July 1, 2012 |
David Bronner was recently arrested for attempting to eat a healthy
breakfast. Does that sound stupid? Even once you know the details, it
should sound stupid: Bronner's food of choice was bread spread with
hemp seed oil he pressed himself from industrial hemp plants, which he
did in front of the White House under a banner reading: “Dear Mr.
President Let U.S. Farmers Grow Hemp."
Bronner's company, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, spends over $100,000 to
buy over 20 tons of hemp seed oil from Canada each year to use in its
soaps. Bronner wants to give that money to American farmers instead.
If it's legal to use in soaps – and even to eat – then why is it
illegal to grow here? Because according to the government, hemp is a
drug. Specifically, it's considered identical to its close cousin,
marijuana. But Bronner says it is no more a drug than a poppyseed bagel.
The plants he gathered seed from to press his oil in front of the White
House had been tested to confirm they contained less than 0.3 percent
THC, which means it would be “impossible to get a high of any kind” even
from smoking extremely large quantities of it. A more likely result
from smoking that much industrial hemp would be a bad headache or
perhaps a sore throat.
Bronner explains that his protest was “the culmination of a lot of
frustration,” saying, “We're just sick and tired of this policy. It
basically hands the world's largest market for industrial hemp seed and
fiber products to the Canadians, Europeans, and Chinese, who are
laughing at us all the way to the bank.”
He and others have lobbied to legalize growing industrial hemp in the
U.S. for more than a decade. The environmentally friendly soap company
appreciates that hemp can be grown without toxic agrochemicals, but it's
the high omega-3 fatty acid content that really draws him to eating it
and using it in his soaps. Bronner finds that the omega-3 content of
hemp seed oil “makes the soap a lot smoother and emollient and less
drying.” As a food, it has the “ideal ratio” of omega-6 to omega-3,
about three to one.
Over the last half century, Americans have systematically removed omega
3 fatty acids from their diets, replacing them instead with omega 6
fatty acids. Within the human body, the two essential fatty acids
“compete,” making the ratio of omega-6:omega-3 more important than the
absolute quantity one eats of either one on its own. The 3:1 ratio of
hemp seed oil is ideal, but most Americans eat
14 to 25 times more omega-6 than omega-3, causing a range of health problems.
Bronner and other hemp advocates were hopeful that Obama, who voted in
favor of hemp cultivation twice as an Illinois state senator, would
follow what they call a “rational science-based approach to hemp
policy.” In addition to its use as a food and as a cosmetic, the plant
offers uses as a fiber to make clothing or paper. Historically,
Americans grew hemp until 1957, and during World War II, the government
even encouraged farmers to grow it. The Declaration of Independence was
written on hemp, the U.S. ships had hemp sails and the pioneers' covered
wagons were covered in -- what else? -- hemp. Over the past three
years, hemp advocates have aimed to introduce Americans to this part of
our history by holding an annual
Hemp History Week.
Bronner's protest action, which he undertook inside a specially
designed cage that was difficult for the police to open or move, was
held in conjunction with this year's Hemp History Week. “As silly as
this action is,” he says, “It's 1/1000 as silly as this policy that's
forcing us to year after year after year send our money to Canada.” This
is not his first protest either – he's also been arrested for
planting hemp on the lawn of the Drug Enforcement Agency headquarters in 2009.
Civil disobedience and violations of laws against industrial hemp are
different from those of medical marijuana. A terminally ill patient only
needs a few plants to satisfy their needs, and if they are arrested,
the government often does itself a lot of harm, as the public sees the
lunacy of arresting a patient getting relief from their intense pain.
But a farmer requires many more plants – perhaps 10,000 plants, Bronner
estimates – to commercially grow industrial hemp. The penalty for that
farmer would be much stiffer than those imposed on a medical marijuana
user, and to the farmer, it's just not worth the risk. He or she could
simply grow a different, legal crop. “It's not a life and death thing
for them, not something they are going to go to jail for,” says Bronner,
explaining why he decided to protest. “So that's where I came up with
this, like I'm going to put my own liberty at stake and say are you
really going to put me in jail for not wanting to send my money to
Canada?”
Since industrial hemp, by definition, cannot get you high, why is it
still illegal? The stated reason is that someone could hide marijuana
plants within a field of hemp. Bronner laughs at this, saying “The
Chinese government that shoots you if you have marijuana allow tens of
thousands of acres of industrial hemp, and they can tell the
difference.” Technically,
they execute people for trafficking, not for smoking it. Still, the point is well made. The
North American Industrial Hemp Council
compares the difference between the two plants to the difference
between corn and roses. Industrial hemp producers space their plants
four inches apart, growing them as tall as 20 feet high, whereas
marijuana plants are grown six feet apart in shorter, fatter bushes.
A more likely explanation for the continued ban on growing industrial
hemp is that the vested interests that stand to lose market share if it
were allowed – the cotton and timber industries – hold enough power in
D.C. to keep it illegal. But the tide may be changing. Sen. Wyden from
Oregon recently introduced a measure to recommercialize industrial hemp,
and while it did not even get a vote, he might introduce it again soon.
And North Dakota
already has a program in place
to allow growing industrial hemp. Advocates like Bronner say Obama
could simply direct the Department of Justice to respect states' rights
and let North Dakota farmers go ahead and grow industrial hemp. But when
Obama is asked about marijuana or hemp, he laughs it off. “Very soon,”
says Bronner, “any politician that talks like that is going to get
laughed at. We're not there yet, but we're almost there.”
Jill Richardson is the founder of the blog
La Vida Locavore and a member of the Organic Consumers Association policy advisory board. She is the author of
Recipe for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It..
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