It is common knowledge that our addiction to fossil fuels must end. It is not a renewable resource, and will be depleted in the first half of this century. The world has become fast paced and traveling anywhere takes hours instead of weeks or even months. Fossil fuels have created a world that runs at an almost head spinning pace.
We have become addicted to this face paced lifestyle, and our addiction to fossil fuels has kept pace with our desire to travel the world and beyond.
Many people don’t realize the potential for alternative fuels. They argue that using corn will cause a rise in food prices. Maybe that is true, or perhaps not, but corn is not the best alternative fuel resource.
Industrial hemp is not the same as cannabis grown for mind altering consumption. It grows very tall, with thick, fibrous stocks. It is harsh and unpleasant for smoking and one would likely be left with a headache if they tried to smoke enough to make them high.
In the mid nineteen thirties oil companies became aware of the potential for hemp. Anything that can be made from fossil fuels can also be made from hemp. The oil barons began a campaign to make the growing of all cannabis
products illegal. A law was enacted that did just that. A farmer could not grow hemp or even possess it without paying a special tax. The catch was, the farmer must prove he was growing cannabis before he could have the product taxed. To do so would then be a crime. Big oil grew out of making cannabis essentially illegal to grow and possess. Having eliminated its greatest competition, fossil fuel became the black gold that now rules the world, driving the economy and keeping us addicted to everything from automobile fuel to plastics.
Hemp is sturdy enough to make plastic, long lasting and easily cared for clothing, rope, canvas, and fuel for everything from family cars to jet planes.
It burns cleaner than oil. this renewable resource is gentle on the environment and growing it would improve farmlands and wetlands, preventing the devastating floods we have seen in recent decades.
This is a simple solution to so many problems we are passing down to future generations. Isn’t it time we stopped being crazy about a product with not just recreational or medicinal properties but with the potential to heal the earth and pass on a better world to our descendents?
