Yesterday, Gourmet Retailer featured a great overview of hemp as both a raw material and culinary ingredient, and then followed it up with a recipe.The article goes over some of the health benefits of hemp and then reprints this recipe for Hemp Orzo Pasta Salad from Manitoba Harvest.

Cook one cup Orzo pasta in boiling, salted water. Fold in the following ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons cold-pressed hemp seed oil
• 1 tablespoon hemp seed butter
• 1 tablespoon shelled hemp seed
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• 1 tablespoon agave nectar
• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 2 tablespoons Bragg’s amino acid, or
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper or cayenne
• 1 small cucumber, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
• 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes
• 1 cup black beans, pinto beans, garbanzo beans or shelled edamame, as you prefer

What was really interesting about the piece, however, was that it didn’t just focus on the nutritional benefits of hemp, but also on many of industrial and environmental benefits, not to mention many of the socio-political issues surround hemp. For instance, to illustrate some of the paradoxes of hemp production, author James Mellgren writes:

In France and China, they use it to strengthen concrete. Mercedes Benz uses it to make many of their interior door panels, and the original Levi jeans were made from it. Christopher Columbus had ropes made from it as he sailed to the New World, and our own Declaration of Independence is written on it. It was grown by the Puritans, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin used it to make paper in America’s first paper mill. All around the world, it is used to make paper, clothing, rope, textiles, biodegradable plastics, food and fuel. It requires no chemicals to make it grow or keep bugs away, controls the erosion of the topsoil, and produces oxygen. It also can supplant many industrial materials that have been proven to be harmful to the environment and to ourselves such as paper made from trees (not only does this require the cutting down of trees but the use of bleach and other toxic chemicals contribute to water pollution anywhere paper is made), cosmetics and plastics that are petroleum-based and do not break down easily. What is this wonder material? Is it some new high-tech substance, perhaps? The answer is, of course, hemp, a plant (a weed really) that has been cultivated for nearly 10,000 years, and has been used for various purposes since the Stone Age. It could be the answer to untold environmental issues, not to mention world hunger, and yet you can’t grow it because it’s against the law in the United States.

Seeing this kind of socio-politico awareness in a gourmet magazine gives me hope that we’re that much closer to introducing hemp products into the mainstream. That kind of market demand would stimulate not only technological advancements that would facilitate mass-production and drive down the price of hemp-related products, but likely inspire legislative reform in immense but prohibitive markets such as the US.

University of Maryland’s student newspaper, The Retriever Weekly has just run a story called A Brief History of Marijuana Laws Across America. The piece provides an overview of how both industrial hemp and its narcotic counterpart (not the same plant) were used throughout American history, and in doing so, shows how a struggle to outlaw the latter debilitated the cultivation of the latter. An excerpt:

Hemp (cannabis sativa) was first planted in America by Puritans in the 16th century. In the 17th century, the U.S. government encouraged farmers to grow hemp to be used for ropes, sails, and clothes. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Ben Franklin all grew hemp and were proponents of its usefulness. The Constitution was even drafted by Thomas Jefferson on paper made from hemp.[...]

The fear created by sensational news stories [in the 1920s and 1930s] led to the proposal of the “Marihuana Tax Act of 1937.” Introduced by the “drug czar” Harry Anslinger, the act levied a modest tax on people who grew and sold hemp or cannabis. Although the tax was not significant, the regulations were complicated and a violation could be punished by five years in prison and a $2,000 fine. This discouraged the production of hemp and cannabis. Before the act, there were about 15,000 square kilometers of hemp being grown in America. Two years afterwards, the number decreased significantly to 1,700 square kilometers.

Overall, the original piece is a short and interesting read. Where it please for reform, however, is on the basis of what marijuana law enforcement costs taxpayers, rather than what industrial hemp could do for the economy, the environment, and the human race as a whole.

You see, legally distinguishing between the two plants can be done, and is done effectively in countries such as Canada and France. Where pro-hemp lobbyists should be starting from, then, is the economic and industrial potential of hemp — such as the HIA does in its efforts.

There is still too much stigma around the cannabis plant to reasonably expect both hemp and marijuana to be jointly legalized and regulated. By distinguishing the two, however, people and the economy can begin to start benefiting from, well, the benefits of industrial hemp.

For those who really want to see the decriminalization of psycho-active marijuana, after a generation has grown up eating, wearing, and burning industrial hemp products, there chances will probably be a lot better. After all, once the population (and their elected legislators) get used to how innocuous industrial hemp is, they might be willing to reconsider the regulated use of its psycho-active cousin.