Reprint from May 26, 2022 and June 2, 2022
Second of four parts
“With all but six states having either legalized, decriminalized, or medicalized marijuana, we’re experiencing a renaissance moment of cannabis, including hemp, its non-psychoactive relative. And it’s about time. In the next economy, hemp will be foundational to the just transition, or the New Green Revolution.
An explanation.
“In the 20th Century, Norman Borlaug, called the Father of the Green Revolution, gave us advanced agricultural technology, including genetically-modified plants. It’s been said among Native tribes that the United States had a choice between a carbohydrate economy and a hydrocarbon economy, an economy that depends on petroleum, coal, and natural gas. As Our current health, economic, and climate, crises have proven we made the wrong choice.
“The carbohydrate economy is one based on plants. Hemp grows easily; it is resilient, and doesn’t require huge amounts of chemicals or water, although there are specific soil requirements for it to grow. It can be foundational to such an economy.
“For the past five years, We’ve been hemp farmers, with permits from the state of Minnesota. My business is called Winona’s Hemp, and our research partner is Anishinaabe Agriculture. In 2020, we grew 20 acres of fiber hemp, and are working with that hemp to create a local economy. We send off our high-quality, field-retted hemp to processors to make cloth for canvas textiles. Our plan is to restore a hemp economy without a lot of chemicals and fossil fuels. The traditional history of hemp is without fossil fuels. We’d like to do as much to restore that practice as possible, focused on appropriate technology, equity, and innovation.
“Our focus has been in fiber varieties, with an interest in reducing any fossil fuel use in production and in processing. We’ve sourced varieties from Canada and Europe, with the help of Patagonia and our friends at the Lift Economy. We grew those seeds in fields on and around the White Earth Reservation. We did our best to plant with organic fertilizers, using fish emulsion and horse manure, to build our soils. We learned from our experience and by talking to as many folks as possible.”
Continued next week