A Biofuel Without Deforestation?

Hemp is an excellent Bio Diesel fuel! USA Oil Barons got it outlawed to protect oil derived synthetics in the 1930's. But third world countries should legalise hemp for their own advantage.

On Andrew Mellon, founder of the Gulf Oil Corporation: "He knew that cannabis hemp was an alternative industrial raw material for the production of thousands of products, including fuel and plastics, which, if allowed to compete in the free-market, would threaten the future profits of the oil companies. As Secretary of the Treasury he created the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, and appointed his own future nephew-in-law, Harry Anslinger, as director. Anslinger would later use the sensational, and totally fabricated, articles published by Hearst, to push the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 through Congress, which successfully destroyed the rebirth of the cannabis hemp industry. "A prominent member of one Congressional subcommittee who voted in favor of this bill was Joseph Guffey of Pennsylvania, an oil tycoon and former business partner of Andrew Mellon in the Spindletop oil fields in Texas. 

 The Du Pont Chemical Corporation, "which owned the patents on synthetic petrochemicals and industrial processes that promised billions of dollars in future profits from the sale of wood pulp paper, lead additives for gasoline, synthetic fibers and plastics, if hemp could be suppressed. At the time, du Pont family influence in both government and the private sector was unmatched, according to historians and journalists. "This publication, however, reveals documented historical evidence that the suppression of the hemp industry was only one key part of a much larger conspiracy in the 1930s, not only by the three corporate interests named above, but by many others, as well. "Congressional records, FBI reports and investigations by the Justice Department, during the 1930s and 1940s, have already documented evidence of this wider plot. A list of the corporations named include Du Pont, Standard Oil, and General Motors, all of which were proven to be conspiring with Nazi industrial cartels to eliminate competition world-wide and divide among themselves the Earth's industrial resources and commercial markets, for profitable exploitation. 

The use of hemp as a source of methanol was known to the Nazis, revealed in the pamphlet 'The Humorous Hemp Primer,' published in Berlin, also in 1943. This document, recently re-published in the 1995 edition of 'Hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy: The Emperor Wears No Clothes,' by veteran hemp conspiracy researcher Jack Herer, states that: " 'Crops should not only provide food in large quantities, they can provide raw materials for industry. . . Among such raw materials of especially high value is hemp . . . " 'The woody part of this large plant is not to be thrown out, since it can easily be used for surface coatings for the finest floors. It also provides paper and cardboard, building materials and wall paneling. Further processing will even produce wood sugar and wood gas. " 'Anyone who grows hemp today need not fear a lack of a market, because hemp, as useful as it is, will be purchased in unlimited amounts.'

Why Hemp Fuel? Quoting from the article:

• Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel that runs in any conventional, unmodified diesel engine. It can be stored anywhere that petroleum diesel fuel is stored.
• Biodiesel is safe to handle and transport because it is as biodegradable as sugar, 10 times less toxic than table salt, and has a high flashpoint of about 300 F compared to petroleum diesel fuel, which has a flash point of 125 F.
• Biodiesel can be made from domestically produced, renewable oilseed crops such as hemp.
• Biodiesel is a proven fuel with over 30 million successful US road miles, and over 20 years of use in Europe.
• When burned in a diesel engine, biodiesel replaces the exhaust odor of petroleum diesel with the pleasant smell of hemp, popcorn or french fries.
• Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel in the US to complete EPA Tier I Health Effects Testing under section 211(b) of the Clean Air Act, which provide the most thorough inventory of environmental and human health effects attributes that current technology will allow.
• Biodiesel is 11% oxygen by weight and contains no sulfur. The use of biodiesel can extend the life of diesel engines because it is more lubricating than petroleum diesel fuel, while fuel consumption, auto ignition, power output, and engine torque are relatively unaffected by biodiesel.

The Congressional Budget Office, Department of Defense, US Department of Agriculture, and others have determined that biodiesel is the low cost alternative fuel option for fleets to meet requirements of the Energy Policy Act.

 My further argument to this, is that Hemp Oil is a far more ecologically sound alternative to Palm Oil. Palm Oil has caused massive deforestation across South East Asia, and is driving indigenous species to extinction. Hemp is also a multi-purpose crop, besides the already well established medicinal benefits it can be used for paper production, which gives a fantastic yield with a far lower carbon footprint than wood pulp. We would not need to chop down trees to make room for Palm, nor for paper production. We would have one crop which could facilitate all this. We have here our energy, oxygen, paper and plastic solution. And it's being kept from us by United States corporations who are convincing the rest of the world to follow suit through the pressure of globalisation on local economies. They would rather manufacture products using pollutants than by naturally processing a green plant. 

But the dollar is now falling. So what leg do they have to stand on, really? Hemp production needs to be escalated, and the farming of Palm needs to be reduced drastically. Third world countries are convinced to use Palm oil for biofuels as a quick fix to reduce greenhouse gases, but actually the deforestation needed to convert land to palm oil plantations is producing way more carbon than it could ever save. And once the trees are gone, they are gone for ever. Please boycott palm oil today, and seek alternatives. Pressure local governments to investigate hemp as a commercial crop again, a crop our civilisation already used for 10,000 years before these petrochemical companies had it outlawed.



Source: Belize Development Trust, Jack Herer