Did you know that greywater makes up something like 60% of the waste water produced by the United States? Can you see what a huge difference it could make to start recycling this greywater? Recycling greywater is a key issue when it comes to true sustainability.

Types of Water and the Problem with the Waste System in Many Areas

Freshwater is of course, fresh, clean water that has fallen in the form of rain or come from a water treatment facility, clean lake or well. The main thing that distinguishes between greywater and blackwater are the microorganism and pathogen content, nitrogen and decomposition time.

Basically, greywater becomes blackwater as soon as fecal matter or highly toxic substances enters into the picture. Blackwater has the potential for spreading disease, whereas greywater is perfectly safe to use for many household tasks and irrigation.

The problem is that in far too many areas, blackwater is allowed to mix with greywater. This contaminates perfectly usable greywater, rendering it completely unusable and dangerous. This also wastes resources in that the grey water now needs to be treated as heavily as the black water. What’s even worse though, is that by diluting the blackwater with all the greywater, this is allowing blackwater to contaminate underground water in some places. This old fashioned system has got to change. The need for separating greywater and blackwater is now clear.

Largely, this lack of efficiency is due to mindless repeating of historical practices. Though modern plumbing technology makes separating the two types of water quite easy, there just really isn’t a reason not to stop wasting perfectly viable greywater. It’s simply time to readdress the way the waste water is handled, in light of what we now know.

Ok, so how do we start safely recycling our greywater for use as irrigation water?

How about taking the small step of using bathroom sink water to flush the toilet? The Sloan Valve company came out with a system that fits under the sink. For something even simpler, check out Gaiam’s Toilet Lid Sink.

For a whole-house greywater reclamation system check out this very nice series: Home made DIY Grey water system wawter recycling.

PRLog (Press Release) – Aug 20, 2009 – Around the world, as many as one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in some other way – most often by someone she knows, including her husband or another male family member; one woman in four has been abused during pregnancy. Violence against women has been called the most pervasive, yet least recognized, set of human rights violations in the world.

It’s been clear to me for some time that the inequality between men and women is the one inequality that stretches across all other sectors and cultures of human society, yet what are the connections to global sustainability?

As this article goes onto point out, the inequality of women is not only an issue of human rights. Empowering women, more than half of the world’s population, to take active parts in creating sustainable economic development, improving health and reducing poverty.

To create a more sustainable society, we must address the attitudes and behaviors that perpetuate subjugation of women. To achieve a world in balance we need to change human behavior and ensure that all people are provided with both education and opportunity. This will not only raise living standards, but it will allow for informed decisions about childbearing and family size. However, when half of a country’s population – the women – are deprived of these opportunities, realizing such goals becomes impossible.

read the full article

SALEM, OR (August 4, 2009) - Vote Hemp, the leading grassroots advocacy organization working to give back farmers the right to grow industrial hemp (the oilseed and fiber varieties of Cannabis), enthusiastically supports the decision of Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski to sign SB 676 into law today. The bill, which passed the House by a vote of 46 to 11 and the Senate by a vote of 27 to 2, permits the production, trade and possession of industrial hemp commodities and products. With the Governor’s signature, it now makes a politically bold commitment to develop hemp in a state whose slogan is “Oregon – We Love Dreamers.”

“I am glad that Oregon has joined the other states that have agreed that American farmers should have the right to re-introduce industrial hemp as an agricultural crop,” says SB 676 sponsor, Sen. Floyd Prozanski. “By signing SB 676 into law, which passed the Oregon Legislature with strong bi-partisan support, Governor Kulongoski has taken a proactive position allowing our farmers the right to grow industrial hemp, to provide American manufacturers with domestically-grown hemp, and to profit from that effort.” The new law sets up a state-regulated program for farmers to grow industrial hemp which is used in a wide variety of products, including nutritious foods, cosmetics, body care, clothing, tree-free paper, auto parts, building materials, fuels and much more. Learn more about hemp at www.VoteHemp.com.

“Oregon’s federal delegation can now take this law to the U.S. Congress and call for a fix to this problem, so American companies will no longer need to import hemp and American farmers will no longer be denied a profitable new crop,” comments Vote Hemp Director, Patrick Goggin. “Under current federal policy, industrial hemp can be imported, but it cannot be grown by American farmers. Hemp is an environmentally-friendly crop that has not been grown commercially in the U.S. for over fifty years because of a politicized and misguided interpretation of the nation’s drug laws by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). While a new federal bill in Congress, HR 1866, is a welcome step, the hemp industry is hopeful that the Obama administration will recognize hemp’s myriad benefits to farmers, businesses and the environment,” adds Goggin.

Many businesses in Oregon manufacture, market and sell hemp products, including Living Harvest, The Merry Hempsters, Wilderness Poets, Earthbound Creations, Sweetgrass Natural Fibers, Sympatico Clothing, Mama’s Herbal Soaps and Hempire. Living Harvest of Portland was recently ranked the third-fastest-growing company in Oregon, as awarded by The Portland Business Journal’s “Fastest-Growing Private 100 Companies” annual award. “We are looking forward to the opportunity to invest in hemp processing and production locally,” says Hans Fastre, CEO of Living Harvest. “This new law represents another step towards heightening the hemp industry’s profile within mainstream America and making hemp products more accessible to businesses and consumers.”

These Oregon-based companies have been on the leading edge of the growing hemp food and body care markets, which are currently estimated by the Hemp Industries Association (HIA) to be $113 million in North American annual retail sales. The HIA estimates the 2008 annual retail sales of all hemp products in North America to be about $360 million. By allowing U.S. farmers to once again grow hemp, legislators can clear the way for a “New Billion-Dollar Crop.”

Hemp Farming Gains Support from More State Governments and Law Enforcement

According to the Illinois Valley News, Josephine County Sheriff Gil Gilbertson said that he supports the legalization of industrial hemp. “I think it’s a good idea,” Gilbertson said in the article which appeared on July 29. “I think it’s a viable crop, and the entire county could benefit from it.”

On June 9, with little fanfare, Maine Governor John Baldacci signed the Maine hemp farming bill, LD 1159, into law. Maine’s House had previously passed the bill without objection, and the Senate later passed it by a strong vote of 25 to 10. The bill establishes a licensing regime for farming industrial hemp, although the licensing is contingent upon action by the federal government. Maine had previously passed a study bill that also defined industrial hemp. Like North Dakota, the new law in Oregon does not require a federal permit to grow industrial hemp.

During the 2009 legislative session, Maine, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and Vermont all passed pro-hemp laws, resolutions or memorials. Sixteen states have passed pro-hemp legislation to date, and eight states (Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, North Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia) have removed barriers to its production or research. Like North Dakota, where farmers are in a federal court battle over their rights to grow hemp under state law without fear of federal prosecution, the new law in Oregon does not require a federal DEA permit to grow hemp.

About Vote Hemp

Vote Hemp is a national, single-issue, nonprofit organization dedicated to the acceptance of and free market for low-THC industrial hemp and to changes in current law to allow U.S. farmers to once again grow this agricultural crop. More information about hemp legislation and the crop’s many uses may be found at www.VoteHemp.com or www.HempIndustries.org. BETA SP or DVD Video News Releases featuring footage of hemp farming in other countries are available upon request by contacting Adam Eidinger at 202-744-2671.

The study indicates that at least one breed per month of domesticated animals is going extinct, and reports that 20 percent of existing domesticated animal breeds are in serious danger of extinction.

The cause of these problems is the global food industry that places higher value on a narrow range of high-yield, fast-growing food animals over the more diverse and native breeds.

History has shown the dangers of relying on a small number of staple crops. When the environment changes, as ours is, this can spell disaster for entire societies who rely on the crops for food.

What can you do to promote biodiversity in domestic animals?

• If you eat meat, choose sustainably raised heritage varieties. Organizations such as Slow Food USA list farmers and ranchers who are dedicated to preserving native biodiversity.
• Join groups like the Center for Biological Diversity to take action and get involved in lobbying for change to preserve biodiversity and work on conservation projects.
• You can support organizations like Heifer International which provides domesticated animals to people in other countries so they can support their families.

More Information

Breeds of Livestock
Created by the Department of Science at Oklahoma State University, this site includes an extensive listing of domestic animal breeds, complete with background information and photographs.

Seed Savers Exchange
This nonprofit organization is dedicated to preserving and sharing heirloom seed varieties. Their site includes information about heirloom plant varieties and an extensive catalog of heirloom seeds.

The ARK USA
Created by Slow Food, The ARK is a project designed to preserve foods that are at risk of becoming ‘extinct’ – this includes rare varieties of fruits and vegetables, heritage breeds of animals, and foods created using increasingly uncommon methods of production.

American Livestock Breeds Conservancy
This nonprofit organization works to protect endangered livestock breeds from extinction. Their website includes a list of rare and endangered breeds along with numerous links to additional sources of information.

For example,

• as USDA Bulletin No. 404 pointed out way back in 1916 that 1 acre of hemp produces as much pulp for paper as 4.1 acres of trees, over a 20-year period.
• Hemp can be used in place of cotton to produce fabrics from canvas to fine linen quality fabrics. Hemp produces 250% the amount of fiber that cotton does, and 600% the amount of fiber than flax when grown on the same amount of land. What’s more, hemp is a strong plant, native varieties of which grow on every continent, it does not require herbicides and pesticides. Worldwide, cotton production is responsible for between 25% and 50% of the world’s use of pesticides/herbicides.
• Hempseed is a good source of iron and calcium, as well as phosphorus, magnesium, zinc, copper and manganese when seeds are eaten whole and toasted. The oil in hemp seeds is about 20% protein and also a more complete source of essential fatty acids than common sources like milk, meat, eggs and soy.

photo by Andy Martini

These are just a few facts about the many uses of hemp, but it’s easy to see that hemp has beneficial properties and is easier on the earth than petroleum products and using trees and cotton for paper and fabrics. Hemp can be used to make paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, construction materials, health food and fuel! In fact, prior to the Industrial Revolution, various hemp by-products were used that have since been replaced by petrochemical products.

Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?

-Henry Ford

A Brief History of Hemp

Cannabis sativa from Vienna Dioscurides, 512 A.D.

Hemp usage dates back to the Stone Age, with hemp fiber imprints found in pottery in China and Taiwan over 10,000 years old. Ancient Asians used hemp to make clothing, shoes, ropes and early paper (there are specimens of hemp paper that have been found to be 200 years older than specimens of paper made from other woody plants).

Hemp has been cultivated for millenia in the Middle East and Asia. Until the middle of the 14th century, hemp cloth was more common than linen. In late medieval Italy and Germany, hemp was used in cooking as pie and torte filling, as well as boiled in soups.

Then in the 18th century commercial production of hemp really caught on in the West. During this era of colonial and naval expansion, hemp was needed in large quantities for making rope and sails. Hemp oil was used to form a watertight seal between the wooden planks of sailing ships, as well as to lubricate everyday items such as wagon wheels.

In the US, the Carolinas and Gulf states had very large hemp industries, second only to cotton. Spaniards first brought hemp to the West in 1545, though in 1607 Gabriel Archer observed hemp being cultivated by native peoples and commented on the native hemp’s superior quality.

Thomas Jefferson and George Washington cultivated hemp. Benjamin Franklin created the first American paper mill which made only hemp paper. The Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper.

Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country.

-Thomas Jefferson

Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere.

-George Washington

In the early 20th century, hemp-derived cellulose was promoted as an affordable and renewable raw material for plastics; Henry Ford even built a prototype car from biocomposite materials, using agricultural fiber such as hemp. The most successful and emerging industrial use of hemp fiber is taking place in the automobile industry in the form of biocomposites used to manufacture door panels, luggage racks and other secondary structures of automobiles, replacing heavier more dangerous fiberglass composites. Hemp fiber made into biocomposites by Flexform in Indiana has been used in millions of car and trucks in North America. Also becoming increasingly popular is injection molding, insulation, horticultural growth mats, mulch, animal bedding and mortar made from hemp fiber.

During WWII, hemp was used extensively for canvas, uniforms and rope. The early 20th century saw many advances in synthetic fibers such as nylon for making ropes. These discoveries played a part in phasing out natural fibers, as commercial greed continues to play a primary role in the US’s refusal to legalize hemp cultivation.

While the war on drugs has certainly played a part in the legal status of hemp cultivation, commercial greed is central to both hemp cultivation and the so-called war on drugs.

Cannabis started to be regulated in the US in the early 20th century. For a more complete legal history of marijuana and hemp see this Wikipedia article. In the 1930s there was great financial interest in pushing the criminalization of hemp into federal courts. The decision of the United States Congress to pass the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 was based on reports, hearings and testimony derived from articles in newspapers own by William Randolph Hearst, who had substantial financial interest in the timber industry which supplied his newsprint. The American Medical Association was opposed to the to the Marijuana Tax Act because of the taxes imposed on medical cannabis, which the association recognized as having several beneficial effects. Other public figures, such as New York mayor Fiorello LaGuardia were strong opponents who openly contradicted the lies propogated in earlier reports and sensational news stories about the supposed madness and addiction issues related to marijuana.

Yet over the next 30+ years, commercial interest and power would dictate the continued criminalization of hemp. In the 1970s many places in the US started to decriminalize cannabis possession. In the 1990s more areas decriminalized medical cannabis, and the legal battles between local law and federal regulation continue on into the 21st century. Beside the continued debates over medical marijuana, the issue of hemp cultivation has usually been lumped together with high-THC marijuana, though hemp grown for nutritional and industrial uses has less than 0.3% THC.

U.S Behind other Nations in Utilization of Green Hemp Cultivation

Canada, China, Great Britain, France, Russia, Austria, Australia and Spain all produce hemp for its many industrial and nutritional uses. These nations fully acknowledge the many beneficial uses and applications of hemp, and what’s more, they recognize the benefits to the environment that choosing sustainable sources for fuel and manufacturing materials provides. With all the evidence pointing to the environmental solutions that hemp provides, why in the world is the US not stepping up to the plate and replacing non-sustainable materials with hemp wherever possible?

Many people blame the fact that the US refuses to acknowledge the difference between industrial grade hemp (which has 0.3% THC or less), and hemp grown for medicinal, spiritual and recreational uses (which has THC levels between 6% and 20%). With all the financial interests of oil companies and manufacturers of synthetic plastics and construction materials, it’s no wonder that the US is behind all other industrialized nations when it comes to hemp production.

An increasing number of US companies are using hemp materials to produce everything from fabrics for clothing and textiles to highly nutritious, affordable foods and supplements, yet these companies are forced to import all of their hemp from other countries. Legalizing hemp production in the US would lessen our dependence on foreign sources of hemp, as well as clean up the country’s act when it comes to all the industrial pollution created during the manufacturing of synthetic petroleum products and processing of crude petroleum.

What you can do

Vote Hemp is a national non-profit advocacy group dedicated to removing barriers to industrial hemp farming in the U.S. through education, legislation and advocacy.

Write to Congress

Check out the Vote Hemp site to read the latest hemp legislation alerts or jump right to the ‘Write to Congress’ page to take action now.

Contribute to the Vote Hemp Fund

You can also directly support the cause by contributing to Vote Hemp. Funds collected by Vote Hemp go directly to support educational programs and legal efforts to legalize the cultivation of hemp. You can contribute as little or much as you’d like to either the General Fund, or the Farmer Support Fund.

Choose Hemp Products Over Conventional Items Made from Wood, Cotton and Petroleum

In the coming months we will be adding articles related to industrial hemp and hemp products. In the meantime, why not think about replacing some of the items you use all the time with more sustainable hemp products. Many companies are manufacturing hemp products that are also certified fair trade items, so while you’re at it, choose hemp products whose manufacturers pay their workers adequate wages for supporting their families.

Some items common items you might consider switching to hemp versions:

Those reuseable grocery shopping bags are a great way to cut petroleum products our of the shopping equation, but an even greener solution is to use fairly traded hemp shopping bags. don’t throw out your other reuseable bags, but consider replacing worn out grocery bags with something like the roomy and sturdy Hemp Shopping Bag from Taraluna. It comes in natural as well as green and navy blue colors.

Hemp Paper

Green Field Paper makes some different weights of hemp printing paper. Because the U.S. must import the hemp used in paper like this, it is currently more expensive than paper made from wood pulp. If you can afford to do so, consider replacing wood pulp printer paper with hemp printer paper like Hemp Heritage Paper (about $30 for 500 pages), which is made from 25% hemp fiber and the rest is post consumer recycled paper. Support industrial hemp advocacy groups like Vote Hemp to help U.S. companies get access to affordable U.S. grown hemp.

Nutritional Hemp

Hemp seeds and the oil within the seeds provides an attractive source of additional protein, particularly for vegetarians and vegans. Hemp provides more nutrients and more complete essential fatty acids than soy. To add protein and essential fatty acids to your diet, try adding shelled hempseeds or hemp protein powder to your diet. I’m a big fan of hemp seed butter, which is a very easy way to add the nutritive benefits of hemp to your diet.

There are a growing number of hemp clothing and apparell items available from Amazon and retailers like Hempest.

Continue your Hemp Education

Subscribe to email updates to learn more about hemp and the ongoing movement to legalize hemp cultivation in the U.S. Check back to read more about hemp news and the latest hemp products.

If you have not done so already, check out the revised edition of The Emperor Wears No Clothes: The Authoritative Historical Record of Cannabis and the Conspiracy Against Marijuana by Jack Herer.

In this 11th edition, Jack Herer has updated his authoritative history of hemp’s myriad uses and of the war on this plant, just as it has become high-profile news, with supporters such as Woody Harrelson and Willie Nelson. Herer thoroughly documents the petrochemical industry’s plot to outlaw this renewable source of paper, energy, food, textiles, and medicine.