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. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom