LOMPOC REPORT

Over the years I have gained the reputation of being a scourge on the Fourth Estate. Just ask Lucy Siegle of the Observer, I have indeed made a few enemies. Not that I mind. For many in that profession have betrayed it, and newspapers today are awash with government planted disinfo, out-and-out lies, page 3 girls with small brains but large mammaries, and other assorted clutter. Once in a while though someone comes to light who really shines, and today I pay respects to Joe White of the Lompoc Record. He wrote a story on hemp that I would have liked to have written. He addresses the issue of hemp and THC and basically calls for people to grow up. He uses grapes and wine as a metaphor, fitting for a US journalist as wine was once outlawed there, just before they outlawed hemp.

Lompoc is a little town off 101 near Santa Barbara. It is a farming community known to some extent for its viniculture, and White addresses his agrarian readers with facts about hemp - he does not waste time with stupid jokes about getting high and other nonsense. It is the federal government which is wasting time - and money - on such nonsense, and White takes them to task. $500 billion is the figure he gives as the sum spent on the 'War on Drugs'. He notes that 40,000 people are in jail presently for marijuana, which just happens to be the population of Lompoc.

White's state has twice passed pro-hemp laws, but the actor in the Governer's Mansion just vetoes them. Other states are in similar situations, he cites North Dakota, Kentucky, Vermont and Oregon. In North Carolina, both senators, one GOP the other Democrat, were in support of hemp. Any wonder that all these states have lots of farming? In fact Kentucky was the hemp basket of America in the 19th century. It is now the tobacco basket.

White cites the fact Europe and Canada allow hemp and hemp farmers in both are making money. He talks about the subject objectively, he does not at all come off as a hippy activist. He is talking more along the line of Adam Smith, the economist who asserted that the agriculture of a nation was its real wealth.

But what America is experiencing is real poverty, as White notes there is a recession in his town, and teachers are being laid off. If they are about to lose their livelihoods in part due Schwarzenegger at all, then maybe it is time to say hasta la vista and get an intelligent person in that and other offices.

Thanks to White and other responsible journalists, they may end up cultivating hemp, which was grown all over the US by the Founding Father no less. And talking about responsible journalists, the Ecologist has been in touch with me about an upcoming feature on hemp, later this summer or fall.

AB 684

After passing the California state senate on September 11 by a large majority (26-13), the bill to allow hemp in the Golden State was vetoed by the son of a Nazi whore some 33 days later. And I'm not speaking about his mother - his dad wore the bent cross in service to Hitler as an officer of the Reich.

Once again the will of the people has been subverted by the perverted. As the bill for the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan now surpasses that of the bill for the Korean and Vietnam wars, 1 trillion bucks to be exact, people are beginning to get a little upset about the rip-off occuring in the Homeland. Some time ago Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney asked Donald Rumsfeld where 2.3 trillion bucks went at the Pentagon, and she is still waiting for an answer.

Now that she is considering a run for the Oval Office on the Green Party ticket, we may get an answer, and some action on legalising hemp. McKinney is aware that the first US flag was made of hemp, and that hemp is part of US history - so much so that the government issued a "Hemp for Victory" film in WWII. So where is the victory? Certainly Schwarzenegger has not delivered a sieg. Maybe more a state of siege.

Speaking of flags and victories, the US won a battle at sea against the Koreans in the late 19th century and confiscated the flag, which was, like the Betsy Ross stars'n'stripes, made of hemp. It is now on loan to Korea, which is hoping to get it back permanently. They want their hemp back and I don't blame them. Hopefully, Californians can also get their hemp back.

HEMP VS COTTON

Earlier this week, I trekked over to Mayfair, the glamorous bit of London where ambassadors and socialites meet up for tea...along with the odd former KGB man. My aim was the American Embassy, not because it is the most elegant of edifices, but the site where the climate change protesters were assembling for a candle light vigil.

Talk was on the recent by-election, where a green party candidate came in second (808) votes after the Lib Dem (1,000+ votes). Labour, due to the Quinetics scandal and the Iraq war, is losing ground fast these days. Today's Guardian mentioned the Labour environment minister David Milliband taking stock of the fact that his party better get it together. They in fact have renegged on promises to do less road building and are doing more, with resulting traffic jams all over the UK (but with lucrative contracts and the possibility of kickbacks).

The climate change debate is getting fervent these days, every time there is a major storm somewhere, the US press picks up on this; another story in the Guardian this week is about how lame reporters are in the land of the brave to tackle this one. Unless they are knocked down by Katrina, they prefer to pretend it's not happening, kind of like the overall press response to the truth about 9/11. But I digress. Back to climate change... this is an issue everyone ought to be aware of, before a tornado strikes (and strike one did, not in Kansas, but right here in London last week, which is odd...but would you believe that one reporter said it was only odd because we tend to notice them more? As if to say, ten years ago a tornado would destroy a sections of the city and, like, no one would notice...how observant we are now! To think we really just ignored it all before!) or the fish in the sea no longer have enough plankton to feed on.

Most people are in fact somewhat hip to the climate change debate, but there seems to be more confusion and inaction than change. As we realise our plight, no one really seems to do anything. One thing I noticed among the protestors was that they were all wearing cotton. They had some idea that cotton was destroying the water systems in many countries, that it used 50% of all the world's pesticides, that it was made in sweatshops, etc., but there they were wearing it head to toe.

The hemp plant is part of the answer to pollution, climate change, etc. Presently cotton is about 300 times as common as hemp, which means we have a long way to go. Most of the cotton that we buy helps to poison the environment and is processed in sweatshops. Muchof it is grown in America, with 1m acres in California alone. In that state, an actor turned politician named Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill to grow hemp in California. The cotton heads must have loved it. This means more profits to the pesticide companies, and Monsanto can continue to splice in genes to make cotton seed oil edible to humans. In the past GM cotton seed has been fed to cows, which is now known to be the cause of bovine diseases.

Much as Hemp for Victory is a mantra in environmental circles, Cotton for Victory may be the mantra in the board rooms of the pesticide companies. This will make slimebags rich as they turn California into a desert. Take a look at what happened to the cotton growing lands around the Aral Sea, and you get an idea where California is headed. But the last laugh may be with the cotton producers and the chemical companies, as the very people protesting so loudly are wearing it. Just ask George Monbiot what he is wearing the next time he gets up to make a speech and promote himself. Then you might wonder why change is taking so long.

For those interested in getting some hemp threads, check out Minawear Hemp Clothing in the US or The Hemp Shop in the UK. Not only clothes, but cosmetics, food, rope and paper are available. If each of us does a little, we can bring hemp into the mainstream and stop picking cotton and chopping down trees.