California to legalize industrial hemp?

On Monday, the California Industrial Hemp Farming Act was approved by the Assembly on a vote of 44-29. The bill is now taking steps toward Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk for his signature.

AB 1147 has gained momentum as more legislators learned that California businesses spend millions of dollars each year to import hemp from Canada, China and Europe.
...
The demand for hemp and its use in numerous products, such as food, body care, clothing, paper and even auto parts, has been growing rapidly in recent years. The U.S. hemp market now exceeds an estimated $270 million in annual retail sales, and the new law would give farmers the ability to legally supply U.S. manufacturers with hemp seed, oil and fiber and would not weaken anti-drug laws.

$270 million seems low to me, but that's enough for now. It's only a matter of time before the drug warriors figure out there are campaign contributions and votes to be had from farmers and industrial hemp entreprenuers and allow industrial hemp. Whoever does it first gets a head start on a huge new market.

Our power party gubernatorial candidates are playing dueling budget gimmicks with gambling when the simple idea of allowing industrial hemp would do more good for Illinois than either one of them will ever do. Blago wants to throw hundreds of millions around in corporate welfare and further shove ethanol and bio-diesel down our throats with an almost $2 billion spending package. A carbon-dioxide pipeline and 20 some fuel plants? No no no no no. Bad idea. Instead of spending that money on things ADM can afford anyway, cut and cap the gasoline taxes and let us keep our money to buy goods and create more jobs. (Gas taxes are for another post.)

Back on topic, I've talked about hemp before. Creating Illinois Jobs and many interesting tidbits of info about industrial hemp.

This really is a no-brainer and Illinois better get in on the action before it's too late. Come on Whitney, this is right up your alley.

*Henry Ford experimented with hemp to build car bodies. He wanted to build and fuel cars from farm products.

*BMW is experimenting with hemp materials in automobiles as part of an effort to make cars more recyclable.

*Because of its low lignin content, hemp can be pulped using less chemicals than with wood. Its natural brightness can obviate the need to use chlorine bleach, which means no extremely toxic dioxin being dumped into streams. A kinder and gentler chemistry using hydrogen peroxide rather than chlorine dixoide is possible with hemp fibers.

*Hemp grows well in a variety of climates and soil types. It is naturally resistant to most pests, precluding the need for pesticides. It grows tightly spaced, out-competing any weeds, so herbicides are not necessary. It also leaves a weed-free field for a following crop.

*Hemp can displace cotton which is usually grown with massive amounts of chemicals harmful to people and the environment. 50% of all the world's pesticides are sprayed on cotton.

*Hemp can displace wood fiber and save forests for watershed, wildlife habitat, recreation and oxygen production, carbon sequestration (reduces global warming), and other values.

*Hemp can yield 3-8 dry tons of fiber per acre. This is four times what an average forest can yield.

HEMP FOR VICTORY!!!

But now with Philippine and East Indian sources of hemp in the hands of the Japanese, and shipment of jute from India curtailed, American hemp must meet the needs of our Army and Navy as well as of our Industry. In 1942, patriotic farmers at the government’s request planted 36,000 acres of seed hemp, an increase of several thousand percent. The goal for 1943 is 50,000 acres of seed hemp. - Transcript (exerpt) of the original 1942 United States Department of Agriculture Film, Hemp for Victory.