Глобальный форум по продовольственной безопасности и питанию (Форум FSN)

Профиль участника
Просмотреть всех участников

Г-н Paul von Hartmann

Член с
Организация: California Cannabis Ministry
Страна: Соединенные Штаты Америки
Область (области) знаний:
I am working on:

Cannabis is an ancient, highly adaptable, globally distributed, agronomically beneficial, pioneer crop. Six American Presidents have signed Executive Orders identifying "hemp" as being a "strategic food resource," available by "essential civilian demand."

Cannabis is inarguably the most complete and potentially available source of organic vegetable protein on Earth. Hemp is the only common seed containing three essential fatty acids (EFAs) in proper proportion for long-term consumption. Hemp is also the only plant that produces complete nutrition and sustainable biofuels from the same harvest. This eliminates the mistakenly perceived trade-off between biofuels energy production and food security. In addition to being the world's most useful, nutritious and safely therapeutic "herb bearing seed," hemp also produces biodegradable plastics, paper, cloth, resins, therapeutics, pesticides, and building materials. Cannabis is potentially the most rapidly, globally distributed crop on Earth.

Этот участник внес свой вклад в:

    • Dear friends,

      There are many places in the world where organic Cannabis hemp agriculture could have substantial,  uniquely beneficial effects on food security, nutrition, environmental integrity, water purification, insect control, and economic prosperity.

      In many places, the greatest obstacle to solving many of the problems that afflict people is the lack of access to Cannabis because of the suppressive influence of the misconceived "drug war" that prohibits hemp agriculture. 

      Consider that hemp is the ONLY crop that produces complete nutrition and sustainable biofuels from the same harvest. This means food security & nutrition are improved by cultivation of a crop that produces sustainable biofuels.

      Responding specifically to your questions,

      1. Under what conditions can agriculture succeed in lifting people out of extreme poverty? Particularly those households with limited access to productive resources. 

      Cannabis is a non-invasive pioneer crop that grows extremely well with minimal input, under a wide variety of soil & climate conditions. Hemp is capable of producing essential food and energy resources, while it also provides multiple income streams from the seed, oil, fiber, stems, and roots. A valuable source of nutrition for animals and fish, hemp is a versatile, adaptable, ancient crop.

      2. What is the role of ensuring more sustainable natural resource management in supporting the eradication of extreme poverty? 

      "Ensuring more sustainable natural resource management in supporting the eradication of extreme poverty" begins with objectively considering ALL possible species of agricultural crops. Currently, hemp is excluded from consideration because of obsolete, counter-productive policies that prohibit hemp farming.

      3. Can those without the opportunities to pursue agricultural production and to access resources such as fish, forests and livestock find pathways out of extreme poverty through these sectors?  

      Cannabis hemp is a plant that grows well in wild places, attracts wildlife, and phytoremediates depleted and contaminated soils. 

      4. What set of policies are necessary to address issues connecting food security and extreme poverty eradication in rural areas?

      Ending Cannabis prohibition is necessary for allowing  organic agriculture to work.

      5. Can you share any examples of experiences that succeeded in reducing (or eradicating) extreme poverty through an agricultural pathway?

      There are many examples of farmers all over the world who plant hemp with great success. What has yet to be realized are the benefits to ending extreme economic disparity that global redistribution of hemp would have, through expansion of the arable base and standardization of energy production using hemp cellulose to produce hydrogen with which to generate electricity.

      Thank you all for your great works and objective consideration.

      Best wishes,

      Paul von Hartmann 

      Cannabis scholar

      Ashland, Oregon

      USA

    • Dear Jacqueline and friends,

      Thank you for the opportunity to contribute ideas to this very important discussion. The ages between 15 and 17 are certainly crucial years, particularly for transferring knowledge between the generations. 

      For the past 15 years, I have worked with Farms & Gardens for the Disabled, a non-profit organization that helps all people reach the soil more easily, regardless of physical impairment. The relevance of this work to the discussion of rural youth and agriculture has to do with enabling elderly and disabled mentors and teachers, while making farming and gardening more available and rewarding to young people. 

      By filling recycled containers (i.e. broken refrigerators, recycled fruit bins, etc.) with soil, several advantages are achieved. To begin with, a garden can be grown anywhere  that water is available. Places that would otherwise not support food production can be transformed by gardening in containers filled with soil. 

      In essence, by raising the level of the soil to where people can easily reach it, several advantageous dynamics are initiated. First of all, elders and disabled people are able to contribute to farm & garden food production. Secondarily, because they are able to participate, they are able to pass on their knowledge and experience to the younger generations who need to learn the skills and discipline involved with food production. 

      For young people, gardening while standing is more agreeable than having to bend or crawl around on the ground, or use tools to work the soil at ground level. Because container gardening eliminates much of the hardship and uncertainty of growing food, by reducing pest infestation, increasing water efficiency and providing a more functional way of growing food, the overall experience of gardening is much more consistently rewarding for everyone involved

      I trust that these ideas will help people to expand their available farming and gardening areas, while integrating elderly and disabled gardeners into an inclusive cultural dynamic, to empower and educate youth.

      Best wishes,

      Paul J. von Hartmann

      Farms & Gardens for the Disabled

      Platina, California

      USA

    • 4. How can we ensure the participation of youth in the wider food security dialogue?

      At Farms & Gardens for the Disabled, we raise the level of the soil to within easy reach. This has several effects on the gardening dynamic. 

      Youth are more likely to participate in the food security dialogue if gardening is made more accessible. There appear to be three main reasons for this.

      1. Gardening is more enjoyable if you can stand upright, move around, and work with others.

      2. Success grows enthusiasm. 

      3. Elevated gardening can happen almost everywhere.Food, herbs and natural remedies can be produced in places where it is otherwise not possible to grow anything.

      The passage of knowledge and experience from elders to youth is facilitated, simply because both can work the same beds. 

      Insect pests, rodent infestation, weeding and watering are all managed more easily in beds that have been raised three feet (one meter) into the air.

      http://www.herb-blossom.com/RaisedBeds.html

    • 3) In your experience, what are key best-practices and lessons-learned in fostering cross-sectoral linkages to protect and improve nutrition while preventing, adapting to climate change and reducing and removing greenhouse gas emissions in projects?

      My experience includes having traveled through France, Switzerland and The Netherlands from 1996 to 2006, filming towering green stalks and flowers, bearing abundant, essential seed nutrition.  Such organic resource abundance was and continues to be prohibited by “drug laws” in the country of my birth, in the California Republic of the USA.   

      The first time I ate fresh, raw, organic, hemp seed, in 1997, I was camped out in a tent, with my cameras, in a chanvriere's field, overlooking Lake Zurich. (Please see photos below)

      I was warmly hosted at in Zurich by Martin & friends at Hanf Hause, directed to the Swiss Federal Research Station near Bern, where I was welcomed like family for several days, learning from Vito Medillavilla of terpenes and the many properties of hemp essential oils. Backpacking through the Swiss alps, I was invited to help with the harvest at several organic and biodynamic (a.k.a. “Demeter”) farms.  I watched families harvest their shared wealth with gratitude to the Creator for that which is truly valuable. 

      Experiencing Cannabis science, culture and freedom on such deep levels, solidly confirmed previous investigations, thought and theory. It is clear that the "cross-sectoral linkage" most urgently needed, is to link food security & nutrition to the impact of counter-productive “drugs” policy, inducing essential resource scarcity. 

      It requires political courage, founded in strict objectivity. A closing “window of opportunity,” and our responsibility to future generations, demands that all possible biogenic solutions be applied immediately and proportionately, to the complex equation of survival we all face. 

      Presently, exclusive, limited-spectrum thinking is based in past lies, bigotry and confusion, determining a polar misvaluation, from essential to “illegal.” This misdirection in value continues to warp governance, dominating U.S.-style global drug policy through bureaucratic influence and economic inertia. Inadequate, or in some cases, counter-productive strategies continue to dominate decision making, squelching an open discussion of all possible courses of immediate, effective action.  

      The cross-sectoral disconnect between food security, nutrition, climate change and global "drugs" policy is a critical break in mankind's collective reasoning necessary for navigating toward a livable future. An uniquely essential, "strategic food resource" identified in seven U.S. Presidential Executive Orders as “hemp”; Also sequesters 9 tons of carbon per acre per growing season; As it produces sustainable biofuels; And copious amounts of atmospheric terpenes providing a “solar shield” against increasing UV-B radiation. Banned through "drugs" legislation, it seems obvious that the so-called "laws" prohibiting hemp agriculture are, at best, "void for vagueness"; and at worst, treason against God, country and planet.

      Drugs don't make seeds. Herbs make seeds. As the result of this fundamental, illogical oversight, wrongful jurisdiction over a god-given "green herb" has been applied, under color of law.  It seems such an obvious and important distinction to make, yet we continue to allow a disingenuous, counter-productive "drugs" policy to suppress hemp agriculture, ecology and industry in many parts of the world. 

      The most effective solution to climate imbalances and their increasing impact on food security & nutrition begins with recognizing the true, essential value of Cannabis. Redirection of military and civilian resources toward global distribution and cultivation to harvest and plant ancient strains of Cannabis seed is the ultimate strategy for addressing systemic collapse of environment, economics and the human social order. If our species fails to recognize why Cannabis is essential to our sustainable existence, then we will perish in a sickly and violent extinction, before the end of the 21st Century.

      There are seven properties of Cannabis that make it an essential agricultural resource:

      1. Our freedom to farm "every herb bearing seed" is the first test of religious freedom. Cannabis has served as spiritual sacrament and entheogen for many religions and cultures throughout human history. For example, Biblical scholars have determined that "qaneh-bosm," referred to throughout the Bible, is most certainly Cannabis -- a major ingredient needed for making the Holy Anointing Oil used by Jesus (Exodus 30:23). Without Cannabis there is zero religious freedom.

      2. Complete, essential nutrition. Hemp seed contains all three essential fatty acids (EFAs); is the most available source of edestin protein; produces an abundance of terpenes, flavonoids, tocopherals, chlorophyll, vitamins, enzymes, minerals, and living, plant energy. Essential nutrition received with thanksgiving has always been celebrated as a sacrament through gratitude for Nature's grace.

      3. Complete nutrition and sustainable biofuels from the same harvest.

      Cannabis is unique in that food security and nutrition are increased at the same time zero-net-carbon biofuels energy is grown from the sun & soil. The Cannabis leaf is the most efficient, globally available and recyclable ‘solar panel’ on Earth.

      4. Cannabis is the only crop capable of producing the quantity of atmospheric monoterpenes needed to replenish what has been lost with the death of 50% of the boreal forests and 40% of the marine phytoplankton that used to emit the terpenes that shield the Earth from deadly solar UV-B and UV-C radiation, while sequestering carbon and producing oxygen. The anti-viral, anti-fungal, and antibiotic properties of terpenes probably also play a key role in purifying Earth’s hydrologic systems.

      5. Uniquely safe and effective herbal therapeutics: Cancer, severe head trauma, glaucoma, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy, chronic pain, rheumatism, muscle spasticity, multiple sclerosis, insomnia, PTSD, ADD, Tourette’s syndrome, nerve disorders, emesis and eczema are just some of the ailments that have been effectively prevented, treated and cured by Cannabis.

      6. Cannabis is the safest, most ancient, and globally popular herbal alternative to alcohol and hard drugs. 

      7. Cannabis is unique and essential for its  exceptional agronomic properties. A non-invasive pioneer crop, Cannabis is essential for regenerating depleted and contaminated soils, stopping soil erosion, expanding the Earth’s arable base, while producing biodegradable "Gaiatherapeutic" industrial products, food, fuel, cloth, paper, etc. 

      Cannabis is mankind's functional interface with the Natural Order. Time is running-out on our ability to heal the planet. 

      "Essential civilian demand" is the most time-efficient, emergency preparedness protocol for accessing hemp in time to plant globally this Spring. Accelerating a proportionate, global, biogenic response is warranted by the extreme, unprecedented conditions we're facing. 

      Substantiated climate science, our respect for Nature must guide our collective common sense and courage. Mankind must transcend irrational “Gaiacidal” social values, in favor of mutually sustaining, coordinated and purposeful “Gaiatherapeutic” evolution.

      See the attachments:

    • 2.       "What are the key institutional and governance challenges to the delivery of cross-sectoral and comprehensive policies that protect and promote nutrition of the most vulnerable, and contribute to sustainable and resilient food systems?"

      The "key institutional and governance challenge to the delivery of cross-sectoral and comprehensive policies" is transcending all government's intransigent, irrational social prejudice against the most nutritious, essential agricultural resource on Earth. Restrictions, regulation, taxation and otherwise burdening the global renaissance of Cannabis agriculture (especially in the United States), works against the time-sensitive opportunity we may still have, closing faster than climate scientists are anticipating.

      A realistic, responsible time-assessment of climate changes, that are threatening the systemic balance of the entire world, demand an immediate, proportionate, effective global response. Mankind must evolve with timely intention, or we will likely achieve extinction before the end of the 21st century. 

      Increasing UV-B radiation, increasing atmospheric CO2 and the temperature increase in Earth's oceans, melting sub-Arctic methane hydrates, are components of global eco-systemic interrelation that are beyond mankind's ken or control. We are approaching irreversible tipping-points, without sufficient understanding to comprehend the degree of urgency. 

      Since the problems we face result from humankind working against Nature, it seems beyond obvious to recognize the importance of working with natural systems to heal the imbalances imposed by man's industrial assault against Nature.

      Organic agriculture is mankind's functional interface with the natural Order. For our species to be symbiotic with the planet upon which we depend, rather than continuing to be parasitic, the values and priorities of governance must prioritize the Laws of Nature over the laws of man. If there is an activity or policy that wounds the planet, it must be discontinued immediately. Not "phased out" not diluted or reduced, but stopped. Alternative methods, resources and practices must be objectively considered.

      Currently, that is not the case. Inertial economics, persist in favoring disparity, toxicity and inefficiency, plaguing our species with social unrest, while continuing to poison our Mother Earth, even as we acknowledge that She is dying of man's unrelenting avarice.

      In a perfect world, mankind would coordinate our ability to communicate electronically, globally, instantaneously, to implement "essential civilian demand" for the "strategic resource" identified (in seven U.S. Presidential Executive Orders) as "hemp." The most time-efficient protocol for achieving needed changes in human values must be initiated in order to overcome the inertia of past influences over cross-sectoral policies.

      Military aggression must itself be recognized as obsolete in the face of a larger threat of systemic collapse, the ultimate "weapon of mass destruction." Failure of governance in prioritizing cooperation over conquest is an evolutionarily regressive, global threat to all life on Earth. 

      Military personnel must be re-directed to organic farming, using a non-invasive "pioneer crop" that is capable of adapting to virtually every soil and climate condition, including increasing UV radiation. Hemp is uniquely qualified for expansion of the world's arable base. Agricultural production and global distribution of the only crop that provides complete nutrition and sustainable biofuels from the same harvest is key to food security, nutrition. 

      Organic cultivation of hemp sequesters twelve (12) tons of carbon from the atmosphere per acre, each growing season; while emitting atmospheric aerosol monoterpenes essential to replenishing what has been lost with the death of 50% of the boreal forests and an estimated 40% of marine phytoplankton. 

      Historically, forests and phytoplankton were the primary source of the aerosols which have shielded the Earth from the deadly UV-B and UV-C rays of the Sun. Those species will not regenerate under current conditions. A massive campaign of organic hemp agriculture is mankind's only option, and time is the limiting factor that will determine survival or extinction in the 21st century.

    • "What are the main issues for policy-makers to consider when linking climate change on the one hand and food security and nutrition on the other, in particular when designing, formulating and implementing  policies and programmes?"

      Increasing solar UV-B radiation is a dimension of climate change that has many adverse consequences, including immune suppression, genetic mutation and abnormal cell division. Crop failures, forest death, increasedt solubility of toxic metals and soil microbe damage are also associated with increasing UV-B radiation.

      In addition to implementing biogenic strategies for mitigating increases in UV-B, it is relevant to consider a proactive, nutritional approach to prevention and treatment of the diseases that are linked to increasing UV-B. [1]

      Since "DNA Day" is celebrated each year in April, it is especially timely to consider the role of Cannabis seed nutrition in repairing damaged DNA, before the Spring planting season for 2015 passes. [2,3, 4, 5]

      Cannabis "hemp" seed is the best available source of vegetable protein for the greatest number of people in the world, comprised of 65% edestin protein and 35% albumin protein. Protein production determines carrying capacity.

      Political interference has impeded open discussion of the many reasons to recognize hemp as a critically important crop. Our species does not have time for suppressed response to the global threat of climate change. All solutions to the compounding problems must be considered, without regard to outdated policies that continue to limit open discussion of an overlooked and under-utilized, "strategic" natural asset. [6]

      References

      1. Climatology of Ultraviolet Radiation at High Latitudes Derived from Measurements of the National Science Foundation’s Ultraviolet Spectral Irradiance Monitoring Network

       http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-03313-1_3

      "Measurements of solar UV irradiance performed during the last 18 years at six high-latitude locations and San Diego have revealed large differences of the sites’ UV climates. The ozone hole has a large effect on the UV Index at the three Antarctic sites, and to a lesser extent at Ushuaia. UV Indices measured at South Pole during the ozone hole period are on average 20%-80% larger than measurements at comparable solar elevations during summer months. When the ozone hole passed over Palmer Station late in the year, the UV Index was as high as 14.8 and exceeded the maximum UV Index of 12.0 observed at San Diego."

      2. DNA Day 2015

      http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/spotlight/dna-day-2015

      3.Hemp can repair DNA

      http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2012/09/hemp-can-repair-dna-2-2471364.html

      4. Molecular characterization of edestin gene family in Cannabis sativa L

       http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25280223

      5. National Library of Medicine - Medical Subject Headings. 

      Name of Substance edestin protein, Cannabis sativa

      http://www.nlm.nih.gov/cgi/mesh/2011/MB_cgi?mode=&index=161552

      6. Executive Order 13603

      PART VIII  -  GENERAL PROVISIONSSec. 801.  Definitions.  (e)  "Food resources" means all commodities and products, (simple, mixed, or compound), or complements to such commodities or products, that are capable of being ingested by either human beings or animals, irrespective of other uses to which such commodities or products may be put, at all stages of processing from the raw commodity to the products thereof in vendible form for human or animal consumption.  "Food resources" also means potable water packaged in commercially marketable containers, all starches, sugars, vegetable and animal or marine fats and oils, seed, cotton, hemp, and flax fiber, but does not mean any such material after it loses its identity as an agricultural commodity or agricultural product.

      https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/16/executive-order-national-defense-resources-preparedness 

       

    • Dear Florence and FSN Associates,

      Climate change has several dimensions, all of which threaten global food security and health in fundamentally interconnected ways. Temperature increase, ocean acidity & circulation, ozone depletion, sub-arctic methane release all pose potentially catastrophic influences.

      Most people are aware of "global warming." Fewer people seem to be as concerned with the increasing solar UV-B radiation reaching the planet's surface, what I refer to as "global broiling." 

      Climate change mitigation and crop selection in the 21st Century must take into account both of these aspects of systemic climate imbalance. If we are to avoid irreversible systemic collapse, then must successfully adapt in the most time-efficient ways to navigate these changes.

      First we must acknowledge the changes are happening at an accelerating and unpredictable, non-linear rate; then we must objectively reconsider our priorities. Specifically, society's views about what is "illegal" and what is essential must change. 

      Cannabis agriculture, manufacture and trade offer fundamental solutions to many of the problems imposed by climate imbalance. Every growing season that passes without comprehensive, objective analysis of this unique and essential natural resource, is gone forever.

      Consider that "hemp" is the only crop that produces complete nutrition and sustainable biofuels from the same harvest. In addition, the atmospheric benefits of Cannabis sequestration and monotwrpene production make hemp an essential crop.

      Please feel invited to consider the rationale for resolving climate imbalance, presented in my recently published book,

      "Cannabis vs. Climate Change: How hot does Earth have to get before all solutions are considered?"  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PCSRUF8

      Thank you for the opportunity to present an achieveable biogenic solution in an atmosphere of timely objectivity.

      Best wishes to all,

      Paul 

    • Dear friends,

      Thank you for the oportunity to suggest an idea to simultaneously address these fundamentally important objectives. In properly nourishing the young, empowering women in all phases of their lives, and teaching the next generation how to farm & garden, everyone's future is decided.

      I have been privileged to help build a wheel-chair accessibile demonstration project working with Farms and Gardens for the Disabled in northern California. Raising the soil three feet (one meter) off of the ground initiates a dynamic that performs many functions beyond just increasing food supply and enhancing nutrition.

      Making gardening possible for people who are physically limited (i.e. by pregnancy, advanced age, disability) or otherwise unable to reach ground-level soils, also facilitates the exchange of a critical legacy of spiritual connection to the Earth, passion for the miracles to be found in a garden, and the echange of knowledge that is possible between the generations -- all, simply by providing accesss to the soil. 

      On a purely practical level, the community workforce can be expanded, production increased, resource diversity and efficiency maximized. 

      Please feel invited to visit the project on-line, and make contact, for any ideas that may be inspired by the innovation and determination of Mr. and Mrs. Loskot's organic, accessible farm.

      Farms and Gardens for the Disabled

      http://www.herb-blossom.com/index.html

      Blessings to all,

      Paul

      Weed, California

    • Dear Mr. Fratini and FSN forum participants, 

      Thank you for your objective consideration of my suggestions in response to your questions.

      1. What issues should be addressed by the Committee in the biennium 2016-2017? 

      The nutritional value of Cannabis hemp must be addressed, at the same time hemp's unique and essential climate mitigation potential is considered. 

      Explain the issue and describe why you are proposing it;

      It should be noted that the nutritional value of Cannabis sativa ("hemp") is recognized as "strategic" in Executive Order 13603, signed by President Obama on March 16, 2012. It is the latest in a collection of seven Executive Orders signed by seven American presidents, that identify "hemp" as a "strategic food resource."

      The complete nutrition offered by Cannabis hemp is the first reason to focus on this under-regarded organic crop, but there are several more reasons to take an honest look at the potential for a global campaign emphasizing Cannabis agriculture.

      The second reason is that Cannabis is the only crop to provide complete nutrition and sustainable biofuels from the same harvest. This means that food security and nutrition is improved at the same time that bioenergy is sustainably, organically produced.

      The third reason to regard hemp has to do with the climate change mitigation potential of atmospheric aerosols produced by Cannabis; and an extraordinary carbon sequestration potential of 9 tons per acre, per growing season.

      What kind of activity do you propose to address this issue?
       
      Every available means for assessing the true value of Cannabis agriculture, manufacture and trade, in addressing food security, nutrition and climate change, must be implemented immediately, before the time "window of opportunity" described in the UN's IPCC report closes on our ability to have an effect.
       
      Which kind of CFS workstream should be put in place to address it?
       
      a. A major workstream
       
      A global emergency preparedness protocol, equivalent to "essential civilian demand" mentioned in EO 13603 and CFR 44.
       
      Cannabis is critically important for rebalancing Earth's atmosphere and for globally redistributing essential food and energy resources.
       
      The antibiotic and insecticidal properties of the Cannabis plant are also of tremendous importance in treatment & prevention of disease, for phytoremediating contaminated soils and for purifying water.

    • Dear FAO/WHO Joint Secretariat,

      Thank you for your invitation and the opportunity to input into this important effort.

      Cannabis hemp agriculture appears to be essential for making a critical difference in the global food equation. A thorough analysis of hemp seed nutrition is urgently needed.

      Existing drug policies regarding 'marijuana' have resulted in hemp's unrealized potential as an adaptable food crop, capable of producing abundance throughout its vast, global distribution.

      From a basic objective, comprehensive assessment of the nutritional value of the whole, unheated Cannabis plant, to the ecological necessity of Cannabis agriculture in mitigating climate change; this subject has been clouded and suppressed by institutional falsehoods, resulting in widespread public misconceptions.

      I invite all forum participants to investigate the nutritional profile of hemp seed as a starting point for further discussion and understanding.

      Best wishes,

      Paul J. von Hartmann

      Cannabis scholar

      Weed, California

       

      See the attachments:

    • Eva, Fred and friends,

      • What are the key challenges and bottlenecks hindering a greater contribution of forests, trees on farms and agroforestry systems to food security?

        In 2006, it was reported that atmospheric aerosols ("monoterpenes") rising from the boreal forests protect the Earth from solar UV-B radiation in several ways. During our lifetimes, half of the boreal forests have disappeared, from logging and pest infestation. That means half the quantity of monoterpenes that used to be produced by the forests are gone. Present global temperature and increasing demands for paper made from trees do not favor recovery of the boreal forests. UV-B radiation has more than doubled in the past twenty years.

        Increasing UV-B is a vastly under regarded danger, as it contributes to epidemic health problems, global warming, reduced harvests and increased solubility of mercury. Even the UN report released last month, entitled "Mercury : Time to Act 2013" did not mention increased solubility of mercury in relation to increasing UV-B.

        Recognizing the impact of boreal deforestation on UV-B levels, and the effects on food security is of major relevance. 

         

      • What are some concrete examples of innovative approaches, or good practices that increase the contributions of forests and trees to food security and nutrition goals?

        Cannabis agriculture is unique in production of the same monoterpene aerosols as are produced by the boreal forests. Since it is an urgent priority to block UV-B radiation, it has become an urgent global priority to cultivate Cannabis to produce monoterpenes. Fortunately, Cannabis is also unique and essential in producing complete nutrition and sustainable biofuels from the same harvest.  Cannabis is the only crop that increases food security and nutrition, while providing  sustainable biofuels production and shielding the Earth from the Sun at the same time.

         

      • What is needed for food security policies and strategies to recognize the contributions and value that forests and trees bring?
      • First, it is important to recognize how vital the boreal forest regions are to protecting the Earth from UV-B radiation that is increasing. This means our species has to find a better source of paper products and building materials than trees. Cannabis provides feedstock for making excellent paper products, with far less chemical input, compared with paper made from trees.

        Secondly, the suppressive, initimidating influence of Cannabis prohibition has precluded Cannabis agriculture from objective consideration and crippled the free organic agricultural market. What's needed is for people to suspend the irrational prejudice imposed on society against the world's most useful agricultural resource in order to resolve climate imbalances that threaten us all with imminent  systemic collapse.

       

       

    •  

      In 2006, climate scientists first reported on the effects of volatile organic compounds called “monoterpenes” that are emitted by earthʼs northern evergreen boreal forests, also called the tiaga (Russian for "forest"). The subarctic forest is dominated by conifers, mainly pine, spruce and fir, that begins where the tundra ends. The boreal forest is the world's largest terrestrial biome, encircling the planet’s northern hemisphere. The tiaga covers 6.4 million square miles (11 percent of the world's land surface area) from Siberia to Alaska, Canada, Northern Europe and Northern Asia. 

                           

      The boreal “tiaga” region

      In addition to sequestering and storing atmospheric carbon, the forests exude a concoction of volatile aerosol compounds, including "monoterpenes," the fragrance we associate with pine trees. 

      Monoterpenes shield the earth from the sun in two ways. First, they rise from the forest into the stratosphere. The tiny droplets physically refract solar radiation away from the earth, effectively cooling the planet. 

      The monoterpene molecules also serve as condensation nuclei, “seeding” bright and persistent clouds, further shielding the earth from the sun. For thousands of years, atmospheric monoterpenes from the evergreen trees were a critical component of the fortunate alchemy between earth and sky.

      At what cost, toilet paper?

       

      The boreal forest is the world's most extensive network of pure lakes, rivers and wetlands that sequester and store twice as much carbon as tropical forests. Home to billions of migratory songbirds, tens of millions of ducks and geese, and millions of caribou, the boreal region is an irreplaceable global treasure. Regardless of its critical importance, the boreal biome is under increasing pressure. Recent studies show that boreal forests are being destroyed faster than any other terrestrial ecosystem.

      Since 1950, more than half of the worldʼs boreal forests have disappeared, due to logging, fires, mining, oil and gas development, insect predation, global temperature increase, reservoir flooding and storm damage. About two-thirds of the trees that have been cut down were made into paper products including books, newspapers, magazines, catalogs, telephone directories, cardboard, tissue and toilet paper. Seven percent (7%) of the world population living in the U.S. uses fifty percent (50%) of the tissue paper products -- about fifty pounds per person per year. More than one million trees wind up in American mailboxes every year as “junk mail.” 

      Eighty percent (80%) of all forest products go directly to the United States.  If Cannabis agriculture had not been prohibited in the U.S. for the past seventy-five years, all of the paper products could have been made better, cheaper and without harm to the environment from organically grown, biodegradable hemp. Hemp paper requires about one-seventh the chemicals needed to make paper from trees.

      As it is today, warming temperatures in the northern latitudes have extended the breeding cycle of insects that infest the trees, eventually killing them. More trees are dying from insect pest infestation than ever before. Increasing UV-B radiation is broiling the trees, particularly at higher elevations, where the atmosphere is attenuated.

      Changes in reflective properties of the earth’s surface and the composition of aerosols in the atmosphere over the past fifty years have substantially shifted the heat exchange profile of the atmosphere and the icy, snowy “cryosphere” greatly heating up global temperatures. Present climate conditions, epidemic insect pest infestation, more violent weather, volcanic and seismic activity -- along with an increasing demand for paper products -- do not favor recovery of the boreal forests. Unless the premier crop for paper production is reintroduced, the earth will broil to extinction under increasing intensities of UV-B radiation.

      Relatively stable, homeostatic concentrations of atmospheric monoterpenes have historically determined the levels of solar ultraviolet-B (UV-B) mid-length wavelengths of sunlight to which life on earth has adapted very, very gradually over an inconceivably intricate span of moments, seconds, days, months, years, decades, centuries, millennia, and eons. With the relatively sudden catastrophic death of the boreal forest in just the past sixty years, monoterpene concentrations and cryospheric cooling of the planet have plummeted in what amounts to less than the “blink of an eye” on an evolutionary time-scale. 

      One of the most disastrous mistakes our species has ever made is a direct consequence of Cannabis prohibition. Being denied the natural, competitive selection process afforded by a truly free agricultural market, mankind is consuming 5,543 square miles (3.5 million acres) of earth’s stratospheric shield against the sun. Gaia’s most evolved masterpieces of creation are callously murdered unnecessarily each day, for toilet paper. 

      Earth is being subjected to an accelerating increase in “UV-Broiling” levels, contributing to further temperature increase. Inconceivable as it may be, the trees of the boreal forest continue to be cut at a rate of about five acres per minute. Expanses of forest the size of Connecticut are being clearcut each day.  

      Unless the monoterpene levels of our atmosphere are returned to the homeostatic concentrations established over thousands of years, the earth will eventually “UV-Broil” to extinction. Agricultural production of monoterpenes that Cannabis uniquely affords has become critical to our survival.

    • 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.

    •  

      1. If you were designing an agricultural investment programme, what are the top 5 things you would do to maximize its impact on nutrition?

      Objectively assess the unique and essential nutritional profile of the whole Cannabis plant, without prejudice against the cultivation of "industrial hemp" strains. See www.cannabisinternational.org for more information about why Cannabis is in fact a "dietary essential."

      2. To support the design and implementation of this programme, where would you like to see more research done, and why?

      Research is needed to determine which lands are available for phytoremediation and for expanding the arable base, using highly adaptable and industrially useful pioneers crops inclusive of Cannabis.

      3. What can our institutions do to help country governments commit to action around your recommendations, and to help ensure implementation will be effective?

      Officially recognize the impact that current drug policy has had on food security and nutrition.