HEMPLINE

Dear Editor,

The story about the farm hotline on the front page Saturday, 25
September, was both tragic and deeply disturbing. How, in the middle
of a bumper year can farmers be having such problems?

It is a complex subject, but Nebraska farmers have almost been managed
to death and helped into early extinction by "helpful" federal
programs and environmental laws that have put farmers at an extreme
disadvantage in the world markets. The old joke, "I'm from the
government and I'm here to help you" has long since lost its humor, if
farming is your life.

I think it's time to turn the farm hotline of despair into a farm
hempline of hope and prosperity.

Why should America import all its hemp from other countries? One
example is American business giant Kimberly-Clark, a Fortune 500
company whose holdings include a hemp paper plant in France. It's
specialized product is hemp paper for high quality Bibles. It seems
hemp paper is stronger and doesn't yellow as badly, thus putting it in
high demand by Bible manufacturers.

I think it's long past time to join the rest of the industrialized
world, and raise industrial hemp in Nebraska again. Why should
Americans buy their hemp from Germany, Romania, China, Canada, etc.
instead of from farmers in Nebraska?

Debra L. Sobey