First of two parts
Here is a A post-petroleum transition plan:
Winona LaDuke writes the following article for YES Magazine on tribes’ revive traditional hemp economies:
“More than 20 years ago, Alex White Plume, a leader of the Oglala Lakota, planted his first hemp crop on Wounded Knee Creek, on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. I call White Plume ‘the Hemperer.’ He’s considered to be one of the grandfathers of the cannabis economy for Native people. Similar to John Trudell, the great Dakota philosopher and musician, White Plume always said, ‘Hemp is the way.’
“But in 2000, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents raided the Reservation and seized White Plume’s crop. In fact, there were several raids on his crop between 2000 and 2002. Two years later, he was ordered to stop growing. In 2016, the federal ban was lifted and in 2017, White Plume was a partner with Evo Hemp to make hemp supplements. He’s just beginning again.
“Not surprisingly, White Plume feels a bit resentful of the profits being made in what’s now become a largely white-dominated industry, while his tribe had to sit on the sidelines.
“But the potential for Native people to benefit economically in the hemp industry still exists.
“Now White Plume is involved in processing hemp and plans to make a vertically integrated Lakota industry. He envisions a sustainable industry that will create high-paying jobs and bring in a steady stream of income for Lakota tribes.
“This is going to be all Lakota hemp, grown on Lakota [land], produced by Lakota, and we’re going to market it by Lakota,” White Plume said..
“The hemp world is changing.
“With 10,000 uses, hemp is one of the most versatile plants to grow, and in many ways can be a catalyst for change for Native peoples. We see a New Green Revolution in Indian Country, tied to justice, economics, restoration ecology, and a return-to-the-land movement, and it’s growing.
“Just last year, the Fort Berthold Reservation, Colorado River tribes, Iowa Tribe (Kansas and Nebraska), Yurok, Sisseton, and Santee Dakotas, to name a few, all got their hemp plans approved by the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture), but more than that, tribal growers and thinkers are considering hemp as part of the future for Indian Country. And young leaders such as Muriel Young Bear, a Meskwaki woman from Iowa, and Marcus Grignon, a Menominee and project director at Hempstead Project HEART, a John Trudell initiative, represent a new wave of commitment.
“Hemp Is the Way
“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.
“Let me explain.
“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 I’ve written before, our current health, economic, and climate crises have proven we made the wrong choice previously.
“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.”
Continued at https://thevoice.us/hemp-farmer-seeks-economy-with-no-chemicals-fossil-fuels