Ook `hennepteelt` krijgt groen licht in Colorado

[Elmo2007 438]

bron : http://www.npr.org/2013/01/28/170300215/he...ado-pot-measure

 

With recreational marijuana now legal in Colorado,

 

small-scale pot shops will open up soon in places like Denver and Boulder.

 

But that's not the only business that could get a boost: Large-scale commercial farmers may also be in line to benefit.

 

Why?

 

When Colorado voters legalized marijuana last November, they also legalized hemp.

 

As plants, marijuana and hemp look related, and they are. But while marijuana is bred to get its users high, hemp is all business — grown for food and other everyday uses. Hemp contains very little of the chemical THC, the active ingredient in pot.

 

That might be news to farmer Michael Bowman's neighbors. "When they hear that we're growing hemp, they think we're growing marijuana," he says.

 

Bowman is from Wray, a small town on the eastern Colorado plains. He thinks hemp needs some rehabilitation and that he's the man to do it.

 

A Wonder Crop?

 

Bowman will plant 100 acres of hemp this spring on his 3,000-acre farm, where the winter wind now whips across barren wheat and corn fields.

 

 

DEA Special Agent Paul Roach says federal law does not distinguish between hemp and marijuana.

 

Courtesy Michael Bowman

"We think 100 acres is a good number," he says. "It's not a garden plot, and it's enough to have enough product at the end of the day that we can do something real with it."

 

To hear him and other activists tell it, hemp can be used to make just about anything: rope, paper, plastic, clothing, shoe polish, car parts and even dog chew toys — to name just a few of the possibilities.

 

Bowman says he'll turn his first crop into an edible oil. "Our goal is really to try to understand: Is this a viable crop? Getting the research and data gathered this year will be a good step one," he says.

 

When asked if it's a political experiment as much as an agricultural one, Bowman says: "It's probably more of a political experiment at this point."

 

A Growing Trend

 

In the eyes of the federal government, growing cannabis is a violation of the Controlled Substances Act. Special Agent Paul Roach of the Drug Enforcement Administration says federal law does not distinguish between hemp and marijuana.

 

"It really doesn't matter whether it looks different or it looks the same," he says. "If it's the cannabis plant, it's in the Controlled Substances Act and, therefore, enforceable under federal drug law."

 

The Department of Justice says it's reviewing the legalization initiatives approved in Colorado and in Washington state. For now, the United States is the only industrialized country that bans hemp.

 

Yet it's also the world's largest consumer of hemp products. According to an industry association, total sales of products containing hemp are estimated to be around $450 million.

 

"Hemp's trendy," says Frank Peters, who works in the health and beauty department at a Whole Foods in Boulder, Colo. In this section, you could throw a hemp seed in any direction and hit a product made with the stuff: soaps and lotions, oils and protein powders. And there's a new product on the shelf called Hemp Hearts.

 

"Hemp Hearts are the partially shelled seed," Peters explains, "which is going to be the more nutritional part of the plant."

 

And what do people do with Hemp Hearts? "They eat it. They're going to put it in yogurt, over cereal. You can bake with it, things like that," he says.

 

Peters says it tastes just like any seed. "It's not really strong one way or another," he says.

 

Its taste may be rather bland, but its politics are anything but. The Colorado Legislature is giving itself until July 2014 to decide how to regulate hemp.

 

Edited January 31, 2013 by Elmo2007

[David.dT 0]

[Guest elmanito]

Like the old days

 

 

[Guest elmanito]

Edited February 1, 2013 by elmanito

[Guest elmanito]

Schrijven van een Amerikaanse boer op zijn blog

 

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Road Trip!

 

 

I was reading the New Ag Talk Cafe this morning and came across a thread about a young man taking a road trip with his dad. Road trips with my dad might be as far as the feed mill in town, or once a year to the county fair and the Ohio State Fair!

 

I wonder what my boys remember of their "road trips?" I took them as far and as much as I could because I love to travel and I loved being with my kids. Road trips led to "Field Trips" as a teacher and parent. I love field trips too!

 

His story made me think of my many road trips and field trips, especially the last 20 years. Iowa over 10 times, every state and most National Parks was a blast! Right now would be a great time to go see that tall corn(via email this morning) in central Illinois and eastern Iowa. Work and gas prices are good excuses not to go but it sure would be fun!

 

It looks like most of our corn is going to make it. It's amazing what these "fancy" seed treatments do on good seed lots these days but it is really amazing to see what trichaderma fungi eat in this cool mud! I had enough soil moisture and temperature at the right time to colonize these fungi and when the chemical treatment runs out about now, that fungus will sit on the root hairs just gobbling up all that pythium, fusarium and rhizoctonia that could kill my crop!

 

A good friend is visiting this weekend from Iowa so I won't venture too far. Just scouting my fields each day keeps me pretty busy as well as gardening, mowing, telephone, email and NewAgTalk. I might get some of each done!

 

There are too many eroded fields here again. I have been reading about erosion and residue anywhere it has rained much and desperation wherever it hasn't.

 

"Sounds like here. You painted the picture properly.

 

Yes the notill washed but there are tilled fields here with the topsoil GONE.

 

Wonder why the rivers are so BROWN?

 

"$800 an acre to grow corn" down the Mississippi!"

 

That's not a good trip for our soil! What do you think my friend is holding in his hand? It will keep the soil from washing!

Ed

 

 

bron

[hemprenaissance 104]

hahahah heel amerika feesten.... komen ze nog wel achter als heel amerika vol staat met deze hennep bagger!!!!

 

overal stuifsel over het hele continent... geen buitenplantje dat je meer fatsoenlijk kan afbloeien overal weer heerlijk consemilla!!!

 

echt focking slim van de regering... zo leeft de war on drugs gewoon door

 

EN WE HEBBEN HET NIET EENS DOOR

 

peace hempy