AMERICAN FARMERS SEE FIELDS OF HEMP

Some reading this title may think this is another historical essay, or somebody is smoking somethin'. Neither is the case; I make reference to farmers in North Dakota who are looking across the border and seeing their neighbours.

After a few years of this, and realising that there was money to be made, they wanted to touch and not just look. A recent meeting in Bismarck, ND, welcomed speakers to express their views on hemp farming, and it turned out all positive; no one had any objections. Except, of course, Washington, not George Washington, of course, but some government employees in Washington working under someone named George...

ND State Agricultural Commissioner Roger Johnson was quoted as saying that convincing the DEA is a "stumbling block."

Vote Hemp, a pro-American organisation that is helping farmers to work for the legalisation of hemp, worked with state legislators to bring this event about. They have achieved much recently by educating the public and rallying farmers, but the federal governement continues to ignore their efforts; could the amount of money spent on foreign oil have something to do with this?

Also on the side of the American people in this issue is Rep. Dave Monson of Osnabrock, who said that producers might have to go to the DEA as a last resort. If they do sort out the DEA, they can then see fields of hemp growing on American soil, 'fields of living emerald', as author James Lane Allen noted in 1900. If not, they can keep looking north.