Hemp

later this year California and Vermont could become the eighth and ninth states to pass hemp farming legislation. Last month the California Assembly passed AB 1147 which has now been sent on to the state Senate. Later this year Vermont legislators will also consider H 455 which would define hemp and allow licensed farmers to grow the crop.

Currently seven states (Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia) have passed pro-hemp farming laws.

Sales of hemp foods in 2004/2005 grew by 50% over the previous 12-month period. U.S. retail sales of hemp products are estimated to now be $250 to $300 million per year. There are more than 2.5 million cars on U.S. roads that contain hemp composites. Hemp cultivation in Canada exceeds 24,000 acres per year, while European farmers now grow more than 40,000 acres

also:

One of Australia’s first hemp crops grown to test it’s ability to soak up effluent from a sewerage treatment works has just been harvested. The crop could provide an ecologically-preferable alternative to dumping sewerage in rivers and the ocean nationwide.

The one-hectare industrial hemp crop was grown at a sewerage plant near Byron Bay on the NSW north coast between November and early February, by Dr Keith Bolton from Southern Cross University (SCU), in collaboration with Ecofibre Industries Ltd (EIL), and Byron Shire Council.

Brisbane-based EIL, who provided the industrial hemp seed and agronomic support, have been involved in breeding hemp for Australian conditions, and successfully lobbying for legislative changes at a state level to allow commercial hemp crops.