Grass on Wheels
Cars of the Future May Be Made of Hemp and Other Grasses

By Amanda Onion

June 4 — A car made from grass may not sound sturdy, but scientists say plant-based cars are the wave of the future.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Use, Then Bury Europe Leading the Way Inspirations in History



Researchers in Australia and England are working on developing materials from plants like hemp and elephant grass to replace plastic and metal-based car components. Scientists say the materials are biodegradable and can increase fuel efficiency since they weigh about 30 percent less than currently used materials.
"The lighter the car, the less fuel you need to propel it," explains Alan Crosky of the School of Material Science and Engineering in the University of New South Whales in Australia.

Use, Then Bury

Crosky and his partners have been developing tough material from hemp, the reedy, less controversial cousin of the marijuana plant. "Hemp fibers have higher strength to weight ratios than steel and can also be considerably cheaper to manufacture," he says.

The hemp used in car construction contains only traces of the narcotic tetrahydrocannabinol, which lends marijuana its psychedelic effect.

Crosky explains building cars — even their outer shells — from plants like hemp could reduce the number of rusting car bodies and rotting car parts on old lots. The plant fibers are cleaned, heated, in some cases blended with small amounts of biodegradable plastics and molded into hardened paneling and filling.

Each year in the United States, 10 million to 11 million vehicles putter out and reach the end of their useful lives. While a network of salvage and shredder facilities process about 96 percent of these old cars, about 25 percent of the vehicles by weight, including plastics, fibers, foams, glass and rubber, remains as waste.

A car made mostly of heated, treated and molded hemp, says Crosky, could simply be buried at its life end and then consumed naturally by bacteria.

Europe Leading the Way

The idea has already taken firm root in countries like Germany and Britain, where manufacturers are required to pay tax for the disposal of old vehicles. As environmental issues become more pertinent, researchers believe natural fibers are likely to become a major component of cars around the world.

"Manufacturers pay a lot of money here to landfill something," says Mark Johnson, an engineer at the University of Warwick Manufacturing Group in England. "If it's made from degradable parts, you don't have to pay."

Johnson and his team have been creating parts from elephant grass, a bamboo-like plant that, he says, requires less processing than hemp to harden and mold into car components.

German car companies including Mercedes (Daimler/Chrysler), BMW and Audi Volkswagen have been leading the way in incorporating plant fibers in their models. Since the introduction of jute-based door panels in the Mercedes E class five years ago, German car companies have more than tripled their use of natural fibers to about 15,500 tons in 1999.

The next trend could be in building the shells of cars from plants. Crosky says he and his team are now looking at building exterior car panels from hemp.

In the United States, automobile companies have approached the idea more gingerly.

"We use natural fibers only when it makes sense technologically," says Phil Colley, a spokeman for the Ford Motor Co.

Colley says Ford has used flax, recycled cotton and a 14-foot tall, fibrous crop called kenaf in some parts, including under front hoods to dampen the sound of slamming them shut. Deere & Co. has used soy-based fiberglass composites in the panels of some of its tractors. By 2010, the New Jersey consulting firm Kline & Company anticipates natural fibers to replace a fifth of the fiberglass in current U.S. car models.

While researchers tout their benefits, Colley points are there are some drawbacks. Smell can become a problem, he says, particularly with hemp which can produce a musty odor when incorporated into a vehicle.

"You have to take into account all the tradeoffs," Colley says.

Inspirations in History

Although fiber car components may be a thing of the future, the idea of manufacturing material from fibrous plants dates back to even ancient times. Fragments of fabric woven from hemp have been found from 8,000 BC. Bamboo and sturdy grasses have been used in construction for centuries and plots in Japan still provide hemp to weave the emperor's religious robes.

Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Co., first toyed with the idea of plant-based car parts in 1940, when he took an ax and whacked the hood of a car trunk made from a soybean-based material to test its strength.

The car hood reportedly withstood the blow and now, 70 years later, car companies, including Ford's own, have finally begun to put the concept to use.

"Increasing the use of biodegradable and recycled materials will lower the impact of vehicle disposal," says Jim Kliesch, a researcher at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a nonprofit, Washington-based organization dedicated to improving the environmental impact of technologies. "And that can only be a good thing."
www.abcnews.com (http://www.abcnews.com)

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Manu Narayan

Great. so now, not only will the paper and cotton industries be fighting the legalization of marijuana, so will the steel and plastics industries.

Also - how fire resistant is this hemp stuff - remember that cheech and chong movie where they were smuggling grass from mexico in a van made of weed? It caught on fire - and they got really ****ed up.

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No Joke

The other thing I was thinking...

If you coudl just burry it and it would biodegrade, would that mean it cannot last past X amount of time. What about washing it? Does it rot? Clearly lots of questions.

Also im sure thats where the light weight plastics come in

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Manu Narayan

Ah... your finally seeing the light Manu.


"
Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Co., first toyed with the idea of plant-based car parts in 1940, when he took an ax and whacked the hood of a car trunk made from a soybean-based material to test its strength.

"


Well she is wrong there, the car he made was from Hemp.

"There's enough alcohol in one year's yeild of an acre of potatoes to drive the
machinery necessary to cultivate the fields for one hundred years." - Henry Ford

Pioneering automotive engineer Henry Ford held many patents on automotive
mechanisms, but is best remembered for helping devise the factory assembly
approach to production that revolutionized the auto industry by greatly reducing
the time required to assemble a car.

Born in Wayne County, Michigan, Ford showed an early interest in mechanics,
constructing his first steam engine at the age of 15. In 1893 he built his first
internal combustion engine, a small one-cylinder gasoline model, and in 1896 he
built his first automobile.

In June 1903 Ford helped establish Ford Motor Company. He served as president
of the company from 1906 to 1919 and from 1943 to 1945.

In addition to earning numerous patents on auto mechanisms, Ford served as a vice president of the
Society of Automotive Engineers when it was founded in 1905 to standardize U.S. automotive parts. 1

Ignominy

Shamefully, Ford was an anti-Semitic and Nazi sympathizer. Comparable to Thomas Jefferson having
slaves; it is paradoxical that Henry Ford (considered to be one of America's greatest minds) should also
be preoccupied with racism.

Fuel of the Future

When Henry Ford told a New York Times reporter that ethyl alcohol was "the fuel of the future" in 1925, he
was expressing an opinion that was widely shared in the automotive industry. "The fuel of the future is
going to come from fruit like that sumach out by the road, or from apples, weeds, sawdust -- almost
anything," he said. "There is fuel in every bit of vegetable matter that can be fermented. There's enough
alcohol in one year's yield of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the fields
for a hundred years."

Ford recognized the utility of the hemp plant. He constructed a car of resin stiffened hemp fiber, and even
ran the car on ethanol made from hemp. Ford knew that hemp could produce vast economic resources if
widely cultivated.

Ford's optimistic appraisal of cellulose and crop based ethyl alcohol fuel can be read in several ways. First,
it can be seen as an oblique jab at a competitor. General Motors had come to considerable grief that
summer of 1925 over another octane boosting fuel called tetra-ethyl lead, and government officials had
been quietly in touch with Ford engineers about alternatives to leaded gasoline additives. Secondly, by
1925 the American farms that Ford loved were facing an economic crisis that would later intensify with the
depression. Although the causes of the crisis were complex, one possible solution was seen in creating
new markets for farm products. With Ford's financial and political backing, the idea of opening up
industrial markets for farmers would be translated into a broad movement for scientific research in
agriculture that would be labelled "Farm Chemurgy." 2

Why Henry's plans were delayed for more than a half century:

Ethanol has been known as a fuel for many decades. Indeed, when Henry Ford designed the Model T, it
was his expectation that ethanol, made from renewable biological materials, would be a major automobile
fuel. However, gasoline emerged as the dominant transportation fuel in the early twentieth century
because of the ease of operation of gasoline engines with the materials then available for engine
construction, a growing supply of cheaper petroleum from oil field discoveries, and intense lobbying by
petroleum companies for the federal government to maintain steep alcohol taxes. Many bills proposing a
National energy program that made use of Americas vast agricultural resources (for fuel production) were
killed by smear campaigns launched by vested petroleum interests. One noteworthy claim put forth by
petrol companies was that the U.S. government's plans "robbed taxpayers to make farmers rich".

Gasoline had many disadvantages as an automotive resource. The "new" fuel had a lower octane rating
than ethanol, was much more toxic (particularly when blended with tetra-ethyl lead and other compounds
to enhance octane), generally more dangerous, and contained threatening air pollutants. Petroleum was
more likely to explode and burn accidentally, gum would form on storage surfaces and carbon deposits
would form in combustion chambers of engines. Pipelines were needed for distribution from "area found"
to "area needed". Petroleum was much more physically and chemically diverse than ethanol, necessitating
complex refining procedures to ensure the manufacture of a consistent "gasoline" product.

However, despite these environmental flaws, fuels made from petroleum have dominated automobile
transportation for the past three-quarters of a century. There are two key reasons: First, cost per
kilometer of travel has been virtually the sole selection criteria. Second, the large investments made by
the oil and auto industries in physical capital, human skills and technology make the entry of a new
cost-competitive industry difficult.

Until very recently, environmental concerns have been largely ignored. All of that is finally changing as
consumers demand fuels such as ethanol, which are much better for the environment and human health.3

We can make houses out of Hemp, cars, boats, etc..

The most amazing plant on our Earth and the Federal terrorists in DC made it illegal. It has over 25,000 uses, everything from non toxic paints to biodegradable Hemp foam to be used for fast food containers that litter the sides of the road.

It is a human right that should be allowed to use the plant to it's full potential. The drug warriors that keep it illegal should be drawn and quartered.




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Red 86 GT

I forgot to mention the petro-chemical industry is the lobbying force behind keeping Hemp illegal because it will run the sob's out of business. Check this out...

A practical answer to America's farming, energy and
environmental crises.

On June 12,1989, President Bush addressed his campaign
promises to deal with the pollution problems long facing
the United States.

He unveiled an ambitious plan to remove smog from
California and the nation's most populous cities, as well as
efforts to reduce acid rain pollution. Bush recommended
auto makers be required to make methanol-powered cars
for use in nine urban areas plagued by air pollution.
Methanol is the simplest form of primary alcohol and is
commonly called wood alcohol.

Bush called methanol "home-grown energy for America." He further proposed a 10 million ton reduction in
sulfur dioxide emissions from coal-burning power plants; that's a 50% reduction over present standards.
Sulfur dioxide is a major cause of acid rain, which kills 50,000 Americans and 5,000-10,000 Canadians
yearly. (Brookhaven National Laboratory 1986)

William Reilly, chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, at a briefing before Bush's speech, estimated
the cost of the plan would be between $14 billion and $19 billion a year after its full implementation at the
turn of the century. Bush said, "Too many Americans continue to breathe dirty air, and political paralysis
has plagued further progress against air pollution. We've seen enough of this stalemate. It's time to clear
the air." Political paralysis seems to be a dominant trait in Washington in any given decade, but what did
he mean by "stalemate'?

The root of this "stalemate" can be found in the concept of world energy resources. The industrial world
currently runs on fossil fuel: natural gas, oil, and coal. Fossil fuel resources are non-renewable, being the
end product of eons of natural decomposition of Earth's ancient biomass. Fossil fuels contain sulfur, which
is the source of many of the aggravating environmental pollution problems threatening America.

Removing sulfur compounds from fossil fuels is a major expense to the energy producers. Also, burning
fossil fuels releases "ancient" carbon dioxide, produced by primeval plant life eons ago, into the
atmosphere causing the air we breathe to be over-burdened with CO2 increasing the danger of global
warming and the greenhouse effect.

In the late 1800s, the fledgling petroleum industry aggressively competed with the established
biomass-based energy industry in a effort to gain control of world energy production and distribution. Fossil
fuel producers succeeded in their campaign to dominate energy production by making fuels and chemical
feedstocks at lower prices than could be produced from biomass conversion. Now the pendulum is swinging
against them.

It is likely that peak oil and gas production in the coterminous United States has been reached. The bulk
total production of roughly 80% will be reached by the year 2000. Peak world production will occur about the
same year.

The situation for recoverable coal, world wide, is more favorable. Peak production is estimated to happen
shortly after the 2100. However, increasing numbers of Americans are unwilling to accept the escalating
costs of environmental pollution and destruction associated with coal-fired power plant smokestack
emissions and the land destruction resulting from coal mining.

If the pollution problems inherent with fossil fuel use are solved, the dollars and cents cost of this form of
energy will continue to rise due to the dwindling availability of this non-renewable world resource. On the
other hand, the dollar cost of energy production from biomass conversion will remain relatively constant
because the world biomass resource is renewable on a yearly basis.

The point where the cost of producing energy from fossil fuels exceeds the cost of biomass fuels has been
reached. With a few exceptions, energy from fossil fuels will cost the American taxpayer more money than
the same amount of energy supplied through biomass conversion.

Biomass is the term used to describe all biologically produced matter. World production of biomass is
estimated at 146 billion metric tons a year, mostly wild plant growth. Some farm crops and trees can
produce up to 20 metric tons per acre of biomass a year. Types of algae and grasses may produce 50
metric tons per year.

Dried biomass has a heating value of 5000-8000 Btu/lb, with virtually no ash or sulfur produced during
combustion. About 6% of contiguous United States land area put into cultivation for biomass could supply
all current demands for oil and gas. And this production would not add any net carbon dioxide to the
atmosphere. (Environmental Chemistry, Stanley E. Manahan, Willard Grant Press, 1984)

For its Mission Analysis study conducted for the U.S. Department of Energy in 1979, Stanford Research
Institute (SRI) chose five types of biomass materials to investigate for energy conversion: woody plants,
herbaceous plants (those that do not produce persistent woody material), aquatic plants, and manure.
Herbaceous plants were divided into two categories: those with low moisture content and those with high
moisture content.

Biomass conversion may be conducted on two broad pathways: chemical decomposition and biological
digestion.

Thermochemical decomposition can be utilized for energy conversion of all five categories of biomass
materials, but low moisture herbaceous (small grain field residues) and woody (wood industry wastes, and
standing vegetation not suitable for lumber) are the most suitable.

Biological processes are essentially microbic digestion and fermentation. High moisture herbaceous plants
(vegetables, sugar cane, sugar beet, corn, sorghum, cotton), marine crops and manure are most suitable
for biological digestion.

Anaerobic digestion produces high and intermediate Btu gasses. High Btu gas is methane.
Intermediate-Btu is methane mixed with carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Methane can be efficiently
converted into methanol.

Fermentation produces ethyl and other alcohols, but this process is too costly in terms of cultivated land
use and too inefficient in terms of alcohol production to feasibly supply enough fuel alcohol to power
industrial society.

Pyrolysis is the thermochemical process that converts organic materials into usable fuels with high
fuel-to-feed ratios, making it the most efficient process for biomass conversion, and the method most
capable of competing and eventually replacing non-renewable fossil fuel resources.

The foundation on which this will be achieved is the emerging concept of "energy farming," wherein farmers
grow and harvest crops that are converted into fuels.

Pyrolysis is the technique of applying high heat to organic matter (lignocellulosic materials) in the absence
of air or in reduced air. The process can produce charcoal, condensable organic liquids (pyrolytic fuel oil),
non-condensable gasses, acetic acid, acetone, and methanol. The process can be adjusted to favor
charcoal, pyrolytic oil, gas, or methanol production with a 95.556 fuel-to-feed efficiency.

Chemical decomposition through pyrolysis is the same technology used to refine crude fossil fuel oil and
coal. Biomass conversion by pyrolysis has many environmental and economic advantages over fossil fuels,
but coal and oil production dominates because costs are kept lower by various means including government
protection.

Pyrolysis has been used since the dawn of civilization. If some means is applied to collect the off-gasses
(smoke), the process is called wood distillation. The ancient Egyptians practiced wood distillation by
collecting tars and pyroligneous acid for use in their embalming industry.

Pyrolysis of wood to produce charcoal was a major industry in the 1800s, supplying the fuel for the
industrial revolution, until it was replaced by coal.

In the late 19th Century and early 20th Century wood distillation was still profitable for producing soluble
tar, pitch, creosote oil, chemicals, and non-condensable gasses often used to heat boilers at the facility.

The wood distillation industry declined in the 1930s due to the advent of the petrochemical industry and its
lower priced products. However, pyrolysis of wood to produce charcoal for the charcoal briquette market and
activated carbon for purification systems is still practiced in the U.S.

The wood distillation industry used pyrolytic reactors in a process called destructive distillation. The
operation was carried out in a fractionating column (a tall still) under high heat (from 1000-1700°F).
Charcoal was the main fuel product and methanol production was about 1% to 2% of volume or 6 gallons
per ton. This traditional method was replaced by the synthetic process developed in 1927.

The synthetic process utilizes a pyrolytic reactor operating as a gasifier by injecting air or pure oxygen into
the reactor core to completely burn the biomass to ash. The energy contained in the biomass is released in
the gasses formed. After purification the syngas, hydrogen and carbon monoxide in a 2 to 1 ratio, is
altered by catalysts under high pressure and heat, to form methanol. This method will produce 100 gallons
of methanol per ton of feed material.

Methanol-powered automobiles and reduced emissions from coal-fired power plants can become a reality
by using biomass derived fuels. The foundation upon which this will be achieved is the emerging concept of
energy farming, wherein farmers grow and harvest crops that are converted into fuels. Energy farming can
save American family farms and turn the American heartland into a prosperous source of clean renewable
energy production.

Pyrolysis is the most efficient process for biomass conversion into fuels that can replace all fossil fuel
products. . . When farmers can grow hemp for biomass they will make a profit energy farming.

Universities, government agencies, and private firms have conducted studies looking into the feasibility of
growing biomass at low cost to make fuels at affordable prices, but the most promising plant species was
never considered because it is prohibited. Instead emphasis has centered around utilizing waste products:
agricultural residues after harvest, forestry wastes from the timber and pulp wood industry, and municipal
wastes. All of these combined cannot produce enough fuel to satisfy the needs of industry or the American
consumer's automobile. Yet biomass conversion to fuel has been proven economically feasible in
laboratory tests and by continuous operation of pilot plants in field tests since 1973.

Farmers should be encouraged to grow energy crops capable of producing 10 tons per acre in 90-120 days.
The crop has to be naturally high in cellulose. It must grow in all climactic zones in America. And it should
not compete with food production for the most fertile land. It could be grown in rotation with food crops or
on marginal land where other crop production isn't profitable.

At congressional hearings on alternative fuels held in 1978, Dr. George T. Tsao, professor of chemical
engineering and food and agricultural engineering, director of laboratory of renewable resources, Purdue
University, said $30 per ton for biomass delivered to the fuel conversion plant is an adequate base price
for the energy farmer. The price of $30/ton has also been suggested by other researchers.

Both Dr. Serge Gratch, director chemical sciences laboratory, Ford Motor Co. and Dr. Joseph M. Colucci,
director fuels and lubricants General Motors Research Laboratories testified their companies were willing,
especially Ford, to make cars that would run on methanol fuel. The scientists said it would take several
years to tool up factories to make methanol powered autos. They said industry could solve the problems
associated with methanol as fuel. And it would take about the same amount of time for the energy industry
to build methanol production facilities.

So why don't we have methanol at the filling station? The scientists said the problem was government
certification under the Clean Air Act required automobile manufacturers meet standards set by the EPA
based on fuels available on a national level. Since methanol fuel standards had not been set, the car
makers couldn't make the new fleet until the methanol fuel was available at the pump. This catch-22
situation continues today. Government is unwilling to subsidize pilot energy farms and biomass refinery
construction because fossil fuel producers control the energy industry.

Hemp is the only biomass resource capable of making America energy independent. The government
suspended marijuana prohibition during WWII. It's time to do it again.

The way to end this political stalemate is to start literally from the ground up. When farmers can grow
hemp for biomass they will make a profit energy farming. Then it will not take long to get 6% of
continental American land mass into cultivation for biomass fuels -- enough to replace our economy's
dependence on fossil fuels. And as the energy crop grows it takes in CO2 from the air; when it is burned
the CO2 is returned to the air, creating a balanced system. We will no longer be increasing the CO2 content
in the atmosphere. The threat of global greenhouse warming and adverse climatic change will diminish.

This energy crop can be harvested with equipment readily available. It can be "cubed" by modifying hay
cubing equipment. This method condenses the bulk, reducing trucking costs from the field to the pyrolysis
facility.

Sixty-eight percent of the energy in the raw biomass is contained in the charcoal and fuel oils made at the
facility. The charcoal has the same heating value in Btu as coal, with virtually no sulfur to pollute the
atmosphere. The pyrolytic fuel oil has similar properties to no. 2 and no. 6 fuel oil. The remaining energy
is in noncondensible gases that are used to co-generate steam and electricity.

To keep costs down pyrolysis reactors need to be located within a 50 mile radius from the energy farms.
This necessity will bring life back to our small towns by providing jobs locally. The pyrolysis facilities will run
three shifts a day.

Charcoal and fuel oil can be "exported" from the rural small town in the agricultural community to the large
metropolitan areas to fuel the giant power plants generating electricity. When these utility companies use
charcoal instead of coal, the problems of acid rain will begin to disappear.

The charcoal can be transported economically by rail to all urban area power plants. The fuel oil can be
transported economically by truck creating more jobs for Americans.

When this energy system is on line producing a steady supply of fuel for utility companies, it will have
established itself in commerce. Then it will be more feasible to build the complex syngas systems to
produce methanol from biomass, or make synthetic gasoline from methanol by adding the Mobil Co.
process equipment to the gasifier.

To accomplish this goal of clean energy independence in America we must demand an end to hemp
prohibition, so American farmers can grow this energy crop. Our government foolishly outlawed it in 1938.

Hemp is the world's most versatile plant. It can yield 10 tons per acre in four months. Hemp contains 80%
cellulose; wood produces 60% cellulose. Hemp is drought resistant making it an ideal crop in the dry
western regions of the country.

Hemp is the only biomass resource capable of making America energy independent. Remember that in 10
years, by the year 2000, America will have exhausted 80% of her petroleum reserves. Will we then go to
war with the Arabs for the privilege of driving our cars; will we stripmine our land for coal and poison the air
we breathe to drive our autos an additional 100 years; will we raze our forests for our energy needs?

During the Second World War, the federal government faced a real economic emergency when our supply
of hemp was cut off by the Japanese. The federal government responded to the emergency by suspending
marijuana prohibition. Patriotic American farmers were encouraged to apply for a license to grow hemp.
They responded enthusiastically and grew 375,000 acres of hemp in 1943.

The argument against undertaking this massive hemp production effort today does not hold up to scrutiny.

Hemp grown for biomass makes very poor grade marijuana. The 20 to 40 million Americans who smoke
marijuana would loath to smoke hemp grown for biomass, so no one could make a dime selling a farmers
hemp biomass crop as marijuana.

It is time for the federal government to once again respond to our current economic emergency by utilizing
the same procedure used in WWII to permit our farmers to grow American hemp so this mighty nation can
once again become energy independent and smog free.

by Lynn Osburn



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Red 86 GT

HEMP: THE WORLD'S MOST BENEFICIAL NATURAL RESOURCE?
AMAZING FACTS ABOUT AN AMAZING PLANT

On an annual basis, 1 acre of hemp will produce as much fiber as 2 to 3 acres of cotton. Hemp
fiber is stronger and softer than cotton, lasts twice as long as cotton, and will not mildew.
Many textile products (shirts, jackets, pants, backpacks, etc.) made from 100% hemp are
now available.

Cotton grows only in moderate climates and requires more water than hemp; but hemp is
frost tolerant, requires only moderate amounts of water, and grows in all 50 states. Cotton
requires large quantities of pesticides and herbicides--50% of the world's
pesticides/herbicides are used on cotton. But hemp requires no pesticides, no herbicides, and
only moderate amounts of fertilizer.

On an annual basis, 1 acre of hemp will produce as much paper as 2 to 4 acres of trees. From
tissue paper to cardboard, all types of paper products can be produced from hemp. Global
demand for paper will double within 25 years. Unless tree-free sources of paper are
developed, there is no way to meet future demand without causing massive deforestation and
environmental damage. Hemp is the world's most promising source of tree-free paper.

The quality of hemp paper is superior to tree-based paper. Hemp paper will last hundreds of
years without degrading, can be recycled many more times than tree-based paper, and
requires less toxic chemicals in the manufacturing process than does paper made from trees.

Hemp can be used to produce fiberboard that is stronger than wood, lighter than wood, and
fire retardant. Substituting hemp fiberboard for timber would further reduce the need to cut
down our forests. Hemp can also be used to produce strong, durable and
environmentally-friendly plastic substitutes. Thousands of products made from
petroleum-based plastics can be produced from hemp-based composites. Mercedes Benz of
Germany has recently begun manufacturing automobile bodies and dashboards made from
hemp.

It takes years for trees to grow until they can be harvested for paper or wood, but hemp is
ready for harvesting only 120 days after it is planted. Hemp can grow on most land suitable
for farming, but forests and tree farms require large tracts of land available in few locations.
Harvesting hemp rather than trees would also eliminate erosion due to logging, thereby
reducing topsoil loss and water pollution caused by soil runoff.

Hemp seeds contain a protein that is more nutritious and more economical to produce than
soybean protein. Hemp seeds are not intoxicating. Hemp seed protein can be used to produce
virtually any product made from soybean: tofu, veggie burgers, butter, cheese, salad oils, ice
cream, milk, etc. Hemp seed can also be ground into a nutritious flour that can be used to
produce baked goods such as pasta, cookies, and breads.

Hemp seed oil can be used to produce non-toxic diesel fuel, paint, varnish, detergent, ink and
lubricating oil. Because hemp seeds account for up to half the weight of a mature hemp plant,
hemp seed is a viable source for these products.

Just as corn can be converted into clean-burning ethanol fuel, so can hemp. Because hemp
produces more biomass than any plant species (including corn) that can be grown in a wide
range of climates and locations, hemp has great potential to become a major source of
ethanol fuel.

Literally millions of wild hemp plants currently grow throughout the U.S. Wild hemp, like
hemp grown for industrial use, has no drug properties because of its low THC content. U.S.
marijuana laws prevent farmers from growing the same hemp plant that proliferates in nature
by the millions.

From 1776 to 1937, hemp was a major American crop and textiles made from hemp were
common. Yet, The American Textile Museum, The Smithsonian Institute, and most American
history books contain no mention of hemp. The government's War on Marijuana Smokers
has created an atmosphere of self censorship--speaking of hemp in a positive manner is
considered taboo.

United States Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp, used
products made from hemp, and praised the hemp plant in some of their writings. Under the
laws written by today's politicians, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would be
considered a threat to society--they would be arrested and thrown in prison for the felony
crime of growing plants.

No other natural resource offers the potential of hemp. Cannabis Hemp is capable of
producing significant quantities of paer, textiles, building materials, food, medicine, paint,
detergent, varnish, oil, ink, and fuel. Unlike other crops, hemp can grow in most climates and
on most farmland throughout the world with moderate water and fertilizer requirements, no
pesticides, and no herbicides. Cannabis Hemp (also known as Indian Hemp) has enormous
potential to become a major natural resource that can benefit both the economy and the
environment.

"Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere."
--President George Washington, 1794


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Red 86 GT

heh, nothign new CA. I read most of the stuff you used to post over at SN. Just thought Id pass it on to everyone else also. ;-)

Hey, you going to be able to make is Sat?

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Manu Narayan

Great, now not only do I have to worry about idiots dinging my doors but I have to worry about people trying to smoke it too. Great. http://discussanything.com/Ubb/rolleyes.gif http://discussanything.com/Ubb/biggrin.gif