Lit_Match

Consider hemp over canola for oilseed production
10-27-06|capitalpress|Angela Eckhardt


Just about everyone would prefer biofuels to petroleum, but choosing the right fuel crops for cultivation in North America isn't easy, especially for Western states. That's because one of the most viable crops - hemp - is legally off-limits.

Instead, canola is getting all the attention. The June 2006 report, "Assessment of Biodiesel Feedstocks in Oregon," prepared for the Portland Development Commission, presented canola as the best oilseed crop for the region. Last month, the Oregon Legislature's Emergency Board agreed to finance a $235,000 canola research study.

But not everyone is cheering over canola. Vegetable seed producers have serious concerns not only over cross-pollination, but over the potential for canola to spread diseases that are already a problem in the Brassica species, including blackleg, Sclerotinia stem rot and club root.

"This is dangerous," said Sen. Kurt Schrader, D-Canby, at the legislative hearing. "There's no reason on God's green earth to introduce a known weed and carrier of pests."

We might take our chances with canola if there were no alternatives, but that's not the case.

The 2002 American Society for Horticultural Science publication, Trends in New Crops and New Uses, describes an excellent oilseed alternative in a chapter entitled "Hemp: A New Crop with New Uses for North America," (http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/ncnu02/v5-284.html).

Hemp is celebrated for weed and pest resistance, and like canola, it boasts extensive root systems that improve soil tilth. Moreover, the markets for hemp products are virtually infinite. In 1938, Popular Mechanics magazine declared that hemp "can be used to produce more than 25,000 products, raging from dynamite to cellophane."

Though hemp has not been cultivated for oil yield until recently, even the strains cultivated for fiber already rival soybeans in oil output.

Advances in hemp oilseed production have been rapid and encouraging since March 1998, when Canadian law was changed to allow commercial hemp cultivation. Whereas European countries have focused on hemp fiber production, Canada is specializing in oilseed production and processing.

"Hemp, in our opinion, is particularly suited to be developed as an oilseed crop in North America," the ASHS report proclaims, noting that, "While the breeding of hemp fiber cultivars has proceeded to the point that only slight improvements can be expected in productivity in the future, the genetic potential of hemp as an oilseed has scarcely been addressed."

The biggest challenge for using hemp as a fuel source is yet another sign of its great potential, say proponents: it is the very high value of the oil. But prices would become more reasonable once Americans could legally cultivate hemp rather than relying on imports. In the meantime, farmers could see strong profit margins by selling the highly nutritious edible seed and oil.

Many states have successfully passed bills to legalize hemp cultivation in direct challenge of federal law. You can read about these efforts at www.votehemp.com, www.industrialhemp.net, www.hempreport.com and www.thehia.org.

Most recently, Assembly Bill 1147 was approved by the California Legislature before it was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sept. 30, due to the federal government's continued prohibition of hemp.

Long-time hemp advocate Jack Herer also opposed AB1147, but for a very different reason. His concern was that the low-THC (0.3 percent) varieties of hemp that would have been allowable under the law are less productive for industrial uses compared to strains with natural levels of the cannabinoid, which he said serves as a sunscreen for the plant.

Further, Herer worried that low-THC strains would cross-pollinate and interfere with California's medical marijuana crops. Instead, he urged the governor to legalize cannabis in its natural form.

Several different regulations have been promoted as a way to make hemp acceptable under America's current War on Drugs, including licensing, inspection, genetic modification and testing of THC content. But all of these steps would unnecessarily increase production costs while reducing the plant's value for medical use and perhaps for all other uses as well.

How ironic that a plant's medicinal value could be the very thing that prevents farmers from cultivating it to heal the earth.

The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author. Angela Eckhardt writes on freedom and farming issues from her home in Lostine, Ore. Her website is www.freedom solutionsnw.org.