The remarkable suddenness of hemp’s approval is curious. Really, why now? This of course has begged the thesis of this
item.
I really think that industrial agriculture has simply jumped on the
bandwagon to replace their presently challenged GMO protocols which are failing
naturally. If you need to quit corn for
a couple of years, hemp is a really good option. It could be sheer necessity.
This has also happened without a squawk. That is even more suspect. The good news is that hemp is on the way back
even if common sense is not.
February
15, 2014
Christina
Sarich, Staff Writer
Activists have been shouting they want an end to GMO foods for more than a decade now, and Cannabis Sattiva L. supporters have been at it for even longer, so why has the US government finally given farmers the right to legally grow industrial hemp, the non-hallucinatory, sister plant of medical marijuana?
It is safe to say that industrialized hemp
should have been legalized years ago. With THC levels so low, you would have to
smoke more of it than Snoop Dogg to get ‘high’ – and that’s a lot of Cannabis, it is ridiculous that it
was classified as a drug at all. It has numerous uses and could replace
many crops that require heavy irrigation and pesticides, like cotton, for
example. Here’s the most interesting fact though – hemp plants ‘eat’
radiation.
When the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Reactor 4
accident caused severe radioactive contamination in 1986, families within a
30-kilometer area of the site had to be evacuated. Radioactive
contamination was later found at 100 kilometers from the accident site,
and Fukushima radiation levels are still to be determined, with the Japanese
government planning on dumping
their overflowing radiated water tanks into the Pacific
as we speak.As with the Chernobyl incident, scientists are finding radioactive
emissions and toxic metals–including iodine, cesium-137, strontium-90, and
plutonium–concentrated in the soil, plants, and animals of Japan, but also now
throughout the United States and all along the West Coast – from Canada to
Mexico. Even the EPA has admitted
that any living tissue can be affected by radiation exposure.
High levels of thyroid disease and cancer have been reported in Japan, and our
ocean is dying by the day. Scientists are also expecting that children born on
the US West Coast will suffer a 28% higher incident of
hyperthyroidism – a disease that accompanies radiation
exposure. Even the livestock that grazed on irradiated grasses grown in
contaminated soils developed meat with high concentrations of these unwanted
toxins after Chernobyl, and Fukushima is
exponentially worse.
Is Hemp Our Redeemer?
Dr. Ilya Raskin of
Rutgers University’s Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the Environment,
who was a member of the original task force sent by the IAEA to examine food
safety at the Chernobyl site figured out that through phytoremediation
utilizing hemp, among other plants, the soil, and thus the food supply could be
saved from toxicity.
Phytoremediation is the process whereby green
plants remove toxins from the soil. Plants can extract specific elements within
their ecosystem and still thrive. They accumulate the toxins in their tissues
and root systems but remain undamaged. Sunflowers have been known to do something similar for
centuries, eliminating heavy
metals and pesticides from damaged soil. Two
members of the mustard family are also useful for this process – Brassica juncea and Brassica carinata, but it seems hemp is quite amazing at
sucking up radiation.
Granted, the government is probably
dumbfounded at what to do with the Fukushima radiation headed our way, but the
legalization of hemp just might balance some of the toxicity scientists
expect. Fortunately, California, one of the states that will be hardest hit,
has already legalized industrial hemp, but it has to wait for the federal
government to give states the right before they can actually grow it. The Farm Bill only allows ‘research’ growth at certain
institutions in 10 states currently.
George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew
hemp. In light of Fukushima, let’s join our countries’ founders to grow it too.
You can help clean the soil in your area if hemp or
medical marijuana has been legalized in your state, and help it to pass in
further states by being vocal with your state and federal representatives.
About the Author
Christina Sarich is
a musician, yogi, humanitarian and freelance writer who channels many hours of
studying Lao
Tzu, Paramahansa
Yogananda, Rob
Brezny, Miles
Davis, and Tom
Robbins into interesting tidbits to help you
Wake up Your Sleepy Little Head, and See the Big Picture. Her blog is Yoga
for the New World. Her latest book is Pharma
Sutra: Healing the Body And Mind Through the Art of
Yoga.
This article is
offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it anywhere as
long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.
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