I wish to bring to your attention the issue of overturning the currant law on growing the natural hemp plant, as a viable crop for the farming industry + for the economy as a whole; benefiting many divers industries + products all of which can be sort back to the natural hemp plant and now at this point in time (like in the past ) exports + imports aren’t viable to Australia’s economical + population survival; we need a crop that can be produced in the masses, that is so very divers in its secondary form it would + could stabilize the consumers needs for products + survival, not to mention animal produce + environmental good the natural hemp plant does for the soil alone... Please consider the facts of this natural plant as a crop that has in the past saved countries world wide and would produce 99% of all domestic needs, with no carbon footprint. We are a mass population, we haven't the land for individual self survival, we need this form of industry, after all morals aren’t going to save the hungry the time to act is now to have a clean and safe future, please as an individual help save our planet.

Hemp clothes are wonderful to wear and they don't get worn out... You can't get stoned off the plants.. so yeh, if it's able to grow here, we should go for it.

I agree. My husband has a hemp shirt which is cool in summer and warm in winter.

Opium poppies are grown in Tasmania for the pharmaceutical industry so can't see why hemp cannot be grown for the clothing industry.

If hemp can be grown in Australia without the use of endosulfan then I say go for it.

Currently cotton crops in this country are heavily sprayed with endosulfan - so are some fruits and vegetables. Never mind that endosulfan has been banned in 56 countries - not least, developing countries.

This heinous chemical mutates fish and humans and wrecks our eco-systems.

Pesticides are used on hemp crops. Does anyone know which pesticides?

Cheers

WILLIAMREALPH,
What are the current laws on currant growing. I am unnaware of any restrictions for growing currants.

I have made heaps of posts regarding the advantages of hemp compared to industries such as wood chipping and cotton.

Really, what does it take for people to re-invest in sustainable products/energy as opposed to the waste we are investing in now?

It is not like we have not been able to adjust to new technologies and products in the past. What is so different now that we take such issue with alternatives? Answer my own question; in the past there were less mega-monopolies and government/private collusion. There was more room for innovation. Now we are tied up with so much red tape from both government and private industry - hope I am making myself clear here because it is not about too much government, it is about having a government independent of those who hold too much power in the form of global monopolies.

Without true competition, we won't have the innovation and creation we need to maximise our knowledge. We have the science, but not the common sense.

It is not about socialism versus capitalism - soooo last century. It is about creating balance both among ourselves, our nations, our businesses and our politics.

See:
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=1669#32344
http://www.sustainablehemp.net/

Fractelle nice to see you around again. Ditto your comments.

Dickie

As usual you raise a good question about pesticide use. The problem would be with a monoculture approach. If hemp is included in a mixed farming scenario with good crop rotation, companion planting and grown under organic principles it would eliminate the need for chemicals.

We are working to be almost self-sufficient at home (in veg) after reading about the number of toxic chemicals used on crops in Australia. Sprays like methyl bromide are still used on crops like strawberries.

http://www.workershealth.com.au/facts009.html

And look at the standards AQIS apply to the use of methyl bromide in fumigating imported food which is then passed on to the consumer.

http://www.daff.gov.au/aqis/import/general-info/qtfp/treatments-fumigants

Along with food mile issues this would have to be one of the most important arguments against food imports.

Greetings Pelican

It is encouraging to come across someone who has obtained such sound knowledge on Australia's regulatory practices - or the lack of them.

Several of those countries which have banned endosulfan have advised that there has been no reductions in crop size or any other negative impacts.

Australia's Occupational Exposure Limits - or time weighted average (TWA) over 8 hours, permits a worker to be exposed to 5ppm of methyl bromide. So does New Zealand - both in line with India's TWA.

The "bad" boys, the US, permits only 1ppm and the EU, 0.5ppm.

One must ask in which area do Australia's interests lie? The health of its citizens and their environment or the financial interests of the multi-national pesticide companies?

Cheers

Wake up before your representative kill you all as they are doing to the planet. The Individual Two-Third Majority Vote Self-Government.
Thanks to our forefathers, who have given us no future? For being sheep and having the wool pulled over their eyes by a false democracy, they should have listen to the hippies, not representatives that single handily caused the environmental damage we have today, facing extinction, wars, child abuse, starvation, pollution, unrest of citizens, cures not bandaids, rich and political corruption and no technology or structure in place to solve anything as a whole for a future.
I believe this is only one way for us to go , by governing our government departments by the Individual Two-Third Majority Vote Self-Government. It has been created as a self-governing constitution for all countries to be governed by, for the people to govern their countries government departments to save their environment, culture, countries and all living things for your representatives have not and will not.
Only as individual together as a whole may we have a chance to save our home, for home is not four walls. Ignorance and laziness by most will be our down fall, for us all. If you know of a better solution to save all living things as a whole, we all would grateful to hear it please? If you are a religious person, your god would not like what he is seeing and he certainly would not like you letting he's creation be destroyed with out a fight, he put us here to save all living things not to destroy it and if you believe praying or polluting will not get you in to the gates of heaven you are dead wrong. This democracy for the people can be found in the Australian national achieves the private sector and now with in our justice system. This is free to all counties, rich or poor, big or small.