Food security and nutrition are being impacted by several changes in Earth's atmosphere. Specifically, because humans have cut down 50% of the world's boreal forests since 1950 (mostly to make paper), concentrations of atmospheric aerosol monoterpenes have been drastically reduced.
Monoterpenes reflect UV-B radiation away from the planet. Deforestation has unintentionally caused the amount of UV-B radiation reaching the surface of the planet to more than double in the past twenty years.
Elevated UV-B radiation can and must be addressed through agricultural production of atmospheric monoterpenes. If this isn't done, conditions effecting food production will continue to deteriorate.
Genetic mutation, abnormal cell growth, immune suppression, crop failure and materials deterioration are all the result of elevated UV-B radiation. In considering what crops to plant and how to address increasing UV-B, there is one crop that stands out as an agricultural tool for addressing climate change: Cannabis. I know that it is a controversial subject that many are reluctant to consider, but this inadaptability to the realities of our situation do not serve us. It is absolutely critical that all solutions be objctively considered immediately.
There is no other plant that produces the quantity of atmospheric monoterpenes in as many soil and climate conditions as Cannabis. The hemp plant is also a premier source of organic vegetable protein, essential fatty acids, esential amino acids, vitamins and minerals.
Hemp is the only plant that prodces complete nutrition and sustainable biofuels from the same harvest. The carbon sequestration profile, paper production, energy production, phytoremediation and remineralization properties of hemp, and the necessity of expanding the arable base all make Cannabis agriculure, manufacture and trade essential.
Drug policy has severely limited discussion and consideration of hemp, wasting precious time. The truth is that hemp is an imperative "strategic resource" (See Executive Order 13603, Obama 2012) without which we will not be successful in addressing climate change.
Г-н Paul von Hartmann