Maddening Absurdity: GE Trees for paper

[crikkett]

From a mailing list I belong to...

>GM trees bloom in rush to feed growing paper industry
>By BV MAHALAKSHMI, Financial Express (India), 21 July 2005
>HYDERABAD, JULY 20: With the Indian paper and pulp industry placing greater
>demands on the plantations and forests, there is a growing need for
>genetically-modified (GM) trees to help the Indian paper industry. Hence,
>the proposed National Forest Policy is expected to give a thrust to GM trees
>for boosting the paper industry as well as improving the quality of
>by-products of wood.
>More: http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=97000

...WTF? :wtf: Has nobody ever heard of HEMP?
It's renewable and makes
very nice paper, even the 8.5*11 size.

And isn't hemp an OK thing in India??
Please tell me,

where is the logic in

:banghead: endangering our planet with GE trees after
:banghead: razing our forests for paper that could have been made from an

:banghead: A N N U A L
:banghead: F R I G G I N G
:banghead: C R O P ???

[jilln]

1. They only recently allowed making clothes and food from hemp, right?

Take a chill pill and wait 100 years for world leaders and industry to catch up with the times.

[thegreatwildebeest]

6. Importing hemp made products...

has always been legal. Using it in a food product has been up to debate, but was recently ruled in favor of the food industry on that issue.

[crikkett]

9. I ate some chocolate

...after getting that out of my system. Thanks for your concern, I feel much better now.

A little bit of background, from memory, I promise to update later with links (y'all are welcome to help!)

The Declaration of Independence was written on Hemp paper, which was in common use (esp for important documents like, well that, and contracts etc.) until corporate interests waged a successful campaign to outlaw it in the 30's. The bottom line was that hemp was cheaper than timber for paper, and hemp was cheaper than whatever DuPont was using for rope, so outlawing hemp landed DuPont the government contract with the Navy for rope (they distributed 'reefer madness' btw), and made Seymour Hersch very rich because of his timber interests.

Even so, in the 40's the US seeded vast areas in Wisconsin with hemp (that's right, marijuana) seeds to grow it for desperately-needed rope on Naval vessels. It can still be found along roadsides.

About 10 years ago the US allowed experimental industrial hemp crops in Kentucky. They were fenced in and heavily guarded. That was a few years after hemp cloth and products containing hemp oil were allowed to be imported. We've been allowed to import Hemp seed (sterilized of course) as bird food forever. Well, that's hyperbole, but I don't know of a time when hemp birdseed was outlawed.

Gotta get back to work, sorry that I don't have links to back up my account.

By the way I don't think we have 100 years to wait.

[Misunderestimator]

2. You're thread title says "GE"... I think you mean "GM"

[JohnyCanuck]

3. GE could also stand for Genetically Engineered, an alternative

term for Genetically modified.

[Misunderestimator]

4. True

:shrug:

[Book Lover]

5. I agree with you, but please keep in mind

that trees are also a renewable resource, albeit within a longer timespan. And water pollution comes from the papermaking process no matter what plant matter is used for the substrate - when IPCo's was the heaviest-fined corporation in the nation, it was for polluting waterways, not for the forest damage they do.

[firefox]

7. Hemp paper is a cleaner process

It does not use the acids that are required for wood. Unfortunately I cannot produce a link.

Jack Herer is the Emperor and his online version of "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" makes the case for hemp and the case against its prohibition- http://www.jackherer.com/index.html

[Book Lover]

11. I'll do some digging

It shouldn't be too hard to find some documentation on how paper is made. I can't imagine, though, that acids are used in papermaking as lignin itself is acidic. The processes I hear described in papermaking as well as conservation techniques for deacidification use some type of neutral buffer like calcium carbonate, to negate the acidic process. But we'll find out!

[DiverDave]

12. Growing up in Springfield Or

home to a paper mill, it sure did stink when the wind blew towards you.
God what a smell.

[Kraklen]

13. I think sulfuric acid is used to digest the feedstock.

It comes as no surprise to me. Although sulfuric acid is probably pretty low on the list of pulp mill pollutants to worry about. Lignin is more of a worry.

[anarchy1999]

14. Here is a link where you can even buy environmentally friendly office

supplies.

www.dolphinblue.com

Lots of good info and links.

[Kraklen]

8. Sounds like a good idea to me.

Slice some hemp genes in there. Make something even better than hemp.

[DiverDave]

10. Thanks for the links

big money trumps common sense again:crazy: