HEARTY HEMP

No sooner did the Bush administration decide in recent days not to
appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a unanimous 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals ruling of February that hemp foods should be legal for sale
and consumption, than manufacturers began lining up to peddle hemp
products at this week's food expo at the Washington Convention Center.

The Hemp Industries Association (HIA) says there is now no question
that it has won its three-year case against the Drug Enforcement
Administration, which sought to ban hemp-seed and hemp-oil foods. The
court basically ruled that hemp seeds were as safe for human
consumption as poppy seeds.

In fact, HIA Executive Director Candi Penn says Americans looking for
healthy alternative sources of omega-3 because of trace mercury in
fish and fish-oil supplements can find it in hemp food. The big
question now is whether U.S. farmers will be allowed to start growing
hemp for industrial purposes.

Alexis Baden-Mayer, director of government affairs for Vote Hemp, says
the U.S. marketplace is currently supplied by hemp seed grown and
processed in Canada and Europe.

"We will now work to convince Congress it is time for the U.S. to
again allow American farmers to grow industrial hemp and participate
in this lucrative growth market," she says.