Furrow Magazine, Summer 2020 by Martha Mintz
The only thing more diverse than the litany of products drawn from the parts of a hemp plant are the people growing it. Hemp inspires seemingly unrivaled enthusiasm in farming. It appeals to growers, healers, adventurers, problem solvers, idealists and fortune seekers. Touring farms revealed the
Furrow Magazine, Summer 2020 by Martha Mintz
The only thing more diverse than the litany of products drawn from the parts of a hemp plant are the people growing it. Hemp inspires seemingly unrivaled enthusiasm in farming. It appeals to growers, healers, adventurers, problem solvers, idealists and fortune seekers. Touring farms revealed the motivations and ideals of people growing the crop were far more fascinating than the production. There were greenhouse managers, tobacco farmers, organic vegetable producers, teachers, tech industry retirees, a chiropractor, a pilot, a biologist, a former public relations expert, and a crop consultant.
There were entities employing dozens and families with children working alongside grandparents and friends to plant.
There were those with experience and background, and complete agricultural novices.
Each and every one of them were passionate about what they were doing and held hopes for a bright future for their endeavors and for the crop. A crop they see as potential solution to many problems from disease symptom relief to providing an ecologically responsible option to a sudden increase in toilet paper demand, for example.
Cannabis helps soil erosion and helps to improve air quality. Plastics can be made of bio-degradable hemp material and will decompose at a faster rate. Cannabis is a better source of ethanol over corn.
Until seedless marijuana called"sinsemilla" gained popularity, almost all illicitly imported weed was seeded, and those seed became the founding genetics of our early homegrown marijuana varieties. The broad genetic diversity contained within traditional landraces formed the foundations of our modern cultivars.
The Indian subcontinent is
Until seedless marijuana called"sinsemilla" gained popularity, almost all illicitly imported weed was seeded, and those seed became the founding genetics of our early homegrown marijuana varieties. The broad genetic diversity contained within traditional landraces formed the foundations of our modern cultivars.
The Indian subcontinent is the ultimate origin of most of the world's marijuana varieties. Traditional Indian bhang was likely the first cannabis extract, in this case a drink that remains popular in India today.
As European colonial interests in the New World expanded, cannabis followed, largely as solace for the labor class. It soon spread throughout
Spanish colonies in Mexico, Colombia, and Panama as well as Portuguese Brazil. It flourished as the people's drug-well beyond government control and without the baggage of dependence, addiction, and social consequences associated with alcohol and tobacco use.
Imported landraces soon became local landraces in their New
world homes, the survivors of challenging climates sculpted in the hands of local farmers who grew their own seeds generation after generation.
Homegrown plants i the '70's most often came from Mexican and
Colombian seeds along with a smattering of Panamanian and Jamaican, and exotics from Africa and southeast
Asia.
The overwhelming majority of marijuana smoked in North America and elsewhere before 1980 were narrow leaflet drug or sativa variety, such as Panama Red, Alcapulco Gold, Mawi Pawi and Jamaican Lamb's strains. Afghanistan's highly coveted seeds slowly trickled into North America, Afghan landraces made their first homegrown appearances.
The unique Afghan landraces offered highly valued agronomic traits. Mature plants were shorter and bushier than traditional homegrown varieties, thereby allowing crops to more easily concealed, away from the prying eyes of police and thieves. They matured much earlier, allowing outdoor growers to harvest before killing frost and beat the heat of repression. Their dense flowers were covered in copious quantities of resinous glandular trichomes far exceeding what was familiar to traditional North
american( NLD) growers of the time. Afghan varieties were also characterized by their much broader leaflets and later became known as broad leaflet drug (BLD) varieties popularly referred to today as "indicas."
Once in t;he hands of early grower-breeders, Afghan BLD hashish landraces were crossed with the already well-established NLD marijuana multi-hybrids, establishing myriad modern NLD x BLD sinsemilla cultivars widely available today.
Throughout the '90's, social forces of ramped up prohibition, combined with consumer preferences for the retail bag appeal of potent, rock-hard buds, combined with the agronomic challenges of growing under artificial lights, largely determined the course of evolution for modern hybrid sinsemilla cultivars. This is the legacy we live in today.
The vast majority of sinsemilla varieties available today are multi-hybrid descendants of traditional landraces and there are few remaining examples of pure NLD sativa or BLD indica varieties.
Cannabinoid and terpenoid contents of modern hybrids differ widely from their landrace ancestors and produce a siote pf effects differing from,those experienced with traditional NLD varieties. The diversity experienced in present-day sinsemilla cultivars and the variations in chemical content responsible will form the topics of debate of the miracle properties of this most wondrous plant.
Robert C. Clarke, Grow Magazine writes:
During the "Age of Imports" all seeds came from landraces-farmer varieties that evolved under the selective pressures imposed by local cultures in geographically and genetically isolated setting. Cannabis is a survivor and grows well in a wide range of latitudes and climates. We're at war with a pl
Robert C. Clarke, Grow Magazine writes:
During the "Age of Imports" all seeds came from landraces-farmer varieties that evolved under the selective pressures imposed by local cultures in geographically and genetically isolated setting. Cannabis is a survivor and grows well in a wide range of latitudes and climates. We're at war with a plant and the plant doesn't even know it.
The plant is winning the war.
Prohibition has been practiced for over 100 years in the U.S.A., It started with the labeling of ingredients on packages back in 1900 by the Food and Drug Enforcement Agency. The war on drugs has been a contentious and controversial matter of discussion for well over 100 years. We are no longer further along with the conversation today than we were 100 years ago. It's time to end this silly war and heal the wounds which has been caused through the years. Countries have waged wars over drugs and the drug trade is used as a major revenue generator to provide funding for these scrummages.
You have prisons full of non-violent offenders. Clogging up our court systems and overcrowding our prisons. It's time to stop dictating morality to your fellow man and let God be the judge.
The current war on drugs will never work. We have lost sight of the goals of this war and it has fallen into the depths of confusion.
Life is full of things that will kill you and marijuana isn't one of them. Marijuana will heal you and not kill you. God created pot man did not.
Rest in Reason Move in Passion. The current bi-polar, bi-partisan political leadership in Washington, D.C. is responsible for this failed attempt to dictate human morality and the politicians live in denial. They say they don't know what you are talking about. They say they are doing the will of the people while they take campaign contributions under the table. Well, no person I know wants to get thrown in jail for weed. Legalize now. We need weed more than ever. It's anti-viral properties help protect and to recover from the corona-virus which is reaping havoc on much of society today.
We believe term limits are in order to reign in the powers at be in Washington, D.C. The politicians worry about re-election as soon as they are elected and the will of the people suffer as a consequence. Land of the Free; what does that mean anymore? It's time we get back to the principles of the founding fathers.
Get registered to vote. Get involved with and use the system for change. If not you then who? If not now then when? You have the right to be a proud American millionaire just like the current elected officials. We're here to shake up and change the good ole boy system of cronyism. See the future be the future.
Cannabis was prescribed for over 40 illnesses back in the 1800's, it's time to unleash the life saving and healthy benefits of this most miraculous plant put here by our creator.
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