Each acre of hemp yields 10 tons of biomass (1,000 gallons of methanol) in 4 months.
"Make the most of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere." - George Washington, 1794
In a recent diary by OrangeClouds, she happened to mention that she had bought some hemp pants. I was curious about hemp, because frankly, I am tired of paying to launder and starch cotton dress shirts. I wondered if hemp shirts might be an alternative so I began to check out hemp. My quest to find out about hemp clothing led me to some very unexpected information about hemp. What I found out about hemp as a clean burning fuel made me more than angry.
The next time you hear a Republican tell you that Democrats don't believe in energy independence, because Democrats won't allow drilling in ANWAR, here is your comeback. When was the last time any Republican told you we could have complete energy independence by growing the crop Republicans love to ban? Yes my friends, its hemp, a/k/a cannabis, a/k/a marijuana.
More after the flip.
Here are some interesting facts both about hemp generally and about hemp's ability to become an alternative fuel for America:
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1. "Since 1937, about half the forests in the world have been cut down to make paper. If hemp had not been outlawed, most would still be standing, oxygenating the planet." - Alan Bock.
2. Historical tradition, if not current federal law, favors hemp. The [first drafts of the] U.S. Constitution, [and] the Declaration of Independence [the final drafts were on animal skin], The Gutenberg Bible, and Old Glory (our nation's first flag) were all made from hemp - as was the favorite fuel of Henry Ford, the reading lamp oil of Abraham Lincoln, the paints used by Van Gogh and Rembrandt, and the parachute webbing that saved the live of George Bush.
3. Hemp canvas covered the Westward-bound wagons, the tall sailing ships, the bi-planes and zeppelins of World War I, and provided the original Levi pants worn by California goldminers in 1849.
4. Hemp was so crucial to colonial America that its cultivation was mandated by law.
5. As an agricultural commodity, hemp is arguably the world's top renewable resource for fuel, paper, cloth, paint, plastic, protein, soap, oil and over 25,000 other products.
6. Anything made from oil or wood can be made from hemp.
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8. Hemp fiberboard is stronger than wood; hemp houses are as strong as cement houses and better insulated.
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10. Hemp paper will last up to 1,500 years; hemp cloth is stronger than cotton. Cotton requires more pesticides than any other agricultural product (39 million pounds in 1993).
11. Hemp grows without pesticides. Hemp's long taproot improves soil quality and reduces erosion.
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24. One tank of gasoline generates up to 400 pounds of CO2. During the 1930s, Henry Ford grew hemp on his estate to demonstrate the efficiency of methanol production. Both Henry Ford and Rudolph Diesel (inventor of the diesel engine) intended to power their vehicles with plant-based fuels.
25. Hemp biomass grown for fuel would reverse global warming by converting CO2 into oxygen during the growing cycle. Hemp is one of the richest biomass sources. Each acre of hemp yields 10 tons of biomass (1,000 gallons of methanol) in 4 months.
26. The gas turbine generates cost-competitive electrical power using biomass fuels. Researchers at Princeton University estimate that biomass fuels combined with advanced gasifier-gas turbine technology could compete in cost with coal, nuclear, and hydroelectric power in both industrialized and developing countries.
27. If vehicle fuel efficiency were doubled, biomass energy could replace all fossil fuels now used in cars and all coal burned for electricity in the U.S. To maximize efficiency, plant-based methanol, plastic, rayon and electrical production could occur at the same facility.
28. Hemp biomass farms would abate foreign oil dependency, soil erosion, acid rain, air pollution and global warming, while laying the groundwork for revitalized rural communities. Rural pasture land (7% of U.S. acreage) could produce enough biomass to end U.S. dependence on gas and oil.
29. By converting cotton, tobacco, sugar and cattle feed production into biomass, energy independence would be within reach. The least valuable hemp product is biomass fuels. Each acre of hemp grown for fiber and pulp is worth $750 - considerably more than each acre of corn or wheat.
http://www.lightparty.com/...
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Some of you may remember Hugh Downs, who used to be co-anchor with Barbara Walters, on ABC's news show, 20/20. Hugh did a nine minute segment on hemp in 1990. Here are some excerpts from his segment:
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But the reason the pro-marijuana lobby want marijuana legal has little to do with getting high, and a great deal to do with fighting oil giants like Saddam Hussein, Exxon and Iran. The pro-marijuana groups claim that hemp is such a versatile raw material, that its products not only compete with petroleum, but with coal, natural gas, nuclear energy, pharmaceutical, timber and textile companies.[1]
It is estimated that methane and methanol production alone from hemp grown as biomass could replace 90% of the world's energy needs.[2] If they are right, this is not good news for oil interests and could account for the continuation of marijuana prohibition. The claim is that the threat hemp posed to natural resource companies back in the thirties accounts for its original ban.
At one time marijuana seemed to have a promising future as a cornerstone of industry. When Rudolph Diesel produced his famous engine in 1896, he assumed that the diesel engine would be powered by a variety of fuels, especially vegetable and seed oils. Rudolph Diesel, like most engineers then, believed vegetable fuels were superior to petroleum. Hemp is the most efficient vegetable.
In the 1930s the Ford Motor Company also saw a future in biomass fuels. Ford operated a successful biomass conversion plant, that included hemp, at their Iron Mountain facility in Michigan. Ford engineers extracted methanol, charcoal fuel, tar, pitch, ethyl-acetate and creosote. All fundamental ingredients for modern industry and now supplied by oil-related industries.[2]
The difference is that the vegetable source is renewable, cheap and clean, and the petroleum or coal sources are limited, expensive and dirty. By volume, 30% of the hemp seed contains oil suitable for high-grade diesel fuel as well as aircraft engine and precision machine oil.
Henry Ford's experiments with methanol promised cheap, readily renewable fuel. And if you think methanol means compromise, you should know that many modern race cars run on methanol.
About the time Ford was making biomass methanol, a mechanical device[3] to strip the outer fibers of the hemp plant appeared on the market. These machines could turn hemp into paper and fabrics[4] quickly and cheaply. Hemp paper is superior to wood paper. The first two drafts of the U.S. constitution were written on hemp paper. The final draft is on animal skin. Hemp paper contains no dioxin, or other toxic residue, and a single acre of hemp can produce the same amount of paper as four acres of trees.[5] The trees take 20 years to harvest and hemp takes a single season. In warm climates hemp can be harvested two even three times a year. It also grows in bad soil and restores the nutrients.
Hemp fiber-stripping machines were bad news to the Hearst paper manufacturing division, and a host of other natural resource firms. Coincidentally, the DuPont Chemical Company had, in 1937, been granted a patent on a sulfuric acid process to make paper from wood pulp. At the time DuPont predicted their sulfuric acid process would account for 80% of their business for the next 50 years.
Hemp, once the mainstay of American agriculture, became a threat to a handful of corporate giants. To stifle the commercial threat that hemp posed to timber interests, William Randolph Hearst began referring to hemp in his newspapers, by its Spanish name, "marijuana." This did two things: it associated the plant with Mexicans and played on racist fears, and it misled the public into thinking that marijuana and hemp were different plants.
Nobody was afraid of hemp--it had been cultivated and processed into usable goods, and consumed as medicine, and burned in oil lamps, for hundreds of years. But after a campaign to discredit hemp in the Hearst newspapers, Americans became afraid of something called marijuana.
By 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act was passed which marked the beginning of the end of the hemp industry. In 1938, Popular Mechanics ran an article about marijuana called, "New Billion Dollar Crop."[6] It was the first time the words "billion dollar" were used to describe a U.S. agricultural product. Popular Mechanics said,
. . . a machine has been invented which solves a problem more than 6,000 years old. . . .
The machine . . . is designed for removing the fiber-bearing cortex from the rest of the stalk, making hemp fiber available for use without a prohibitive amount of human labor.
Hemp is the standard fiber of the world. It has great tensile strength and durability. It is used to produce more than 5,000 textile products ranging from rope, to fine laces, and the woody "hurds" remaining after the fiber has been removed, contain more than seventy-seven per cent cellulose, and can be used to produce more than 25,000 products ranging from dynamite to cellophane.
http://www.ratical.org/...
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So who is against energy independence, the Democrats or the Republicans? You tell me.