Hemp oil got me thinking.

Sometime ago while I was seeking for natural fibre clothing (I have sensitive skin) I ran into the following information about hemp

Aside from recreational drug use and some medical benefits for people suffering from certain specific illnesses, I knew that hemp had been used historically for making ropes and varnish etc. I did not know it had so many other uses. Industrial hemp has been used to make environmentally friendlier products like paper and cloth fibre and building materials such as concrete, particle board and PVC plumbing.

The environmental and agricultural benefits:

One acre of hemp fibre will make 4 times as much paper as the fibre produced from an acre of trees. Cotton uses more than twice the water needed for hemp. Cotton needs herbicides and pesticides where hemp does not. Hemp fibre cloth is soft, breathable and non-irritating. Hemp crops do not deplete the nitrogen content of soil as cotton and other crops such as those grown for biomass fuel do. The nitrogen in hemp stays in the root and therefore returns directly to the soil. So no fertilisers needed. also hemp is naturally disease and insect resistant. No fertiliser or chemicals needed keeps water tables, stream, rivers, etc. clean. Not so good for the petrochemical industry which supply these products.

Other safety benefits:

Henry Ford experimented with hemp, sisal and a plastic extracted from wheat straw to make a car. There is documentation of him taking a sledgehammer to the car and it not getting a dent. I have been saying for years there is no reason why cars could not be made safer with flexible materials rather than crunchable metal. Production of metals for automobiles destroys the environment on many levels.

Apparently hemp was due to enjoy a revival in production of cloth fibre at the same time DuPont Chemical had devised and started producing the wonder material nylon. Eugene DuPont with his buddy (the then head of the FBI) worked together to make hemp illegal.   Because a reportedly addictive drug was produced form it? Not likely. Hemp grown industirally is not the same as the cannibis drug plant. The real reason they blocked hemp is simple. You cannot patent a naturally occurring product. If you can't patent it you cannot monopolise and profit from it.

This smacks of the big pharmaceuticals extracting the pain killing bit of willow bark to make asprin. Asprin causes stomach ulcers and allergic reactions. Willow bark has the other natural complimentary enzymes or whatever that prevent such reactions. But you cannot patent willow bark. Thank you Mssrs. Bayer.

Human enterprise is all fine and good, but not when it interferes on such a such huge scale with the health of the Earth and all her inhabitants.

sigh! if only i was in charge.