The
HIA mobilizes to overturn DEA hemp embargo
Is this a kiss hello or a kiss goodbye for
Canadian Hemp?
The sixth annual HIA Convention was celebrated
at the Ecology Retreat Center near Orangeville,
Ontario, Canada, from September 23rd to 26th,
1999. This was the first time this event had been
held outside the United States and the first time
many industry hempsters had actually seen real
live legal hemp growing free in the field. Hemp
is one of the very few articles of international
trade that Canada has in abundance which is otherwise
unobtainable in the United States of America.
Hemp being harvested at HIA
Field Day 1999
Delegates from the USA and Canada, China, Jamaica
and other global zones attended, as the HIA is
an international organization championing Industrial
Hemp Programs worldwide. Canadian HIA branch convention
organizers toiled like bees putting together what
Mr. D.W., HIA delegate and president of an unidentified
central US state hempery called a "well organized
and well attended event." Everybody had a
wonderful time in Canada, playing around together
outside in the best stretch of weather we have
had all year.
A grand total of 102 registered HIA delegates
from near and far were happy to meet in the serenity
and splendor of the deep woods to learn firsthand
of the recently erupted DEA sanctioned border
embargo that threatens to cut off all future deliveries
of Canadian Hemp to the USA. This HIA convention
was a critical time for the hemp industry meeting
for the last time in what's left of the 20th Century
to address these new rules of engagement.
We have a lot to be grateful for — and a
strong market ahead waiting for hemp — which
is a lot more than most other organic raw food
materials can say for themselves right now. Hemp
is everything but legal in America.
We were all refreshed from work and worry by the
Indian Summer weather — daily feasts and
lively discussion in the big tent during three
bright warm days, while crisp, star-specked nights
lit the heavens above. A radiant harvest full
moon shimmered in the silence as a cheerful bonfire
danced in the forest glade.
Our thanks to the Canuk party commandos who put
on a great HIA show, in spite of shellshock from
the kidnap of livelihoods at the border. For coolness
under fire, we applaud the good work of our hemp
hosts:
-
Larry DuPrey,
The Hemp Club & Chanvre enVille, Montreal
& Toronto
-
Ruth Shamai,
The Natural Order, R&D Hemp & Ruth's
Hemp Foods, Toronto
-
Dave Marcus,
Natural Hemphasis, Toronto
-
Candi &
Olivia Penn, Registration Coordination, HIA
— CA (with NS, AB, & SK family history!)
Thursday was "Beam
me up to Canada" day as delegates arrived
by air and auto to register for a Convention of
livid hempsters about to wage war on the DEA —
only to find themselves plunked down in a casual
paradise with everyone ready to work and resolve
what might turn into a full blown international
incident requiring delays to call a NAFTA trade
dispute tribunal. The blankness of autumn ripened
nature was an ideal backdrop to take it all in.
After a communal big tent dinner on Thursday evening,
the delegates were formally welcomed by "Corporal
Colonel Jean Jac DooPrey of the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police" attired in non hemp Dudley
DooRight uniform pointed out that we were in the
land where hemp grows free and some unmentioned
nation to the south's government that now provides
the opportunity of going broke rather than merely
to jail for growing hemp.
Corporal Dooprey reminded us that fair play is
the only way with hemp and not to confuse hemp
with the M word — that little distinction
which has been a fact of life here for the last
seven years, not bad for a bi-lingual metric socialist
monarchy country, eh?
Corp. Dooprey shared the Canadian delegates firmly
held desire to help the USA in any way we can
to help our continental playmates achieve a legal
and responsible Industrial Hemp Program for themselves
as soon as their government is ready to play ball.
<applause!>
An hour of Hemp History followed — the Hemp
Time Machine with HIA hemp historian researcher
John Dvorak, The Boston Hemp Co-op, presenting
a distinctly Pan American overview of US hemp
history nuggets which he is currently loading
onto a hemp history Web site accessible to all
HIA members. Mr Dvorak is a motivated fact hunter
and able collector of important historic American
hemp documents. He continues with his ongoing
review of documented evidence suggesting a long
and lively American hemp business in many parts
of the nation; which we suspected all along but
were never able to point to with certainty. Mr
Dvorak's collection of Americana Hemp will form
the nucleus of his forthcoming cyber hemp document
museum that promises to be a credible cache.
HIA is indeed fortunate to have this hemp history
obsessed electronic scholar overseeing American
hemp heritage preservation in time for the new
century of hemp ahead. The further one looks back
the farther one can see ahead.
Mr Dvorak's presentation was supplemented by his
friend and correspondent , Canada's sole and thus
by default, Canada's foremost Hemp historian,
Dr. Alexander Sumach, Hemp Futures Study Group.
He shared some quirky highlights of 400 years
of industrial hemp in Canada he has collected
for an upcoming New World hemp history book project.
As faithful former members of the British Empire,
Canadians in former centuries quietly produced
mountains of hemp for the British navy's floating
war with Napoleon; and afterwards, delivered high
north hemp necessary for the construction of the
vast 19th century world wide web of submarine
cables linking the continents. While war consumes
all the hemp it can get, the peace never gets
a decent crack at hemp.
Canada remains even now an enormous raw materials
storehouse with a veneer of civilization. We learned
that the small, socially integrated Canadian population
manages a vast natural resource cornucopia and
are now experienced producers of the finest hemp
food and fiber in the modern world. Canada cannot
grow cotton or fall back on other warm climate
protein crops so hemp will always be a very serious
prospect here. This may explain why Canadians
fought so hard to obtain the hempen prize and
why they will fight even harder to protect it.
Friday morning was the HIA business meeting and
results of the Board of Directors Election for
1999-2000 were formally announced.
PRESIDENT - Cindy Biggers
VICE PRESIDENT - Larry Duprey
TREASURER - Eric Lineback
SECRETARY - Candi Penn
Paul Chang, Mari Kane, Steve Levine, Carolyn Moran,
Ed Saukkooja and Don Wirtshafter
Updates from the Cross Canada Hemp Producers followed,
and a panel moderated by British Columbia cyber
hemp magazine Hemp Commerce & Farming Report
editor Arthur Hanks brought the HIA members up
to date. Jerzy Prytyk, Hempco - Shazam Farms,
explained what was new in Quebec, Dave Marcus,
Natural Hemphasis, outlined the Ontario hemp initiatives,
and Shaun Crew, Hemp Oil Canada, Inc.,told us
about advances in Manitoba. So this is how 30,000
acres of Canadian hemp gets into the barn ...Canada
grew nearly as much hemp as all of Europe combined
in 1999 and attained in one irrigated area on
the prairies the unprecedented yield of a ton
of hempseed per acre — that's 600 pounds
of pure protein from one acre of land, with nature
and production fully appreciated.
On the World Hemp front, reports from Hungary,
Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica and Japan were
presented by Eric Steenstra, Candi Penn, Paul
Chang and Greg Mackem.
The Hemp Food Panel followed. Hemp food industry
leaders shared the ins and outs of providing edible
hemp to a hemp hungry market that is growing everyday.
We heard good news about hemp for food and its
promising acceptance on the market from Greg Herriott
of Hempola, Ruth Shamai of The Natural Order and
the brand new Ruth's Hemp Foods, and Richard Rose
of HempNut, Inc. All were in favor of establishing
standards and quality control regulations as the
first step in being recognized as a legitimate
market sector in the bigger food trade game. As
these players stand to gain the most at the onset
of a legal hemp food industry, but stand to suffer
the worst in a cross border showdown, they gave
an informed articulate group presentation at the
convention.
The Hemp Marketing and Retail panel revealed steady
growth for the industry and noted the plethora
of new hemp based foods arriving on the market,
all of them in jeopardy as long as sources in
Canada are frozen out by the U.S. Customs services.
Presenters included Retail Council Chief, Cindy
Biggers of Hemp in the Hollow, Laurie Scott of
Fiber Ethics, and Eric Lineback of Hempseed.com.
The Friday Afternoon Legal Panel that followed
consisted of Mel Green of Toronto, Dave Frankel
of 4th Wave Law in San Francisco, and Don Wirtshafter
of Ohio Hempery. Independent counselors with special
knowledge of the embargo shared their expertise
with HIA delegates. We were joined by Canada's
leading Industrial Hemp Producer Jean Laprise
of Kenex Ltd. who signed up with HIA on the spot.
It is his birdseed that is causing all the flap
with the DEA, and he shared his predicament with
us and explained how they held back with their
media fury but now would do everything he could
to rescue his hemp, our hemp, all hemp from the
line of fire.
This cluster of hemp hustlers hotly discussed
the recent DEA clampdown, coolly formulated a
response and began to calculate damages in case
this matter must be resolved in the international
trade courts. A head on collision is not easily
worked out afterwards we learned, especially from
a hit and run by the DEA.
After dinner on Friday, Larry DuPrey handed out
the "Five Years in Hemp" service pins
to: Manastash, WA; HempRella, CA; The Natural
Order, ONT and Toronto Hemp Co., ONT.
Those not attending who were also honored for
five years of industry service: Aptech International,
China/NC; Dharmic Enterprises, CA; Fremont Hemp
Company, WA; Hempen Goods, WI (originally Hempisphere);
Hungry Bear Hemp Foods, OR; Kashmir Gold, CA;
Oxford Hemp Exchange, MO; Real Goods Trading Corp.
CA; Jeffrey Stonehill, WA; The Hemp Factory Inc.,
FL; The Merry Hempsters, OR; Two Star Dog, CA;
Vermont Hemporium, Inc., VT; and Wise Up! Reaction
Wear, Washington, DC.
The ceremonies were wrapped up with a charming
speech by Wayne Roberts, popular Green-leaning
Canuk author of "Get a Life" and "Real
Food for a Change" who shared his insight
on the geopolitical overtures of hemp. He reminded
all how wonderful hemp really is beyond the vanishing
point of recent border hassles. Good news at a
bad time was much appreciated. A full moon bonfire
sealed off the night with much merrymaking and
good conversation.
Saturday breakfast in the big tent was a hemp
pancakes and strategy meeting. Don Wirtshafter
rattled the hemp tambourine to wake all to the
impact of the DEA hemp embargo while frontline
troops signed up to do something about it.
John Dvorak pledged to set up a Web site to act
as a common activists' home address for the duration,
which is now up and running, and in record time
thanks to Chris and Mark Tucci. Visit HEMPEMBARGO.COM
to stay current for the duration of the hemp embargo.
Become informed as it happens. And take action!
A most delightful Field Trip to see live Canadian
hemp growing in the field without doubt or fear
was the highlight of the Saturday afternoon. Perfect
weather, mild and sunny, made the hemp field-day
the peoples choice crescendo of the HIA convention
as delegates were ferried by shuttle bus or followed
in a fleet of vehicles to the nearby farm of Al
and Shirley Meech growing licensed Hemp on a Health
Ministers' permit this year. They are contracted
growers for Hempola.
The Meech's had happily agreed to leave a good
chunk of ripe plants standing after their designated
harvest so that the HIA tribe could witness the
huge harvester combine shaving the fields like
a giant weed whacker.
HIA delegates posed for pilgrim photos and a group
portrait surrounded by golden hemp everywhere.
It was something else to see USA based hopeful
hempsters, many of whom had never actually beheld
the site of free hemp growing under the sun, approaching
the plants as if this was botanical royalty granting
them audience.
HIA Board members pose for
a photo at HIA Field Day 1999
It didn't take long for everyone to waltz through
the walls of cellulose and shake out a few plump,
dark, shiny seeds with their own hands. If the
DEA had only been there at the picnic, sunglasses,
whatever, to explain why they viewed this innocent
hemp as a target for their prohibition mandate.
This hemp field visit was a calming balm that
made up for an otherwise rough news weekend. Too
bad the harvester machine in the field stopped
working after only a few minutes, apparently the
over ripe ropey trophy hemp stalks jammed up the
mechanism. The Canadian HIA people have all seen
similar mechanical monsters chewing up the sea
of hemp before and know it's a mighty and uplifting
site to behold. There's no business like sow business.
Departing the sacred hemp fields, the delegates
attended a Hemp Field Day behind the barn. More
than 200 people attended, including many nearby
farmers who seemed to want to get involved with
hemp next year. The buyers of next year's hemp
crop were strolling around the site happy as happy
can be, sending out positive vibes that no soybean
project would ever be able to match. Eager for
a crop yet unsown, this was something completely
different.
The Hemp Field Day speakers included:
- Jean Laprise, Kenex, Ltd., Canada
- Bill Baxter, Agriculture and Food, Ontario
- Dr. Ernie Small, Agriculture and Food, Federal
Govt. Canada
Jean Laprise speaks at HIA
Field Day with Bill Baxter and Dr. Ernie Smalls
in the background.
The rest of the day was a picnic atmosphere as
the guests sampled savory hemp burgers from Farmer
Blanche, and delightful hemp ice cream, Cool Hemp
from Christina's Hemp Treats, and watched fresh
hemp seed oil and meal made on the spot by Gusta
Cold Press ... delicious! We didn't want to leave
the hemp farm because it was so splendid. The
spectacle of dreams coming true made it well worth
the work and worry of wetnursing a weed into an
industry, but the bus wanted us back for supper
and yet more events.
Saturday night fever in the big tent, the HIA
honored hemp pioneer Joe Strobel who, seven years
ago, had grown North America's first legal hemp
in three generations. Mr Strobel is in poor health
and could not attend. But his partner and friend,
Geoff Kime, Hempline, Ontario, accepted the award
on his behalf, and we clapped loud enough for
Joe to have heard if his window was open.
We are grateful to Joe and Geoff for having the
fortitude to negotiate the first hemp permit and
thus opening the door for all. Their pioneer perseverance
made the hemp industry we know today not only
possible but prosperous — $200,000,000 industry
annually and growing like the weed it is. At the
sunset of the 20th century, there are a lot of
reasons hemp is still a good thing to be bringing
into the world for the new century.
A fitting salute we, the hemp industry, dare offer
back is to make the best we can of this hard won
ground for peaceful, responsible hemp culture
in the New World. It is now our task to defend
this privilege of growing the weed of wonder against
all who seek to bring our good work to ruin.
Introduced by Ruth Shamai, pioneer American hemp
journalist Mari Kane was also honored for her
successful hemp magazine's contribution to the
acceptance of hemp in modern America and the growth
in the industry, particularly in California.
The International Hemp Journal (formerly known
as HempWorld) publisher entertained us with a
heart felt rendition of the trials and tribulations
of editing the industry's foremost hemp magazine
and what she has seen come to pass in the seven
years since Strobel and Kime agronauts.
Afterwards, the euphoric but somewhat chilly delegates
moved to the warmth of the meeting room where
they were addressed by Dr. Dave West, chief investigator
of the University of Hawaii hemp trials. He shared
both news of the US initiative for sowing legal
hemp perhaps as early as next year, and some insight
into the tangled up government perspective of
blanket prohibition against industrial hemp in
America. Dr West's appearance at the HIA convention
was sponsored by Mr. Richard Rose, proprietor
of Hempnut, Inc. as an intellectual gift to the
delegates. Our thanks for such valuable insight
at this time.
We were also honored by the appearance of Brian
Taylor, Mayor of Grand Forks BC, who joins the
Medical Discussion Group formed to tackle organizational
requirements for this emerging industry in North
America.
Live music was provided by the band "Planet
Earth" while HIA people talked embargo strategy
beneath a magic moon by a roaring bonfire, and
some danced indoors. We got free form fireside
folk songs from Ralph Bronner on guitar, of the
Dr. Bronner Soap family. Ralph wrote a song for
the current Hemp Seizure fight: Hold On to that
Plow!
Sunday morning we had breakfast and an informal
town hall meeting which was open to all insight
and stake about the industry in the stretch ahead
... good will in good supply. Everybody wants
to work together, resolve this obstruction to
our progress by the DEA and get back to the job
of making hemp happen.
Thanks to all those who contributed these delicious
hemp foods, products and services:
Canadian Hulled Hempseed - The Hemp Club
Hemp Chips - Humboldt Hemp Foods, Ruth's Hemp
Foods
Hemp Pasta - Ruth's Hemp Foods
Hemp Salad Dressings - Hempola
Hemp Coffees - Hemp Fields, Humboldt Hemp Foods
Hemp Beer - Mississagua Micro Brewery
Hemp Breads - local bakery for event
Hemp Burgers - Farmer Blanche
Hemp Potato Salad - Farmer Blanche
Nutiva Bars - Hempbrokers.com
Cool Hemp Frozen Dessert - Christina's Hemp Treats
Great Service - Ecology Retreat Center Staff
Hemp Soap - Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps
Displayed Products - Numerous Members
Hemp Door Prize Donations - Numerous Members
Hemp Hats & T-shirts with New HIA Logo - The
Hemp Club
Media Recordings:
Video - Hannah Eckberg, The United Hemp Council
Video - Don Riese, Hempzels, Inc.
Video - Blair MacKinnon, Farmer Blanche
Audio - David Patak, Hemp Watch, Inc.
Audio & Video - Mari Kane, Hemp Pages
HIA Convention Report by Dr. Alexander Sumach
Hemp Futures Study Group, Niagara on the Lake,
ONT, Canada
With files from Larry Duprey, Ruth Shamai, Dave
Marcus and Candi Penn
|
