UK Indymedia | Dismayed by the the lack of hemp on this site

Dismayed by the the lack of hemp on this site

this is regarding the serious lack of hemp in the environmental movement. although it would also help just about every other grassroots movement. i would have thought that being alternative media, there'd be something on hemp. i was especially surprised by the sister site

http://climateimc.org/
which throws up 1 article in a search for "hemp". a search on greenpeace is similarly depressing. www.foe.co.uk is a little better. it seems there's more in the mainstream. eg. www.theecologist.org

it's grows practically anywhere, reduces atmospheric carbon, reverses soil erosion, uses no chemicals and produces: paper, clothes, high protein food, rope, building materials, the number one bird food, omega oils (3,6&9), oils (including biodiesel), plastics, paints and varnishes amongst 1,000s of other uses.

it has been suppressed since about 1937 when the likes of dupont & william randolph hearst did their best to demonise it for their own selfish ends. you see, it threatened the heavy chemical use in competing industries such as cotton, paper & plastic. it also gave people control of their energy supply. mr diesel, the inventor of the diesel engine first ran it on peanut oil and hemp works just as well.

check out the free book at www.jackherer.com

http://www.jackherer.com/chapters.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp

http://www.theecologist.org/archive_detail.asp?content_id=175

http://www.theecologist.org/archive_detail.asp?content_id=420

http://www.theecologist.org/archive_detail.asp?content_id=190

as a side issue LETS can help us too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Exchange_Trading_Systems

Rob

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

wow thanks for the info

07.11.2007 13:04

Hey thanks for the info! Pull your socks up indymedia

It's also been written out of history. it was heavily used for 1000's of years

07.11.2007 13:50

all over the world, it was the most utilised plant for millenia. without it, few ships would have sailed. hempen rope & sails outlasted the nearest rival by years. sailors clothes & shoes would likely be made from hemp and then all would be recycled into paper which lasts far longer than wood paper.

italy made the finest hempen clothes up until 1980.

having begged people & children to grow hemp for the war effort, around 1940, the US government has lobbied the UN to eradicate it from the face of the earth.

Rob

DIY...

07.11.2007 18:46

don't whine about other people not putting up enough info on hemp - put it up yourself. Indymedia is participative and as such the content is the product of those who use it - not a simple service to make demands of.

rasputin

What about nettles?

08.11.2007 15:38

The common stinging nettle is just as useful a plant as hemp/cannabis.The nettle is a native of Britain and is hardy (ie. it survives in British winters), where as hemp is not native and is not hardy in this country. So why is there so little information about the nettle? Simple - cos unlike hemp/cannabis it doesn't get you high - so its not cool to like it and promote it.

There are loads of other useful plants that are not grown enough and should be. Don't let your drug addled mind blind you to the fact that there are many plants out there besides hemp!

Stinger

Hemp honey - don't even go there!

10.11.2007 23:53

Right on Rasputin - DIY is the way to go.

While I'm on the subject, the boyfriend had this great idea; we stick up a beehive near the bloody big hemp field that was out the back of our house in Norfolk (all entirely legal dear friends) and harvest the hemp honey. We got all excited until a bit of basic research told us that it is wind pollenated. Ah well, lets get real !

Bernie

nettles

17.01.2008 18:19

although the nettle is another useful and under-used plant, it is no where near as useful as hemp.

do you drink tea or coffee? do you smoke? they are all drugs. the word drug comes from the latin for herb. who decides what is & what isn't a drug? who gives one person power over another?

check out the following:

This leaflet is printed on 100% Treefree(R) Hemp paper made without harmful chemicals.
Hemp paper is available from the email address below @ £2 per 100 A4 sheets.
Printing on Hemp or recycled paper with soya based inks is also available, from the same address.

I'm concerned that Hemp seems to be rarely mentioned in the climate change movement or mainstream media.
Although the BBC has a fair amount of info on it's website, you wouldn't know it unless you do a search.

A few Hemp facts:
Hemp was the world's most useful plant for 1000s of years and has only been demonised and written out of history & education in the last 70, mainly thanks to USA foreign policy.
Hemp is still used today in many ways including plumbing, horse bedding, bird seed, fish bait & bank notes.
Hemp is the number one bird seed and birds will select it first from a seed mix.
Hemp was banned in the UK around 1928 thanks to the Geneva Convention on Drugs. Britain had just completed a comprehensive study into hemp and concluded that under no circumstances must hemp be banned, as it would cause more problems than it solved. Britain then abstained from the vote and it was left to the Egyptian & Turkish delegations, with their massive cotton growing concerns to put the nails in the coffin.
Hemp has potentially 25,000 uses.
Hemp, unlike cotton needs no pesticides.
Hemp will protect other crops if grown as a border.
Cotton is responsible for 50% of world pesticide use.
Cotton kills! - World Health Organisation figures state that there are at least 25,000 third world worker deaths every year, directly from cotton pesticide use.
Hemp will grow in desert conditions & rebuilds the soil structure.
Hemp is an excellent source of protein & omega oils.
Hemp seed & oil are now popular health foods and can even be found in the church of Tesco.
Hemp is an excellent bio fuel. It can be grown on soil unfit for normal crops and will make that soil useful again.
Nepal had a hemp based economy until usa foreign policy flexed it's muscle.
Hemp in America was taxed out of existence by deception. Hemp was then demonised with racist lies including "it makes white women fall into the arms of black men" & "it makes black people insolent so they won't go to the back of the bus"
Hemp's criminalisation came just after Dupont had patented very harmful chemicals for cotton pesticides, synthetic fibres and wood paper-making.
Hemp was demonised by William Randolph Hearst's newspaper empire as it threatened his considerable timber interests.
Hemp makes the best paper in the world. It's far superior and longer lasting than wood paper and without the environmental damage from chopping down trees and the highly toxic process of paper making.
Hemp was made into some of the world's finest cloth in Italy until 1980. It was nearly as fine as silk.
Russia was the major producer of hemp rope and wars were fought to maintain supply.
Hemp ropes & sails enabled Britain to 'rule the waves'.
Hemp production is totally banned in America and they are even trying to ban it's products.
America has lobbied the UN to eradicate hemp from the face of the earth.
For a large part of history cannabis was the 1st, 2nd or 3rd most prescribed medicine. Even today major drug companies like GW Pharmacuticals are trying to separate & synthesise the active ingredients.
Hemp production in the UK is massively increasing every year thanks to a UK company called Hemcore. They supply the building industry and other commercial uses.

I feel compelled to ask: could the ban on hemp be keeping the third world hungry & the world polluted & at war?

Most wars are fought for control of energy supply & natural resources. If the people could easily grow their own energy, food & clothes why would they need to fight?

All this makes me wonder why: Greenpeace will have nothing to do with it, the Green Party acknowledge it's usefulness but don't campaign on it and Friends of the Earth only have a couple of articles.

The ignorance of this subject is incredible. On a recent Climate Change march in London I spoke to many different people and found that although the knowledge was thin there were no objections and everyone thought it was a great resource.

If you need any further information or sources for the facts above, just ask.

many thanks for listening,

Peace&Love

Roblmail2k-hemp[AT]yahoo.co.uk

For more informaton not normally found in the mainstream media see www.WeAreChange.org.uk and download our radio shows.

Rob
mail e-mail: Roblmail2k-hemp[AT]yahoo.co.uk
Homepage: http://www.WeAreChange.org.uk