Hemp Bound:
Sustainable Food, Energy and Economic Independence for Communities
A Live Event With Doug Fine
This 90-minute talk and slide show (plus Q&A), culled from two years of worldwide hemp research that led to the book Hemp Bound, is a playbook for reviving the hemp economy through a vertical, locavore 21st– Century processing model called Tri-cropping (utilizing one hemp harvest for three applications: seed oil, fiber and energy).
European digital age fiber processing and biomass energy production techniques, Chinese textile modes, and, most of all, Canadian seed oil techniques, are combined to finally turn the modern hemp industry into both a profitable and a sustainable one. Value added hemp applications stay in the production communities. Tri-cropping is garnering interest from Ohio to Slovenia.
Author, investigative journalist and solar-powered goat herder Doug Fine just researched this topic planet-wide, from Manitoba to Colorado. He begins the live event with a discussion of the architecture of the hemp plant's famed stronger-than-steel fibers, its nutritive superfood seed oil, and its potential as an energy source after 10,000 years of cultivation. The performance goes on to bring hemp's manifold digital age applications (and challenges) to large numbers of people who might (as yet) not be hemp-informed. The live event covers everything from the rigors of cultivation to hemp plastics and nanotechnology applications to nutrition to hemp construction. The slide show and talk details the economic, energy production, nutritional and environmentally restorative benefits of the plant to civilization worldwide.
DAY TWO WORKSHOP:
In the one day workshop Mr Fine will talk about his book in more detail. Here are some of the topics that will be covered.
- Just a little thing called Weaning from Petroleum (“Fill ‘er up with hemp”) and saving the planet.
- The broad political power of hemp – everyone from Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is working toward its legalization in 2014 (it passed the House in 2013 but the government shut down before the Senate vote).
- A tractor made of hemp.
- A Hemp limo ride.
- The nutritive superfood that is hemp oil.
- Hemp Clothes: at his events and interviews, Doug dresses entirely in homemade hemp clothes. Yep, entirely. Yes, we’re including the boxers.
- Tree free paper: Can hemp save publishing? The challenge.
- Hemp Construction: the carbon-neutral killer app already taking over Europe.
- Hemp’s Comeback In Society In the Fields: Putting Small Farmers back to Work from North Dakota to Kentucky to Vermont to Oregon to Colorado to Ohio.
- Hemp’s multi-billion dollar value to Canadian and Chinese farmers today, and to American and other worldwide farmers very soon.
- Women in Hemp: Doug interviewed female hemp farmers, academics and processors from the Czech Republic to Belgium to Canada.
- Hemp in ancient societies and early America: America’s first millionaires came from Kentucky hemp.
- Cultivar Detective: Which hemp varieties will work best in America?
- On the business side: who are the major hemp players today, and what does the sector landscape look in the short and medium term? (Hint: It’s growing 20% annually and there aren’t enough farmers cultivating to meet demand.)
A visit to a nearby cannabis farm, where the architecture of the plant is discussed, optimal soil issues experimented with, cultivar issues debated, and a small amount of hemp seed pressed for oil. We’ll examine the report on Sant Fe County’s plan for gasification energy. We’ll also fill up a Mercedes with hemp biodiesel and take a short ride.
Doug Fine Bio:
Doug Fine is a comedic investigative journalist, bestselling author, and solar-powered goat herder. Today, after two years of worldwide research, he’s here to talk about Hemp Bound. Published just as the U.S. has ended 77 years of hemp prohibition, it's a book Willie Nelson calls “a blueprint for the America of the future,” and Joel Salatin describes as using “science and humor [to craft] the most fun book you’ll ever read about the future.” The book and Doug’s talk describes re-launching the hemp industry via Tri-cropping: utilizing one harvest for oil, fiber and energy.
Prior to this latest book, Doug has reported from five continents for the Washington Post, Wired, Salon, The New York Times, Outside, and National Public Radio. His work from Burma was read into the Congressional Record (by none other than pro-hemp Senator Mitch McConnell).
Doug’s previous book, Too High to Fail: Cannabis and the New Green Economic Revolution, is a must-read that lays out a model for sustainable, locavore cannabis cultivation based on a year he spent following one Emerald Kingdom flower from farm to patient. Before that, in 2008, he wrote the bestseller Farewell, My Subaru, an account of his efforts to remove petroleum from his life while not getting too badly outsmarted by his goats. Because of his experience researching these books with overlapping themes, Doug cares a lot about a sustainable future for small farmers. He’s been traveling the world telling everyone from Conan to Belgian national television about the importance of sustainable, outdoor hemp cultivation. The goal is to get hemp back in the soil nationwide. Books, films, live events: dougfine.com Twitter: @organiccowboy
Doug Fine Links:
Recent Conan O’Brien and Tonight Show Appearances: http://dougfine.com/media-appearances/
National C-Span Airing of Hemp Bound live event: http://www.c-span.org/video/?318921-1/book-discussion-hemp-bound
Doug’s testimony for revising international drug war before the United Nations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJxCWP8SmvM
TED Talk, Why We Need Goat herding in the Digital Age: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix7KfC7Jwg4
Five short hemp vids, plus books, films and live event schedule and booking: http://dougfine.com
Twitter: @organiccowboy
PRAISE FOR HEMP BOUND
“If ever anyone needed proof that government meddling in markets is injurious to innovation, Hemp Bound dispels all doubt. With science and humor, Fine paints an alternative and optimistic future—one that makes growing hemp seem as exhilarating and necessary as clean air. Fine’s style and storytelling ability make this is one of the most fun books you’ll ever read about the future of farming.”
- Joel Salatin, author of Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal
“The issue is simple: farmers need hemp, the soil needs hemp, forests need hemp, and humanity needs the plant that the good Lord gave us for our own survival. Hemp Bound tells us with detail and humor how to get to the environmental Promised Land. Doug has created a blueprint for the America of the future. Hemp Bound is the best book of the year.”
- Willie Nelson
