Pubdate: Mon, 19 Nov 2012
Source: Guelph Mercury (CN ON)
Copyright: 2012 Guelph Mercury Newspapers Limited
Contact:  http://news.guelphmercury.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1418
Author: Owen Roberts
Note: Owen Roberts teaches agricultural communications at the University of
Guelph. His column appears Monday.

HEMP AND MARIJUANA EMERGE AS EXPANDING CASH CROP OPTIONS

Our friends in the U.S. celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday, and 
there'll be no shortage of post-election dinner-table topics.

In many households, I suspect one topic will be newly legalized 
recreational marijuana laws ... and for farm families throughout 
North America, what it might mean for them.

In the U.S. election, voters in Colorado and Washington gave their OK 
for recreational pot use (although U.S. federal law still considers 
it illegal). The vote results are causing all kinds of consternation 
in countries such as Mexico, the biggest source of marijuana for the 
U.S., which has paid a hefty price trying to stop drugs from entering 
that country.

How, Mexican officials wonder, can they enforce a ban on growing and 
smuggling a drug now legal for recreational purposes in some states?

It's a good question, and it's not restricted to Mexico. Illegal pot 
growth is everywhere. It's not unusual for Ontario farmers out 
scouting their fields to come across a patch of marijuana that's been 
planted by ... well, who knows? They don't exactly leave a business 
card. Farmers call police who then cut it down, but in the end, 
seldom is anyone charged.

It's a moral issue, and an economic conundrum. Proponents for 
legalization point out how part of the millions of dollars dedicated 
to anti-marijuana enforcement could be spent instead on legal 
grow-ops - on U.S., Canadian and Mexican farms, perhaps - taxing its 
use and trying to bolster sagging federal coffers.

Opponents, however, say that's a slippery slope, noting that giving 
people a chance to smoke more of anything, marijuana included, is 
inviting a spike in otherwise avoidable smoking-related health care costs.

Against this backdrop is the rising hemp industry. Hemp, an extremely 
versatile oilseed, looks an awful lot like its cousin marijuana, but 
it doesn't contain the intoxicant THC. Hemp grows like a weed, and 
Canada is a leader in its development, with products such as Hempola, 
which has been around for nearly 20 years.

Interestingly, on the eve of the U.S. election, Ottawa doled out 
nearly $100,000 to Canada's hemp industry for what it called "market 
opportunities." You have to wonder if that could spark a new presence 
for Canadian hemp in the U.S. Anti-drug proponents who mistakenly see 
hemp and marijuana in the same light have long stymied significant 
hemp exports to the U.S. But Washington and Colorado's pro-marijuana 
vote may signal a more relaxed view of hemp, too.

For Canada, the timing is wonderful. The Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance 
says the industry wants to grow 100,000 acres of hemp by 2015, which 
means more than $100 million for Canada's economy.

Some of that volume is bound to end up in the U.S. If Americans see a 
way to create jobs by turning Canadian hemp into value-added products 
they can then export themselves, the old hemp paranoia could go up in smoke.

This all leads to another prime dinnertime topic for U.S. 
Thanksgiving: North Dakota's landmark success with right-to-farm legislation.

Thanks to pro-farming advocates, "modern" farming is now enshrined as 
a right in the state's constitution. It's the first such legislation 
in the U.S.

But the vote wasn't without drama - the sector had to stage an 
11th-hour rally and employ all the social media tools in its power to 
achieve victory.

To me, that's alarming. North Dakota is one of the U.S.'s strongest 
agricultural states. Farming shouldn't need to come from behind, and 
maybe it wouldn't if advocacy was more a part of agriculture. The 
public wants to believe in farmers, like it believes in Thanksgiving 
dinner. Will growing marijuana legally alter the public's perception 
of farmers? Now there's some table talk.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom