Oregon is close to becoming the 6th U.S. state to legalize hemp. Last week the Oregon Senate voted 27-2 on Senate Bill 676, in favor of legalizing the plant cousin to cannabis. On Monday, the Oregon House of Representatives voted 46-11 on the bill.

Vote Hemp President Eric Steenstra said:

Hemp is a versatile, environmentally-friendly crop that has not been grown in the U.S. for over fifty years because of a misguided and politicized interpretation of the nation’s drug laws by the Drug Enforcement Administration. [...] While a new bill in Congress, HR 1866, is a welcome step, the hemp industry is hopeful that President Obama’s administration will recognize hemp’s myriad benefits to farmers, businesses and the environment.

Hemp has had a variety of uses, dating back 10,000 years ago. Such as:

• Building material
• Food
• Nutrition
• Dietary supplement
• Medicine
• Fiber
• Water and soil purification
• Weed control
• Fuel

The states Maine, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and Vermont all passed legislation this year for the farming of hemp. The United States currently continues to import hemp, while other countries cultivate the plant and export it. Obviously with so many uses for this plant, it threatens more industries now than what were around back in the days when Hearst and DuPont began their campaign to try to put the hemp plant on the endangered species list.

It seems like Whole Foods is really wrapping their arms around the hemp revolution.

They now carry the Nutiva Organic Hemp Shake, and in contrast with Whole Foods sometimes steep prices, you can snag this delicious shake at $0.99. It contains organic hemp protein, superfood chocolate blend (organic FairTrade Certified chocolate, organic ramon nuts, organic guar gum, inulin from chicory root, organic mesquite pods), organic Fair Trade Certified evaporated cane juice, and organic chocolate flavor.

If you’re looking for a good dose of fiber to stay regular, you need to pick some of this up. Ellen over at IAteAPie.net recommends it. Mix 2-4 tablespoons of HempShake™ with milk (or ideally, soy milk, hemp milk, rice milk or almond milk), and throw in some banana (optional) and blend to make it rich and frothy. Each serving provides 12 grams of fiber and 7 grams of protein.

If you don’t know me by now, I love anything organic and hemp is definitely a staple in my diet. I’ve been looking for a healthy morning beverage mix and since Carnation just isn’t cutting it, I think I know what my new go-to mix is.

Here’s a recipe courtesy of NutivaHempShake.com:

Chocolate Dream
2-4 Tbsp. Nutiva® Hempseed
2-4 Tbsp. Nutiva® HempShake™
8 oz. vanilla rice milk
1-2 Tbsp. Nutiva® Coconut Oil
1 ripe or frozen banana

Place seeds in a blender with 1 oz. of water, blend into a thick paste, and add remaining ingredients.

Done.

FUCTARD’s New Era 59Fifty, a New York Yankees custom is showcased at Strictly Fitteds. This slick looking hat is made of a combination of hemp and wool.

Visit Fuctard’s website for more products and info.

In an effort for the UK government to “build more housing with a smaller carbon footprint,” a three-bedroom prototype dubbed a “renewable house” has been designed thanks to a grant for €200,000 from the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in Britain.

The National Non-Food Crops Centre (NNFCC), who built the home, say that the walls are made from Hempcrete — a mixture of hemp and lime and that home owners will see a reduction of their energy bills to a cost of about €150 annually.

Dr John Williams, head of materials at the NNFCC said:

The forecasts are that we could roll this out very quickly if someone places an order for 25,000 homes. [...] Increasing numbers of farmers are growing hemp because it fits in with their current growing cycles between April and September and it is a good break crop for wheat. [...] If just 1 per cent of the UK’s agricultural land was used to grow hemp, it would be enough to build 180,000 homes per year.

The new hemp house would offer a cheaper and greener solution to the homes built with the usual brick and mortar — projected to cost around €75,000, excluding outside work to the grounds. The NNFCC also figures that 110kg (242.5lb) of carbon dioxide would be absorbed from the atmosphere due to the hemp crops being grown.

Depending on which side of the fashion spectrum you sit, Bape has launched a hemp-based pattern assault on the masses. Dubbed the ‘Neon Camo Hemp Accessories Collection’ (that’s a mouthful), the drop consists of a messenger bag, backpack and two different styles of tote bags.

Each piece sports the classic Bape gorilla-face camo in two-tone brown/beige with black trim. A small, but nice, touch to the messenger bag is a reflective stripe — theoretically to make someone who wears Bape gear easier to spot and tag with your SUV.

No specific release date yet, but keep checking Bape stores and web accounts until they show up.

Hemp is what America was founded on.

And in these dire times for farmers and the rest of the American population suffering through economic hardship, it is about time we produce what we are arguably best at — behold, great American theater.

The Caitlin County Hemp Wars is a story about a three-generation family that grows industrial hemp in a desperate effort to save their farm. Think Oklahoma! meets Fiddler on the Roof in this “roots” driven musical about community and family that drives home a very important point. The tide is turning; the collective conscious of America is quickly coming to a consensus that old, ridiculous, harmful legal restrictions on non-psychoactive hemp is no small matter.

Playwrights Terry Crystal and Don DiVecchio probably didn’t have to look hard for inspiration, but the production is the result of five-years-in-the-making effort culminating in what may be the next great piece of Americana.

The Caitlin County Hemp Wars will premiere Tuesday, May 5th at 7:30pm @ the Zero Arrow Theatre in Harvard Square.

Since ‘99, iPath has been turning the shoe industry green. Maybe with envy, but were talking about how iPath promotes environmental sustainability for the benefit of present and future generations of skateboarders to come.

It has been the goal of this company to offer alternative materials such as hemp, organic cotton and other sustainable materials to their customers. A decade later, the company is still going strong and has released their new Fall 2009 lineup.

The original iPath shoes like the Grasshopper, the Locust and the Cats have been revamped into more of a classic look and feel.

After the jump are some selections from the 2009 Fall lineup.

In the United Kingdom, researchers are at work building a new breed of environmentally friendly structures. An association of construction companies and researchers have dedicated over a million bucks on learning how to make houses with hemp-lime.

Hemp-lime is a concrete block made with lime and hemp shives. It’s appealing to builders for many reasons; it’s lightweight, consumes carbon while it grows, while lime leaves a very low “carbon footprint.” In fact, some say that it leaves “a better than zero carbon footprint.”

Professor Pete Walker Director of the BRE Centre for Innovative Construction Materials, is spearheading the research.

Walker said:

Using renewable crops to make building materials makes real sense – it only takes an area the size of a rugby pitch four months to grow enough hemp to build a typical three bedroom house.

Hemp-lime housing seems very promising. Will we see hemp-lime houses in the U.S? Not any time soon, I’m afraid. Even though California is the metaphorical marijuana Garden of Eden, the Governator vetoed “The California Industrial Hemp Farming Act” citing a conflict between Federal and State law.

In 2006 Americans spent an estimated $270 million dollars on hemp products imported from other countries. For some reason, American law enforcement officers oppose legally farming the virtually THC-free plant.