Food Security & Nutrition Forum

In reference to Kioko Munyao's two recent questions on the UN FAO Food Security & Nutrition Forum
http://km.fao.org/fsn/fsn-forum/main-forum/fr/?view=single_thread&cat_uid=30&conf_uid=316&thread_uid=649

1)"Are there practices that rural communities had that have been discarded that would have assisted in achieving a greater effect on poverty and hunger?"

Yes, absolutely. Cannabis agriculture has been banned, regardless of it's unique and essential food value.
Hempseed as a nutritional resource: An overview
J.C. Callaway, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Kuopio, Finland
http://www.finola.com/HempseedNutrition.pdf

The world's most complete and potentially available food and fuel crop has been legislatively banned from organic agricultural rotations, by the misanthropic "war on drugs." Hemp has also been torn from the wild lands where it would otherwise grow, expanding the arable base.

Cannabis is the only crop that makes biofuels and food from the same harvest. Identified as a "strategic food resource" in Executive Order 12919, Cannabis agriculture is as critical to sustainable human existence as it was to the founding of civilizations all over the world.

The earliest nomadic people planted Cannabis along their seasonal routes, for essential seed protein, oil, fiber, intoxication and entheogens that grew well without tending.

In "The Dragons of Eden" Carl Sagan wrote of the pygmy tribes that Cannabis was [i]"their only cultivated crop."[/i]
http://www.rexresearch.com/hhist/hhist1~1.htm

And

(2)"Is there evidence of communities blending 'traditional' production and livelihood systems with modern practice that has shown some success?"

Yes. In Switzerland, Chanvre Info
http://www.chanvre-info.ch/info/en/

has demonstrated that Cannabis can be used to produce food, fuel, building materials, paper, biodegradable plastics, herbal therapeutics.

The agronomic characteristics of Cannabis make it an effective crop for expanding the arable base, and for increasing production of crops grown in rotation with it.

Cannabis also produces biogenic pesticides that have therapeutic applications for humans and wildlife.

Atmospheric aerosols called "monoterpenes" are produced in abundance by Cannabis in a wide variety of soil & climate conditions. Monoterpenes reflect solar radiation away from the Earth and seed cloud formation.

Google "Hemp Climate Zone Map" to see all of the places in the world that hemp can be grown.

I invite people who share concern to consider the question,
"How bad do things have to get before all solutions are considered?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edZw3hXkGJo

Hemp grows well in Canada, and is subsidized by the European Union in every country. Why can't hemp be used in every country to help people and heal the environment?

I am wondering if Mr. Andrew MacMillan has had any success in finding fertile ground for Dr. Callaway's work?