[Pil-pc-oceania] New direction for hemp

[Deb Guildner]

The very first English Australian colony (with transported convicts et al) 
was set up at Botany Bay in late C18 with the precise edict of establishing 
an agricultural enterprise: growing hemp for ship's ropes and the hangmans 
noose.  England just could not keep up with the demand for hemp rope, and 
was clearly multi-tasking..

Not surprisingly, this agricultural enterprise failed. Also not 
surprisingly, this fact is rarely mentioned in Australian history 
classes...I stumbled on it at the beginning of a very old Australian history 
book which I bought..

Deb
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "jedd" <jedd at progsoc.org>
To: <pil-pc-oceania at lists.permacultureinternational.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 12:16 AM
Subject: Re: [Pil-pc-oceania] New direction for hemp


> On Fri, 16 May 2008, Deb Guildner wrote:
>> "Canada's hemp industry has grown from a value of $50,000 to $50 million 
>> in
>> six years," Mr Warner said.
>
> Part of that growth may well be attributable to the lack of growth
> in this industry elsewhere on the planet, of course.
>
> But I do think there's a significant proportion of people who now
> have an inkling about how bad cotton is - and that possibly apocryphal
> story regarding the origins of the cotton industry (and the death of
> the hemp industry) in Australia a century ago is also well known.
>
> Timing-wise, it's a very sensible marketing proposition to be sure.
>
>> Mr Warner said he was disappointed that it had taken NSW so long to
>> investigate the possibilities of the industry.
>
> This bit and the hard-to-work-out-attribution-bit that follows :
>
>> Its <sic> about time there was progress in this direction. I am
>> lead <sic> to believe that hemp is 100% useable in various forms.
>
> .. reminded me of stories I've seen / heard about progress in this
> direction already.  I was pretty sure I'd seen a Landline story about
> a decade ago on a town doing a trial using one of the low-THC
> cannabis species.  I didn't expect the ABC to have pre-'oh wow
> this Net thing actually works' shows on their site.  Happily, they
> do.  Unhappily their search engine is crap.  Happily I managed to
> prevail and find something relevant, though it's (only) from 2004.
>
> http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2004/s1096938.htm
>
> In another story on that site, they refer to the 'First official trial
> crop' - grown in Queensland in early 2003.  I like that quiet nod
> to the fact that very many unofficial trials have been done.  I'm
> also suspicious that it was the first official one - presumably we
> mucked around with this stuff back in the 19th century?
>
> Anyway, the story beyond the link above talks about trials done
> around Nimbin, NSW - but their trials were focussed on using the
> plant to clean up the effluent from the local sewerage plant.  Of
> course they were also looking at the $-turning possibilities.  $200
> a tonne for industrial hemp and 18 tonnes per hectare in 3 months.
>
> Interestingly (well, if you find the above interesting) they ran a
> story in 1997 - the 'Hemp Special' - where they mention, en passant,
> that hemp was once indispensable to world commerce - ropes and
> sails made from same were, unlike other natural fibres, resistant
> to salt damage, which makes me even more dubious that this is the
> first time we've 'officially' grown hemp in this country.
>
> They also cite an ABC TV doco - 'The Billion Dollar Crop' - dating
> from 1992.
>
> Jedd.
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