What plant can be used to sequester carbon, possibly more effectively than forestry, can make you a lovely outfit or a house or an airplane or nail polish
Or fuel your car if you don't want Elon Musk's electric ones (Neither do I)
Healing
Empowering
Mellow
Play
Did you know hemp was once an essential part of Japans culture and agriculture, as it also was in the US and Canada long before its relatively recent urge toward resurgence. Somethings make a comback for a good reason. Including you and me. And hemp.
Hemp doesn’t require pesticides to make it productive on a large scale. Hemp can be used for clothing, food, medicine and making homes, vehicles and even fuel. You literally could have a hemp based economy!
Of course you’d need people who aren’t too stoned to run it. If you’ve ever seen a Dr. Bronner’s label or washed up with their soap, you may be interested to know that the Bronners are also passionate about hemp. They’ve also been working to support fair trade, sustainable ways of creating their product, so that business is good for communities. I’ve always been sketched out by stakeholder capitalism yet I’ve always felt that small businesses that truly put their values on the line (assuming they have good values) are an important key to a thriving world until the day comes when we simply meet our own and one another’s needs through love and natural law, using our gifts to joyfully bless one another and our communities in a symbiotic dance of shared abundance. I am not talking about the swiss guy who wants you to own nothing and rejoice over it. If Klause, Santa, oh wait…the other one… would like to own nothing and be pleased, I suggest he give away all he owns to those who truly love humanity and Gaia, and he is welcome to be happy about it. I certainly don’t think having the Patriarchy over there in Davos has any right to tell anyone what to do…about anything, least of all their bodies or their finances.
Some day, I believe we’ll just live by synchronicity and aligned action, contributing our unique energy to our communities in ways that bring joy and and practical help to those around us, while trusting that others living similarly will be there to meet our needs…as we are all fed by Spirit-Source-God-Shekina-Creator-Allah-Sophia flowing beautifully through one another, into the world, into our shared lives. Until then, I’m a fan of business existing for humanity, not humanity for business (or its capitalist stakeholders,) much like Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, encouraging his friends and followers to live by the spirit of the law, not its letter.
I love Dr. Bronners for modeling this way of doing business. And Gero Leson has written about it in his book detailing the Dr Bronner’s journey, called Honor Thy Label. I don’t agree with every point in it, but it would be a boring world if we all saw everything the exact same way at this stage of the game our humaning. I believe deeply in allowing diverse opinions and in sharing them respectfully and compassionately. Anyway, back to hemp. The Bronners posted the following press release about a victory for hemp:
“Dr. Bronner’s, family owned maker of the top-selling natural brand of soap in North America, is celebrating the federal legalization of hemp farming in the U.S., after nearly two decades of the company’s advocacy and leadership on the issue. The 2018 Farm Bill, passed by Congress on December 12, 2018, and signed into law by the President on December 20, 2018, includes Section 10113 titled “Hemp Production,” which removes hemp from the Controlled Substances Act, places full regulatory authority of hemp with the USDA, and allows State departments of agriculture to regulate hemp cultivation per their State-specific programs.”
Additionallly,
“In 2017, Dr. Bronner’s donated $100,000 to The Rodale Institute, the leading organic research institution in the U.S., to support the organization’s multi-year research study on hemp cultivation within a regenerative organic farming model. The Rodale Institute’s current research on hemp focuses on the crop’s role in improving soil health in various organic crop rotations, its efficacy as a cover crop to suppress weeds, and its biomass and seed yields among four varieties of industrial hemp seed…Following this monumental victory of federal hemp farming legalization in the U.S., the company will soon begin sourcing the organic hemp oil used in its products from American farmers. Dr. Bronner’s commitment to hemp farming legalization has been a pillar of the company’s broader activism on drug policy and criminal justice reform; and Dr. Bronner’s ongoing advocacy for hemp farming will continue to be an aspect of the company’s commitment to regenerative organic agriculture.”
In Gero Leson’s book on the Dr. Bronner’s story, there is a very moving chapter that takes us on a journey to understand the history of the Bronner Family. The original Emmanuel Bronners parents were both murdered as a result of staying in Germany. And though scarred, Dr. Bronners leaned in toward the Unity of Humanity. All One.
To anyone who has experienced trauma around a group issue, this is the invitation.
ALL ONE!
It doesn’t mean compromise. It doesn’t mean selling out. Just the opposite. When you recognize we are all part of the same awesome Creation, and full of the same divinity, we can hold space for others to make different choices, hold different views, have different experiences without judging them for it. We can begin to create a reality that honors freedom compassionately. Unity is the ground on which sovereignty can be expressed with reverence for individuality. Love is the glue that unites our soulful humanity even when our cultures, experiences and understandings may differ significantly!
In addition for role modeling creating something beautiful from trauma, Dr. Bronners is also a model company for providing a living wage, as you can see in their all-one report.
https://premiumjane.com/blog/10-amazing-things-you-can-use-hemp-for/
https://hempearth.ca/products/hemp-plane/
May all beings thrive!
May all beings see that all way win grassroots solutions are imminently doable!
May we stand our ground, heal the soil and refuse to be divided in our common humanity!
May we live soulfully, dreaming big dreams, yet taking little aligned actions daily to support our wellbeing and bring us closer to the world we want to feel innately within us, and then communicate to others until it becomes a shared agreement: Let’s create that one! The one where the humans are free and fully connected to their souls, and also aware of their unity with all life! In unity, let us be kind. Kindness is not the same as being nice. It isn’t always neat and tidy. It is wise and compassionate and badass. The people who stood up to nazis weren’t the nice people. They were the kind ones. Kind people could care less about virtue signaling. The situation in Canada smells like the same virtue signaling that I see around so many issues. The apology is that something looked bad, not an apology (and a change of heart/action 180) for the deeply embedded connections that many in leadership currently have to Nazis, including Chrystia Freeland, whose Grandfather stole, then ran a Nazi propaganda paper in Ukraine. The original Jewish owner lost his life, because of Nazis. Freeland, as far as I understand, still has an apartment in Kiev. It may be convenient for Russia that Ukraine really is very corrupt and has a deep Nazi history, but that doesn’t make it less true.
Om Mani Padme Hum
Let’s celebrate the kind people like Dr. Bronners. Let’s look for the heroes. Let’s shine our light without giving in to cynicism.
We are here. Now is your time.
Shine, Shine, Shine, Humanity!
Rise and Shine!