The King Hemp series began with: “America was just starting to crawl, and hemp was such an essential crop that farmers could be fined for not growing it—even jailed during periods of shortage in the mid 1760s.” A struggle for the heart of America was begun, and to this day remains the real reason for American exile of The King, cannabis hemp.
The American Revolution involved this core struggle between the agriculturalists in the colonies, and the industrialists—controllers of the government in England. In 1787, Thomas Jefferson wrote about believing our government would remain virtuous for many centuries, as long as the country remained chiefly agricultural; but when the people get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, the government will become corrupt as in Europe.
This struggle helped define our Civil War, one main issue being the battle between Southern agriculturalists and Northern industrialists over control of Western expansion. Slavery was crucial to the agriculturalists because labor-intensive cotton was such a large part of the wealth of the South. The industrialists believed that declaring Western lands “free states” would make Southern agriculturalists uncompetitive, thus leaving most of the profits of Western expansion to the industrialists....
Victory for the industrialists positioned them to dominate the economic life of America. And for construction of the transcontinental railways, they tapped cheap labor not only from freed slaves, but poor immigrants from Europe and China. So slavery did not go away in terms of living conditions of the labor, there were simply new terminologies applied. And the role of American government hit the slippery slope leading to what we see today—what was originally established to protect and preserve the lives, property and freedoms of Americans from repressive government, slid toward an agency to protect the economic interests of industrialists. Along the way, corporations gained the legal status of citizens; not by a new Supreme Court interpretation of the fourteenth amendment, as commonly thought, but by a former railroad company president acting as court reporter sneaking the “ruling” into the books. J.C. Bancroft Davis slipped courtroom comments of Chief Justice Morrison Waite into head notes of a related ruling, and, wha-la! Instant landmark ruling. Corporations became “artificial persons” with rights of a citizen, plus many advantages such as immortality. Soon after, John D. Rockefeller, father of the modern corporation, created the Standard Oil Corporation. And by the late 1880s, over 90% of American oil refineries were controlled by Standard Oil.
Marcus Hanna of Standard Oil bought the American Presidency for William McKinley in 1896. The $16,000,000 in campaign contributions Hanna procured from fellow industrialists set a record that lasted almost 70 years. Continuing erosion of government of the people, by the people, for the people paved the way for today’s government of the corporation, by the corporation, for the corporation (CorpoGov)....
Despite his racist views, Henry Ford has been considered one of America’s finest minds. One of his quotes finally getting renewed attention: “There’s enough alcohol in one year’s yield of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the fields for one hundred years.”
Ford had firm belief in ethyl alcohol as the fuel of the future, something widely shared in the early automotive industry. Any plant matter that can be fermented is a source of fuel; in this regard and many others, Ford knew that if widely cultivated, hemp—among the world’s fastest-growing annuals—would be a fantastic economic boon. He even made a car that had a body and windows of hemp plastics, and was powered by hemp. Ford was a great advocate of American farms, and he poured resources into creating new markets for farm products while industrialists took the opposite approach, pushing a petroleum future for America. Many bills in congress supporting a National Energy Program focused on the country’s vast agricultural resources as a source of motor fuel were attacked and killed by young Big Oil. Ethanol had many advantages over gasoline, and had been used for decades, but Big Oil had the political clout. Besides toxicity, one of gasoline’s disadvantages was a low octane rating. In classic Big Oil fashion this problem was solved, making gasoline even more toxic by blending in tetraethyl lead (fill ‘er up with Ethyl!) No matter how much the details might change, the story with CorpoGov remains true: corporate profit is all that matters. Ford’s vision of cheap, clean and renewable biofuels spooked early oil barons into keeping oil prices incredibly low, as in the range between $1 and $4 per barrel. Prices were so low that no other energy sources could compete. But once they were sure the competition had been killed off, the price of oil began to soar.
World’s #1 agriculturally renewable raw material
American prohibition of hemp was ushered in on the tawdry ruse of “Refer Madness”, but corporate profits were the real issue then, as they remain. Instead of protecting people from “The Evil Weed From Mexico”, hemp prohibition was engineered to “protect” The People from sharing in corporate profits.
So many products made from petroleum or wood or cotton can be made from hemp that hemp is a great menace to status quo industrialists. Especially when environmental considerations are weighed in, hemp products are also cheaper and better. Hemp is good for the soil and requires no petrochemical inputs, whereas cotton alone uses fully one half of the petrochemical insecticides polluting us, our food and groundwater. Cotton is also extremely soil-depleting, requiring massive inputs of petrochemical fertilizers. If our farmers are ever “allowed” to grow hemp again, the market for cotton might be devastated, along with that arm of the petrochemical empire supporting it. Hemp would render mills for pulping wood into paper obsolete, replacing one of the most polluting industries with a clean new industry providing a better product at a lower price. Hemp fiber can also be made into various building materials of higher quality and less cost than wood. And while the forest products industry as well as cotton are threatened by hemp, profit threats to Big Oil top them all.
Forget the food-or-fuel issue raised by the Archer Daniels Midland ethanol-from-corn boondoggle, with hemp we would get alcohol fuel AND food—among nature’s very finest of foods from hemp seed (along with biodiesel from hemp seed). Plus, if farmers start growing America’s fuel, the profit pinch could extend from Big Oil all the way to the Industrial Military Complex in the event that oil wars recede. The political clout of those two combined is astronomical.... In essence, American hemp would be a fantastic boon for everyone from farmers to consumers, while gouging profits of a spectrum of industrialists. We remain stuck at the old core struggle, agriculturalists versus industrialists. Unfortunately, the industrialists own CorpoGov.
Rand Clifford is a writer living in Spokane, Washington, with his wife Mary Ann, and their Chesapeake Bay retriever, Mink. His novels CASTLING, TIMING, and VOICES OF VIRES are published by StarChief Press.
FINALLY, AN EXPLANATION WHY CAPITALISM BANS MARIJUANA
Finally I have seen an article that explains why capitalism is compelled to ban marijuana and hemp. I have read the material provided by NORML, etc about the Dupont Company's role in lobbying to ban marijuana but the interests of one particular company cannot explain the antipathy of capitalism to this plant. After all, another company, such as Ford, could have found it in their interests to keep hemp and marijuana legal. But this article provides an explanation about why capitalism must outlaw both hemp and marijuana.
Just from reading the NORMAL literature, it seemed to me that modern, industrial society had been compelled to follow the wrong path among the alternative courses. Dioxen contamination of our water is a major problem because of chlorine bleaching to make paper from wood produces dioxens. Producing paper from hemp at most only requires hydrogen peroxide which produces no dioxens or other contaminants. Plus, we would have acid free paper which means our books would last for centuries as they did before chlorine bleaching was introduced. The press is full of articles agonizing over our dependance on oil from the mideast. Biofuels have resulted in escalating corn prices already and it is clear we can't produce enough alcohol from corn to replace oil. But we could solve this problem if only we repealed the ban on hemp since we could substitute for oil with alcohol from hemp. Since biofuels are produced from plants and the carbon dioxide produced by burning the biofuels is recycled back into more plants, biofuels do not add to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as happens when we burn stored up and sequested carbon in the form of coal and oil. So we not only have a solution to the greenhouse effect but our modern industrial civilization will no longer be compelled to cut down all the forests and produce planet wide deforestation to maintain itself.
And the ban on medicinal marijuana not only results in literally millions of people having to vomit their guts out at the end of their lives from cancer chemotherapy (as well as the drugs used to treat AIDS) from being unable to access the anti nausea effects of marijuana, which are superior to all the approved anti nausea drugs, but the people ending their lives with Alzheimers and dying of cancer will have the ban on marijuana to blame because of the anti Alzheimers and anti cancer effects (including lung cancer) of cannabinoids. Cannabis has also been shown efficacious in treating other diseases such as multiple schlerosis.
Robert Halfhill
by
rhalfhill (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 283 comments)
on Sunday, October 21, 2007 at 3:36:35 PM
Thanks for this sopisticated series on hemp which I advocated in the article the Miracle Paper Plant published in OpEd earlier. I thank oped for the continuity and Clifford for the series. Hemp would rebuild the middle class—I think it might save the world. The world needs to be informed.
by
emily horswill (6 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 66 comments)
on Sunday, October 21, 2007 at 5:24:40 PM
Imagine farmers growing their own fuel for tractors. Exxon wouldn't like that.
The national forest would not be cut for toilet paper.
Carcinogenic diesel exhaust would be replaced by non-toxic vegetable oil.
All the dollars we send to sponsors of terrorism for petro-diesel would go to US farmers.
Migrating birds would have food, enhancing biodiversity and helping to insure the food chain for humans endures.
$42 billion for the "war on drugs" and millions for imprisonment of non-violent pot offenders could go to healthcare and education.
The prohibition of hemp is another example of vested interests overruling common sense.
Not only does prohibition not work-- it creates vast profits for illegal activity, a self-destructive drug subculture, disrespect for our laws, and violates the very basic freedoms which are the foundation of America.
If we lie to kids about marijuana, they won't believe us about the really destructive substances like meth. If we hope to save them from tragedy, they've gotta believe us when try to guide them.
by
martinweiss (19 articles, 4 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 337 comments)
on Sunday, October 21, 2007 at 10:49:51 PM
Rand Clifford is an extraordinarily gifted writer who has chosen to venture over from novels to political essays. What most Americans know about the topic is summarized into "rope and dope". How sad for this nation that corporate media and propaganda seem to win every time. Most writers are afraid to touch the subject and Clifford has not only touched it but given America a much needed history lesson. Bravo!
by
Sara DeHart (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 4 comments)
on Sunday, October 21, 2007 at 10:56:10 PM
I think all the "King Hemp" articles are great. But Mr. Clifford might have saved the best for last? This problem of agriculturalists battling industrialists is the whole point of hemp being banned. Our industrial corporate economy benefits the elite much to the detriment of the people and the environment. On the other hand, letting farmers grow hemp would help the people and the environment tremendously. By owning the government, and the media, industrialists are able to keep the people from learning that hemp has nothing to do with "reefer madness," and everything to do with a healthier America! Also, a fair share of America's wealth for the people. Hemp's only real threat is its ability to give the people a share of the profits now hogged by the elite and their corporations. Maybe the best line in this article, maybe even all of "King Hemp," is: "We The People need to learn and sow the truth about The King."
by
Tommy Hawkins Jr (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Sunday, October 21, 2007 at 11:04:33 PM
6 comments
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