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"Make the most you can of the Indian
Hemp seed and sow it everywhere."
George Washington's 1794 note to Mt. Vernon's
gardener
 here are a number of promising drought tolerant crops
that will grow well in our region.
 Guayule
can be used to make rubber. Kenaf, an African plant, can be used
as food and for making cloth, packing materials, carpet backing,
and a high quality newsprint that is so absorbent that the hands
of newspaper readers stay free of ink. The tepary bean contains
as much or more protein than most other edible legume crops.
Buffalo gourd, a perennial native to the Mojave Desert, has seeds
that can be processed into lubrication oil and a starchy root
that can be used to make alcohol. The jojoba bush produces a
bean that can be processed into a high grade lubricant oil that
can also be used in cosmetics.
But of
all the useful drought tolerant plants that could be grown locally,
hemp is one of the best prospect because of its many beneficial
properties and uses. According to Monica Emerich, President of
Natural Information LLC, hemp, one of the world's oldest cultivated
plants, has 25,000 uses, from food and medicine to textiles and
auto parts.
In the
food category, I've personally eaten hulled hemp seed, (it tastes
like a cross between sunflower and sesame seeds). I've eaten
hemp burgers, drunk hemp soda pop, (black cherry, butterscotch,
and root beer), hemp beer and hemp milk. Hemp milk tastes similar
to coconut milk without the sweetness.
Not only
is hemp seed tasty, it's also good for us. Emerich states, "That's
because hemp is rich in essential fatty acids, protein, and B
and E vitamin. Among edible seed oils, it has the most balanced
composition in the highest levels of the essential fatty acids
omega-3 linoleic and omega-6 linoleic. It also contains gammalinolenic
acid. Next to soybeans, hemp seed has the most complete protein,
but hemp is more digestible. Canadian food researchers have found
hemp has high levels of antioxidants that remain highly stable
during processing."
The same
properties that make hemp a good food also makes it ideal for
use in cosmetics. The Body Shop has had great success with its
line of hemp products. According to the Body Shop, "Hemp
is the perfect therapeutic for dry skin and eczema -- which is
often caused by an essential fatty acid deficiency."
Hemp fiber,
which is striped from the plant's stalk, can be made into paper,
cloth and stronger building materials like particle board and
press board. In fact, the hemp plant can be used to make anything
now made of wood, cotton and petroleum. According to a report
in the March 15, 1999 issue of US News &World Report,
in 1914 "the USDA calculated that hemp crops could make
4 times as much paper per acre as trees."
Paper made
from hemp is superior to that made of trees and can be used to
make high quality paper for books, magazines and stationary and
lower quality newsprint, tissue paper, and packing materials.
In 1998, Allen Block wrote in The Orange County Register
that "since 1937, about half the forests in the world have
been cut down to make paper. If hemp had not been outlawed, most
would still be standing, oxygenating the planet." Hemp was
outlawed in 1937.
Hemp is
a perfect crop to irrigate with sewage water. Currently, San
Diego County dumps around 275 million gallons of sewage into
the ocean each day. Tijuana, Ensenada and the communities in
between dump another estimated 25 million gallons of sewage into
the ocean each day. If only 50 percent of this water was used
to grow industrial hemp, it would generate over $20 million of
profit for local farmers. [The author's calculations, based on
using 2 acre feet of irrigation water per acre plus natural rainfall.]
Currently,
in Canada, where hemp can be legally grown, farmers are earning
$225 per acre in profits growing hemp, compared with farmers
20 miles away in North Dakota who are doing good to earn $25
per acre growing wheat, barley and canola.
If hemp
grown locally is used as a raw material (feedstock) for local
industries, the value added economic gain could be $200 million
per year or more. [The author's calculations, based on the fact
that hemp has so many uses that the only limit to the value added
profits to be earned from using it to make finished products
is our imagination.]
As a bonus,
hemp is good for the soil and is naturally pest resistant.
There are
a number of books that cover the hemp story far better than I
ever could. For those wanting more information, I recommend Chris
Conrad's, HEMP Lifeline to the Future, and its predecessor,
The Emperor's New Clothes, by Jack Herer.
Obviously,
I think hemp and the other plants I touched on have the potential
to make our regional economy more secure and sustainable. Other
industrial hemp advocates include former CIA Director James Woolsey,
and many national governments including Canada, China, Great
Britain, Germany, Australia, France, India. Industrial hemp is
also supported by the American Farm Bureau and the California
State Assembly, House Resolution No 32. 
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