INVEST IN HEMP

Editor, Naples Daily News:

Andrea B. Ferreira correctly deplores the confusion between types of hemp
in America.

I submit that this misunderstanding is intentional and has been carefully
engineered by petroleum companies for over a century.

Here are the facts that big oil have known all along: Hempseed oil can and
will replace petroleum. All a nation requires is the arable acreage.
Luckily, America has this available land, much of it unplanted due to
ridiculous farm policies.

If a couple of billion dollars -- paltry sums by today's standards -- was
invested into the cultivation and processing of industrial hempseed oil, we
would be energy independent in a very few years.

Multiple thousands of jobs would be created in the collateral industries
described so well by Ms. Ferreira and our children would have a viable future.

The planet's ecosphere would be immeasurably improved because the carbon
cycle would be brought toward balance.

The beauty of it is that fuel prices would decrease over time instead of
the monopolizers' gradual squeeze because more and more farmers would come
on board as time goes by, creating even more jobs.

If a person were religious, and sensible, he or she would come to the
conclusion that industrial hemp is God's gift to humankind -- if only we
would recognize it.

Instead, it looks as though we will sooner or later go nuclear over the
last few drops of oil.

Joseph Jordan, Naples