CINCINNATI – Hemp Capital
We can make Cincinnati the first ‘Hemp Hub’ in these United States.
Growing hemp, marijuana’s fiberous cousin, has been federally legalized as of 2018. The feds are still sorting out some of the details for what can be grown, processed and manufactured, there is a marvelous opportunity here.
So, it’s an excellent time to think about how our region can leverage this change in legal status to become a hub of hemp processing and manufacturing.
What’s the big deal? Hemp is a big deal. Humans and hemp have a long history, briefly interrupted in the 1930s when super elite huckster William Randolph Hearst used his yellow press and political influence to make hemp illegal. As it happens, he could make more money on his paper using wood pulp, as he owned lots of forest. Hemp, along with marijuana, was thoroughly demonized.
But back to the big deal. Hemp is an incredibly versatile plant, with each part of the plant providing useful products. Hemp is easily grown with little in the way of chemicals or fertilizer needed. It’s suited to relatively small plots of farmland, which are abundant in southern Ohio and much of Kentucky.
Hemp fiber is strong and durable, one of its earlier uses being the canvas sails that allowed for global travel hundreds of years ago. There were no long ocean-faring ships until the 16th century when Europeans discovered the Arabian secret of constructing hemp sails.
Hemp clothing alone could be transformative. The original Levi’s Jeans were made from hemp sailcloth, and today’s cottonized hemp is a versatile option for any number of cloth and fiber products.
Our Constitution was written on hemp paper. Hemp fibers can strengthen any number of other products as well, including building products. Actually, combined with other hemp materials and composites, it’s stronger and cheaper than wood or concrete for building. And shoes, yes, for generations hemp shoes were a thing, and they are starting to make a come back.
Hemp seeds can be used as food and seasoning, but are most commonly used to press the oil from them. Hemp oils can be used in cooking, on the skin, and ingested to mitigate a variety of discomforts. The seeds themselves are a bit nutty tasting, and can be used in salads or as a garnish.
Hemp roots are valuable as well, having been used as a health remedy and tea since ancient times. Powders or ground into a paste, it has diuretic properties and is a staple of natural healing methodologies.
In 1941, Henry Ford built a car out of hemp. It was not only built out of hemp plastic, but it also ran on hemp fuel. Hemp plastic was tested to be much stronger than steel. They tried denting the hemp car with a hammer, but the car didn’t even budge.
And those are just some of the basics. Hemp composites, where fibers, oils and powders are mixed to create or replace plastics are being discovered. Hemp composites to be used in 3D printing are only now beginning to be understood. Hemp was a key ingredient in Roman aqueducts, explaining while some are still standing 2,000 years later.
Of course, this notion of making Cincinnati a Hemp Hub has a ton of potential and needs far more discussion. Cincinnati’s mayor and council need to make this a priority in 2022 and beyond. The scalability, local nature and community-building aspects of hemp farming and processing are all wondrous and worth pursuing. There is no Hemp Hub or Hemp Capital yet in these United States. It seems like wonderful time for Cincinnati to lead the way.
Heart of the Chaos
For those of us who study where we are as a culture, a corrupt and dark place where we approach self-annihilation, a clarity is arising. Even with the disasters set forth by nation-states, religious zealots and worse, one entity has been at the heart of our chaos.
Let me tease further. Our wars, the misery of millions, dirty water, shitty food, environmental devastation, climate chaos, and people and planet failing even now, they all have a common cause, a single source of currently unmitigated power. Welcome, friends, to the now failing world of corporatism.
Corporations.
Yes, of course, it’s the corporations. Mindless legal entities that hoard vast trillions of dollars for their owners, who are the true offenders. 9th Century Danish and English monarchies, obviously for personal gain, enabled a few special corporations. Soon enough we had the East India Company and the Hudson Bay Company, and the British Empire became a thing.
Indeed, the US Founding Fathers were acutely aware of the nature of corporations and went out of their way to contain their power in the early United States. But as we know, those controls withered over time. It’s hard to stop money’s influence. Read Howard Zinns, ‘A People’s History of the United States’.
Today the picture is crystal clear. It is corporations, a small handful in each area of our lives, that rule. A small handful of banks, wreaking havoc on a daily basis to so many. Media, healthcare, food, retail, the list is sickening.
When I was young, we had neighbors that were around for years. Small stores on nearly every corner. Shoe repair, hardware, ‘supermarkets’ and department store were all a part of my growing up culture. What was so different? Each one of the above was owned by someone, and the next by someone else, and this was happening all across America in the post World War II boom.
And then we saw all the little unique characters of our towns disappear as corporations replaced the vast percentage of small shops with their crap. A McDonald’s at every exit. A Walmart in every town. Heart wrenching.
Let’s be clear. The folks running the show have family names like Rothschild and Rockefeller and Walton and Coch and Morgan and on and on. Their intent is clear from their actions. They thrive on war, consumption and fear. Which mean all three deserve our resistance.
From where we see today, there is no good reason for the existence of such a legal entity. Corporations need to be decommissioned or turned into coops. If you’re war profiteers, which means you’re killing hundreds of us daily, you need to go away. If you’re Exxon or another extractor you need to go away. If you’re GMO corporation you need to go away.
For others, we create coops from corporations. We can have honest competition, each company employee owned and each as equally interested in your experience with them as with personal gain.
We are in transition. The old ways and systems are not responding to our deep needs The age of corporatism is coming to an end, and not a moment too soon, considering our current peril.
The administration of Donald Trump, with a massive transfer of wealth pending in the Republican congress, proves beyond doubt that this entity, for whatever values it may have incidentally held, is inherently mindless and manipulative.
Which is why these assholes in congress must be replaced. Such is our task. As we awaken and engage, we cannot be stopped. We create a new world where peace and love reign, and where our current reality becomes a dim, dark past.
Ending Corporate Rule
So it’s clear that corporations, since their ‘modern’ inception in 1600 where Queen Elizabeth first allowed the charter of East India Company, have sped the introduction of technology and fostered global trade. It’s equally clear that they’ve outlived their usefulness.
When the United States was initiated, there were clear restrictions put in place to avoid the worst of European corporate abuses. This because our founding fathers were well aware of the abuse of power already being exercised by European corporations.
From ReclaimDemocracy.org…Corporate charters (licenses to exist) were granted for a limited time and could be revoked promptly for violating laws. Corporations could engage only in activities necessary to fulfill their chartered purpose. Corporations could not own stock in other corporations nor own any property that was not essential to fulfilling their chartered purpose. Corporations were often terminated if they exceeded their authority or caused public harm. Owners and managers were responsible for criminal acts committed on the job. Corporations could not make any political or charitable contributions nor spend money to influence law-making.
But those safeguards became unsafe over time, and the power of money and elitism have, well, I don’t have to tell you.
And yet the rabbit hole is deeper still. A handful of families has been at the helm of control for over 200 years, and they continue their long and unholy tradition of manipulating governments, currencies and precious metals. Names like Rothschild, Rockefeller, Morgan and Walton come to mind.
Even now ‘they’ are withholding information that would allow for breakthroughs in every area of our lives. They teach a false system of reality. They withhold or discredit the writings of Tesla and a host of others that could help us live more freely and help this Earth to heal. Not an interest of the controllers.
The privatizing of ideas through patents and intellectual property rights has caused irreparable harm to our species and culture. An attribute of Life, witnessed all around us, is sharing. An attribute of corporations is privacy.
How we replace this ungodly system of greed and corruption is our task. And understanding the methodologies that will bring down our corporate overloads is key.
On the macro level, we need to create and encourage governments of integrity at every level, where the role of money and elitist interests is subjugated to the needs of we, the people. Let’s be clear. Government’s role is to support the ‘life, liberty and happiness’ of its people -not false legal entities.
On the micro level, it’s about how we leverage our energy and money. By engaging with our communities to create local food and energy systems we disempower the global elite. Every dollar we spend is a vote for something. A greater awareness of whom we’re funding with our purchases is key.
Now in 2016 we may be witnessing the beginnings of a renaissance here in the US. As part of the above, we need to hold corporations accountable for what they do. They must be held accountable for the costs of their untold damage to people and planet. Examples are everywhere. The use of fossil fuels is killing our planet.The Monsantos of the world must be brought to heel, their manic lust for global domination is devastating our bodies, killing and maiming innumerable species, and contributing to the Earth’s most important asset of Life itself, our soil. The war machine. Big Pharma. The list is endless.
Yes, take a breath…
Another historically significant but neglected organizational type is the cooperative. In point of fact, cooperative living has been as essential of human existence since our beginning. Modern cooperatives are but worker-owned businesses. There are thousands of cooperatives active today, but most are no larger than the communities they operate within.
The beginnings of the modern coop came from the Basque region of Spain, where in the 1950s they began forming a cooperative to make kerosene stoves. They called it Mondragon, and as of the end of 2014, it employed 74,117 people in 257 companies and organizations in four areas of activity: finance, industry, retail and knowledge. There are a growing number of affiliates in countries and cities all over the world. The cooperative model works, and is essentially fair by its nature.
Something quite startling is happening these days. The veil is being lifted. The powers that hid for so long can no longer hide. The millions of us entrapped by their deceits and propaganda are learning to find the truth.
The despotic age of corporatism is coming to an end, though they will not go quietly. But we can enable this transition with as much peace, grace and agility as possible by removing the legal status of corporations. We must generate the will to throw down these tyrants and destroyers, while we leave them behind as much as possible in our daily lives.
Do not think this impossible because it’s never happened before. A host of things are happening today that haven’t happened before, especially in technology. Do not think this too audacious because it seems like a foreign idea. A mere five years ago the idea of taking on Wall Street seemed far fetched. Then came Occupy. The wind blows. We are finding our true selves, our connection and our power.
This is a time of great transition. Transitioning from corporate control to cooperative living seems right on time.