with May Jerril. In Canada, there’s been a lot of political support for encouraging hemp production. Last March, it was legalized. Accoding to hemp farmer, Don Dean, who helps run the White Buffalo Renewable Cooperative in Ontario, the process to obtain licenses to cultivate hemp is long and bureaucratic, but Dean says that that doesn’t bother him too much. He’s just happy to be farming hemp. Don Dean: I understand it, and the farmers understand it and respect it too. We have no interest in doing anything illegal. We don’t mind going through the process, if that’s what we have to do, to grow it legally and meet those requirements. Phillip Babich: Dean adds that since hemp has been legalized, it’s been embraced in Canada. White Buffalo cooperative works with local governments to farm the plants. Don Dean: We go to municipalities, and their tax base is all of this agricultural land, you know, I mean, all this farm land that they have, you know, that they’re taken back, used through the person, the farmer’s died, and they’ve left it to the state or whatever. So, White Buffalo Renewables, what we do is, we approach these towns, well, they actually approach us, we put little ads in the paper: Farmer Land Owners Wanted to Grow Industrial Hemp. We have a phone number and then people call. And what we do then, is we go and meet with the Mayor in the city, or the town council, or the county officials and everything, and we outlay the plan. And what we do is, the town applies for a license to the government of Canada to grow hemp. The license is actually to that community. And they get the license approved, and then they tell us at WhiteBuffalo, and what we do is, we come in and hold a public meeting with the farmers in that area. And we say, "Okay, this 10,000 hectares, or 1,000 hectares this county wants to grow hemp on." And what we do is, we get farmers in that locality, they join, in that community, they join us. These White Buffalo Cooperatives are set in different places, like there’s one in British Columbia which is doing very well, White Buffalo Renewables out there. And so we get the farmers in that community involved in the actual labor and everything like that. The city, the town buys the seeds and everything to be planted. Then we come and using those people we grow the thing for them, we bring in the processing to make it into like the seeds we make into food products, their milk or ice cream or things like this. And the stalks and that are used in different ways, bedding for the animals, for the herds, and the fibers of course we can use in many different things. We’re looking at generating energy for electricity up here, using the stalks for that matter, and because we have a big thing happening with deregulation in Ontario right now, and in the electrical field, the electrical generation field, there’s an opportunity for us hemp growers there to generate electricity for that community. And what we do is we give that community approximately $500 per hectare every year for the next five years, to that community. So if he’s got 1000 hectares, the community is getting $500,000 a year, every year, for the next five years. Phillip Babich: You are listening to "Making Contact," a production of the National Radio Project. This radio program can now be heard on over 130 stations in the United States, Canada, Haiti, and South Africa, and around the world on Radio for Peace International Shortwave. If you want to learn how you can get involved with "Making Contact" or if you’d like to get in touch with any of the organizations you hear about on this program, please give us a call. It’s toll free, 800-529-5736. Call that same phone number for tapes and transcripts. We also welcome comments and suggestions for future programs. In the state of Kentucky, farmers are also looking to hemp as a viable crop. Something that can help small and mid-size farmers stay afloat. Joe Hickey, who runs the Kentucky Hemp Cooperative, says that his organization is engaged in advocacy work and political actions to try and legalize hemp. Joe Hickey: You have a lot of farmers that are dependent on the tobacco crop, especially here in Kentucky. So what happens with the legislation that is pending right now, a lot of Kentucky farmers are going to potentially lose their ability to make a living and stay on the farm. So if they lose that, they are looking for an alternative source of income, so it’s something that these guys absolutely want to do. You know, the tobacco farmers have got to find something else to do with this land. People say, well, you know, industrial hemp will never replace tobacco. Nobody ever said it would. We don’t believe it will. And the farmers that want to grow tobacco are not going to quit growing it. They’re going to continue to grow tobacco until, you know, they can’t any more. But they want to have access to a way to align themselves, the financial ability, to make that happen, make it a reality for them. And industrial hemp does that. There’s a lot of farmers that just don’t want to be perceived as killing thousands, millions of people. It’s just, it’s something that I think a lot of farmers are really kind of giving second thoughts to a crop that is known to be more addictive than a lot of other drugs that are illegal. Phillip Babich: Hickey says that he’s encountered little opposition in Kentucky to his legalization drive. Joe Hickey: I’ve been involved in this since 1993, and the only time I’ve ever seen any opposition to this was always related to the Federal Government and their drug program, or the marijuana growers. That’s the only two people that we’ve ever seen have any kind of opposition to this. pc: According to Hickey, marijuana growers don’t like industrial hemp farms because the crops are made up of mostly male plants that pollinate the pot growers' female plants, causing them to flower prematurely. Hickey filed a lawsuit against the Federal Government for its ban on industrial hemp. In addition actor Woody Harrelson, whose celebrity has helped publicize the hemp issue, is in court on a hemp case of his own. Joe Hickey: His is a state lawsuit where he planted four industrial hemp seeds, and he basically did it in front of everybody to test the legality of the Kentucky statute. And the district judge said that it (the case) didn’t pass muster and threw it out of court. Then the prosecuter appealed the judge’s ruling and went to circuit court. The circuit court also said that Woody was right, there is a difference. They appealed again to the Court of Appeals here in Kentucky, so it sits at the Court of Appeals here in Kentucky. So at this point we’re waiting to see what the Court of Appeals does. Phillip Babich: Joe Hickey of the Kentucky Hemp Cooperative. Hemp has won over officials within high level regulatory agencies. Bud Sholts is director of Agricultural Development and Diversification for the state of Wisconsin. An industrial hemp supporter, Sholts says he’s frustrated with the Drug Enforcement Agency, which has jurisdication over hemp, making agricultural decisions. Bud Sholts: The U.S. Department of Agriculture recognizes that hemp is the far superior and profitable agricultural renewable fiber. However they can’t grow it because of the current administrative language. It’s legal in other countries because they’ve said that industrial hemp of over one percent THC is a drug crop. That means they can grow crops of less than that. Our administrative language says the Cannabis Sestiva plant is a drug crop, period, with or without THC, you know. And so we want to change that verbiage so that the Department of Agriculture can move on developing their growing protocol. The strains of industrial hemp would be grown with strains of 0.3 or 0.2 THC, considerably below the world standard. Phillip Babich: The U.S. agriculture industry is in crisis, says Sholts. and it needs new crops. Bud Sholts: The industry can’t survive on corn and soybeans an wheat in the 21st century. We’ve taught other countries so well to do this, and we’ve got considerably more land from the conservation program. If you continue to plant it to corn and soybeans, which we generally produce right now, a unique surplus every year, we’re going to drive that price down till you break this industry. We have to have major industrial and alternative crops that can absorb those acreages. If you produce 11 bushels of corn a year, you’re going to get $2 or less for it. If you produce 8.5, you’re going to get $3.50. The $3.50 is a profit, the other is a loss. And this industry out here cannot sustain that over a long period of time. Phillip Babich: Sholts says that the word in agriculture is "sustainability." And for that and other environmental concerns, hemp looks promising. Bud Sholts: You can make a high quality paper out of hemp without the use of chlorine. When you use chlorine in the bleaching process, it then produces dioxins, which are a severe pollutant. And that’s why the environmental groups in the country support this. The other thing is that you don’t have to use herbicides or pesticides in the growing of industrial hemp. Phillip Babich: Despite the ban, the hemp industy in the United States has thrived in recent years. Manufacturers and food processors are able to import certain parts of the hemp plants into the country. Mary Kane is the publisher and editor of "Hemp World." Mary Kane: Sales around the world are around 100 million. This is a little hard to say because, you know, some countries don’t report figures on hemp. Basically the part of the plant that can be used in the United States are the stalks that hold the fiber, and the seeds, which must be sterilized. Once they reach the United States, they’re sterilized for a few minutes at 200 degrees, and that of course prevents them from being able to sprout. The major part of the industry makes use of the fiber from the plant. And the fiber is among the strongest fiber in the world; it’s right up there with flax, which is what linen is made with. Phillip Babich: Law enforcement agencies have opposed attempts to reform hemp laws in the United States. Drug enforcement officials say that hemp crops can be used to camouflage marijuana crops. Opponents say that lifting the hemp ban takes the country one step closer to legalizing marijuana. And meanwhile, the so-called war on drugs continues, creating an enormous crime control industry, as linguist Noam Chomsky puts it: Noam Chomsky: Increasingly, the criminalization for things like possession or small street sales and so on. In fact, I think about 85% of the growth and incarceration is drug related. Well, the prison industry is so big now. If you take a look in the standard criminology literature, I’m not talking about radical, I’m not talking about magazines...the standard criminology literature has been for years going at the crime control industry. It’s an industry which is creating its own concept of crime, and then controlling it, and getting paid off by the public. And in fact the crime control industry at this stage is getting close to the scale of the Pentagon. And it’s attracting very powerful interests. So the military industry, for example, has noticed that there is a big market there for high tech surveillance and control. It’s not yet at the scale of the Pentagon, but it’s substantial. It’s kind of like a corollary to the social policies that are being carried out. The social policies are imposing sort of like a third world model on the United States. I mean, it’s so rich it’s not going to look like Brazil, but it’s that kind of structural model, with highly concentrated wealth, and a lot people sort of more or less making out, and a lot of superfluous people.who just aren’t useful for profit-making. Well, if you’re in the U.S. dependencies, there’s actually a name for them. They’re called disposable people. And you carry out what’s called social cleansing...send out death squads or something. úNow here, we’re more civilized. We don’t murder them. All we do is throw them in jail. And the policies of declaring a war against the poor and the black and so on...that’s a very specific policy, which in fact is targeting that part of the population that isn’t contributing much to wealth production, in this kind of economy geared to the wealthy. These are classic devices. There’s nothing new about them. They’re kind of extreme here, but not unknown. And the marijuana thing is a big piece of it. Phillip Babich: Noam Chomsky. By not taking advantage of ecologically sustainable material, such as hemp, for raw fiber and energy resources, changes in the earth’s climate may continue. Already the planet’s temperature has increased slightly. And the unusual weather caused by El Nino is an indicator to some scientists that the so-called greenhouse effect has begun, a phenomenon linked to fossil fuel consumption. Aside from the ecological consequences of the energy practices of the United States and other industrialized nations, there’s an immediate human cost in countries where weak regulatory oversight allows multinational companies to drill, log, and mine natural resources virtually unchecked. In the Indian State of Arisa, says Daphne Wysham, energy and aluminum companies are mining some of the last vestiges of coal, and polluting the drinking water. Wysham, a research fellow for the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, says that the World Bank forced the state to privatize the power sector, allowing US corporations to establish coal-fired power plants there.. Daphne Wysham: What I did when I visited Arisa was, I went to see how the women were dealing with this. Because as you may know, in every developing country, it’s women who are the energy managers. And when I say energy, I’m talking about energy for human needs, like cooking and heating. Whether you’re in India or a country in Africa, it’s usually women that you will see headloading wood, gathering fuel for cooking. As that fuel wood grows more scarce, they are increasingly turning to things like cow dung or crop waste to cook with. The story of the women in Arisa is that there is no longer any fuel when it’s gone. In fact there’s not longer really any brush left. They’re digging coal directly out of the ground and burning it. And they’re using cow dung for fuel. When I spoke to them they said, "Okay, we’ve gotten used to using cow dung. We’re dealing with that. What we can’t accept is what is happening thanks to this rapid coal mining that’s going on in the area." Their water tables have been totally destroyed by the open pit coal mining that’s going on. So they no longer have ground water. The wells that are in all the villages have all run dry. So their only option is to go to the river. Well, the river has now been so vastly polluted by the ash from the burning of coal...as they burn the coal there’s all of this ash created...they’ve dumped them in enough pits, there’s no more land, so it’s just going directly into the river. The rivers are gray, and of course incredibly toxic. So what they do, is they’re digging what they call chua’s on the riverbanks with their bare hands, and scooping the water out of the sandy bank of the river, hoping that they’re protecting the health of their children by this primitive filtration device of sand. This is a direct consequence of the World Bank moving in, privatizing the power sector, saying, "We can throw a lot of money at energy; we’ll see an increase in GNP (they love that equation between an increase in energy investment and an increase in GNP), which they’re certainly doing. You certainly are seeing an increase in GNP. It’s when you look behind those numbers, and you look at the human face of this energy development, that you see a completely different picture. Phillip Babich: Daphne Wysham, of the Institute for Policy Studies. That’s it for this edition of "Making Contact," a look at the hemp movement. Thanks for listening. And special thanks this week to May Jerril and Judy Campbell, who provided editorial assistance and interviews. Moria Galardin contributed the recorded portions, Shereen Meraji assisted with production. I’m Phillip Babich. If you want more information about the subject of this week’s radio program, call the National Radio Project, toll free, at 800-529-5736. Call that same phone number for tapes and transcripts or if you’d like to make a comment or suggestion for future programs. "Making Contact" is an independent production funded by individual contributors. We’re committed to providing a form for voices and opinions not often heard in the mass media. Our producer is David Barsamian. Phillip Babich is our managing producer. Our senior advisor is Norman Solomon. Peggy Law is our executive director. Our theme music is by the Charlie Hunter Trio. For everyone at "Making Contact," thanks for listening. |