Posted on 07/03/2013 7:12:27 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
If you're near the Capitol on the Fourth, celebrating your patriotism and whatnot, or if you see images from Washington of the building during broadcasts of John P. Sousa performances, take a look at the flag on top of the dome. That flag, ladies and gentlemen, will for the first time in decades be made of hemp.
The Washington Post reports on the patriotic move. (Its headline includes the word "high," do you get it?)
Colorado hemp advocate Michael Bowman is the man responsible for getting the flag, made from Colorado-raised hemp and screen-printed with the stars and stripes, up there.
He cooked up the idea while lobbying Congress this year to include pro-hemp measures in the farm bill. That legislation failed, of course, but the seed of the hemp flag had been planted. If you're near the Capitol on the Fourth, celebrating your patriotism and whatnot, or if you see images from Washington of the building during broadcasts of John P. Sousa performances, take a look at the flag on top of the dome. That flag, ladies and gentlemen, will for the first time in decades be made of hemp.
The Washington Post reports on the patriotic move. (Its headline includes the word "high," do you get it?)
Colorado hemp advocate Michael Bowman is the man responsible for getting the flag, made from Colorado-raised hemp and screen-printed with the stars and stripes, up there.
He cooked up the idea while lobbying Congress this year to include pro-hemp measures in the farm bill. That legislation failed, of course, but the seed of the hemp flag had been planted.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlanticwire.com ...
I doubt it. I’m sure that Betsy used the finest fabric available to her. The Colonials had wool, cotton, & silk available.
I have absolutely no patience with people who don’t show proper respect for the flag.
It doesn’t bother me so much what the flag is made from but it does bother me that in this picture, it’s already faded before being flown. If that flag were made of a standard material, I wouldn’t fly it.
I doubt it was made of silk, as the cost would have been way too prohibitive. Cotton was still hand picked and ginned in The South, so it would have been fairly expensive as well. Wool, I think, is the most likely, if not hemp, mainly because most homespun cloth was wool in those days........
Funny that hemp supporters tend to also be marijuana supporters.
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At worst what you’ve demonstrated is the old saw about broken clocks being right twice a day. At its best, you’ve demonstrated that even potheads can have sensible opinions about the nature and use of hemp products.
Big difference between marijuana and hemp. Growing hemp actually hurts marijuana production, because its pollen will cross with marijuana and slash the amount of THC in it. The drug is in the sap exuded by the female plants, so male plants are culled. But hemp produces so much pollen that it would drive all marijuana production indoors.
That being said, hemp is one of the most valuable crops next to corn. Its fiber can be refined into a fine silk-like cloth; it makes a superb paper, far better quality and much longer lasting than wood pulp paper because it is balanced pH. Just these two things alone could make hemp a multi-billion dollar crop in the US, creating tens of thousands of jobs.
It would also drive down the price of lumber, as more wood would be available for it instead of pulp.
Hemp also makes high quality animal fodder, which would drive down the price of meat, which is to a great extent dependent on the price of feed.
Another great thing is that hemp can grow on marginal farmland, not the prime land needed for most food crops. So it would open up vast stretches of land for profitable agriculture. It needs little irrigation, fertilizer or pesticides as well compared to other crops.
Personally, I am pretty indifferent to marijuana, but the potential for hemp agribusiness is too important to our economy to be shunned.
Hemp products are just that, products made from a weed plant fiber. It is ridiculous to ignore a useful and profitable resource with economic uses just because some stupid people choose to use it for other things out of ignorance.
It is hardly a gateway to drugs and in fact the physiological effects of smoking real hemp would make most people very reluctant to try real “weed” for fear of experiencing the same effects.
In the late 60s I was a teenager in South Dakota and I knew some idiots who tried smoking hemp; something they quickly regretted. Real hippies used to drive across the state enroute to California and could be seen harvesting hemp growing along the old highways. There are still tons of the stuff growing wild from the crops of hemp grown during WWII for rope and canvas. The locals used to laugh at them because they knew they were literally in for a bad trip.
Hemp is not a problem to more than a few who are idiot enough to try smoking it.
“So, instead of burning the flag to “protest” against the war, the hippies will be smoking it to get high. Hmmmm.”
You can’t get high on industrial hemp.
The facts that you cite are pretty much the reason why hemp was banned in 1937. Synthetic materials, synthesized from petroleum, could be patented and controlled by certain multinational corporations which control(led) our congress. Re-legalizing and encouraging hemp production would reduce our need for petroleum. I wonder if DuPont, Weyerhaeuser, and Exxon would support such beneficial legislation?
You left out that the oil from the seeds make a high quality fuel and also can be refined into other products. As another poster said, hemp was banned due to its potential to compete with DuPont, and other oil/chemical companies.
Its a paradox here about pot.
I gave it up years ago but have little against it.....in moderation
Some here detest it.
Having just been on the PAC coast.... it looks like a lot of dope smoking freak lefties thrive
But here in the south I know scores of pot people
All righties
Regional culture
Pot is not the determinant
Where you live and skin color...religion and maybe ethnicity have more impact
Probably not today. Petroleum synthetics are a tiny percentage of their market. More to the point, the paper industry, which is a substantial market component, is still very opposed to legal hemp.
It is not my place to judge as ones use does not affect me - just their behavior.
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