Is Hemp Farming the next Green Job
growth industry
Though Obama has
frequently spoken of the need for more "green jobs," he has failed to
acknowledge the inherent environmental advantages associated with a curious
plant called hemp. One of the earliest domesticated crops, hemp is incredibly
versatile and can be utilized for everything from food, clothing, rope, paper
and plastic to even car parts.
In an era of high unemployment, hemp could provide welcome relief to the states and help to spur the transition from antiquated and polluting manufacturing jobs to the new green economy. What is more, in lieu of our warming world and climate change, the need for environmentally sustainable industries like hemp has never been greater. Given all of these benefits, why have Obama and the political establishment chosen to remain silent?
The explanation has to
do with retrograde and backward beliefs which have been hindering environmental
progress for a generation. A biological cousin of marijuana, hemp contains
minute amounts of THC or tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a psychoactive chemical.
Even though advocates
say one would have to smoke huge amounts of hemp to get high, the plant
occupies a highly dubious legal status in the U.S. During the 1970s, Congress
declared hemp a "Schedule I" drug under the Controlled Substances
Act, ridiculously lopping the plant in the same category as heroin.
Though the authorities
allow farmers to petition the federal government to grow hemp, the Drug
Enforcement Administration or D.E.A. has proven incredibly resistant to such
licenses and for all intents and purposes the crop has remained illegal
[ironically enough, however, the U.S. imports many hemp-related products from
abroad].
On the other hand,
tectonic political and cultural change may provide some reason for optimism.
Last fall, Washington state and Colorado legalized marijuana which has in turn
exerted pressure on the Obama administration. As I discuss in a recent article,
surprisingly diverse social constituencies supported the ballot initiatives,
which suggests that the political tides may be turning [in Latin America, too,
public sentiment seems to have soured on Washington's unpopular drug war].
In moving to legalize
marijuana, Colorado also passed hemp legalization though the D.E.A. must still
grant permission to farm the crop. Colorado joins a growing number of states
which are moving on hemp legislation, though such measures are hardly uniform.
Some states have authorized the study of industrial hemp as an industry, while
others have simply asked the Feds to relax draconian drug laws. Some, however,
have legalized hemp production just like Colorado.
This in turn raises the
question of whether the Obama administration might actually conduct raids on
local farms in an effort to crack down on the crop. Perhaps, such a scenario
will never come to pass since change has even come to Capitol Hill: recently, a
bipartisan group ranging from liberal Democrat to right-wing Republican
reintroduced legislation which would require the federal government to respect
state laws allowing for the cultivation of hemp.
Could hemp help to bring
back sorely needed employment in the American heartland? That is the hope in
Kentucky, which had a booming hemp industry as recently as World War II.
Somewhat outlandishly, Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell no less has
remarked "the utilization of hemp to produce everything from clothing to
paper is real, and if there is a capacity to center a new domestic industry in
Kentucky that will create jobs in these difficult economic times, that sounds
like a good thing to me."
Read more at ENN
Affiliate, MongaBay.