Which is the more valuable plant to humanity? Wheat or hemp/marijuana/cannabis?

[HamdenRice]

Poll question: Which is the more valuable plant to humanity? Wheat or hemp/marijuana/cannabis?

Just curious because it came up as an opinion today here.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

1. Each have their place..........n/t

[Warren Stupidity]

2. I think wheat should be criminalized. nt.

[Swamp Rat]

3. Hear hear! .... LONG LIVE CORN!!!1

:)

[Octafish]

75. Cornflowers, too!

I got dis, a, dis, a, dis sinsemilla corn Doberman in da back, Man.



I mean I don't got dat, a, dat, dat sinsemilla corn Doberman in da back, Sergeant.

[donco6]

4. Which is more useful, air or water?

It's an equally idiotic question.

[rd_kent]

89. +1000

[kentuck]

5. Man cannot live on bread alone...

Someone famous once said.

[NoPasaran]

12. Frequently a beverage is also required

Someone famous once added.

[wuushew]

6. To those with wheat allergy the value of wheat is essentialy zero

n/t

[anigbrowl]

8. Like nobody has a pot allergy?

I love pot, but you can't make much in the way of food out of the pot plant alone. I'd have to opt for wheat overall. Bonus: if you infect some with just the right kind of ergot, you can get something resembling an LSD trip. Do not try this at home, usual disclaimers apply and so on.

[Swamp Rat]

14. I've never heard of lethal pot allergies.

Whereas an allergy to wheat can be lethal (anaphylaxis):
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/wheat-allergy/DS01002
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaphylaxis

I doubt someone with asthma or severe bronchitis would smoke anything... well, there are exceptions to rules. :D

[Uncle Joe]

17. Now that's a horseleg!

:wow:

[anigbrowl]

26. Irrelevant. We're estimating overall benefit, not worst danger

Frankly, I'd be surprised if there were dangerous reactions among a few people, just as there are to wheat in a few people (but it's still a very low risk, statistically speaking). we just might not know about it because there has been little opportunity to study it properly compared to other plants.

[Swamp Rat]

32. Then hemp beats wheat hands downs, especially with regards to cost and industrial uses.

For one, wheat uses up a lot more water and produces less oxygen.

Unlike farming wheat, hemp does not cause extremely toxic dioxin to be dumped dumped into streams (pesticides, also from wood pulp/non-hemp paper), nor nitrogen and phosphate or chemical pesticides.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polychlorinated_dibenzodioxins

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TC3-4GV9866-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=ba4b79f3d0709d846d56c655d8d8aa5d

If you have a way to access peer-reviewed journal databases, you will find a lot of articles to support arguments in favor of hemp... I do not have the time nor inclination to do this. :D

However, I think it is it absurd to compare wheat with hemp, as both have great benefits and faults which do not preclude the one another.

[anigbrowl]

33. Except for the fact that you can't eat it as a central part of your diet

If we were comparing hemp and cotton I'd fully agree. But the fact that wheat is the basis of a lot of food is a clincher. You could substitute others plants, but things like rice and so forth also tend to be environmentally intensive. It's one of the prices of farming complex carbohydrates, and we need complex carbohydrates to live on...unless you want to go down the raw food, zero-cooking route, but that has its own problems. Much as I love weed, I don't think you can seriously consider replacing a food staple with it. You can't live off the stuff.

[Madrone]

34. That's not true. Hemp is more nutritious than wheat.

You can survive on hemp. It's nutritionally complete.

http://www.ratical.org/renewables/hempseed1.html

[anigbrowl]

37. Be realistic dude. How much would you have to grow to feed yourself?

Yes, it has a lot going for it. I could point out the benefits all day. But it has never been a dietary staple, anywhere. This has nothing to do with prohibition, and everything to do with yield. No society has ever lived mainly on hemp as a food source, for the same reason very few people live on birdseed. At best it supplements other foodstuffs.

[Madrone]

39. I hadn't thought about that, so I decided to look it up.

I looks like the average yield per acre (in pounds) is certainly higher for wheat than for hemp seed. Maybe 2-4 times higher. I don't know if that necessarily means wheat is better to feed myself with, though. It's obviously not nutritionally complete, as hemp is.

For sure I eat lots of wheat and almost zero hemp currently. If I had to choose between one or the other for survival I'd choose hemp.

I understand your point, however.

[HamdenRice]

71. Rofl! Agree, but one minor correction -- birdseed has been a staple in many areas

Birdseed we use in North America is mostly made up of millet and sorghum. Those grains were the staple grains in most of Africa before the arrival of maize from the New World, which largely replaced them.

I read one account for the replacement of sorghum with maize that argued that sorghum was actually more nutritious, but that maize swells in the stomach giving people a greater sense of fullness and satisfaction -- and as a result of the introduction of maize, malnutrition actually increased.

But "birdseed" remains a very common dish in South Africa, especially for breakfast. They also make beer from it. A common way to eat it -- and I know this sounds kind of gross -- is to let it rot (ferment) for a few days and then cook it. Cooked that way, it's called "ting" and is actually really good, and the fermentation adds certain vitamins.

[Swamp Rat]

35. I believe we agree.

However, if we are comparing two plants that have different uses, where one is obviously not an essential food source for humans and the other is not, then we should look to cost, productive efficiency, multiple uses, environmental impact, etc. in order to make a some sort of useful comparison. I just don't see how this particular comparison has much merit, unless one is conducting a carbon foot print analysis, or doing a farm runoff/water quality analysis. I guess one could create a model for comparing just about any type or class of Earth objects. :D

[HughMoran]

59. I do

I feel like I'm suffocating after I smoke it now. Mind you I used to smoke 1/2 oz. a day when I was younger, so this is just one of those things that came on with age.

[Kaleva]

44. It keeps starving people from eating you and your pets.

[usregimechange]

7. For crying out loud! Maybe a cannabis v. penicillin poll next?

[DJ13]

9. Ever tried smoking wheat?

Makes you loaf all day.

[Walk away]

10. These wheat people need to check themselves!!! n/t

[HamdenRice]

11. Amazing. If the global wheat crop failed what would be the effect? If the global MJ crop failed ...

what would be the effect?

[usregimechange]

13. It never amazes me how positively cannabis is viewed here

I agree with medicalization and decriminalization to a certain degree but treating cannabis like some type of miracle medicine that is 100% positive is bunk.

[Swamp Rat]

16. Who has said it is a "miracle medicine that is 100% positive?"

What a stupid thing to say. :D

[usregimechange]

18. No one said it, it was a characterization of how it is viewed here as evidenced by this poll

[Swamp Rat]

20. ok... I have no idea what you are talking about, but I'll take your word for it.

[HamdenRice]

22. It's obvious that a plurality of voters think it's more important that the most important food crops

in the world.

Sorry, but that's patently absurd and shows that many people's opinion's of weed are not formed with a full deck in play.

[usregimechange]

23. Is wheat up for a vote?

[Swamp Rat]

24. I think false dichotomies are patently absurd.

But I don't think you are stupid for posting and defending it... in other words, I won't say you are playing with less than a half deck of cards.

I just think the comparison you made in the poll is just plain wrong, as there are so many different types of 'benefits' regarding the myriad of plant life on Earth.

[Kaleva]

43. Hey man! Like....what's your problem dude!

[Madrone]

29. It ALWAYS amazes me how uneducated people are on the subject here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp for a good start. :hi:

[muriel_volestrangler]

51. It amazes me how dumb some DUers think the world's farmers are

There are many countries in which hemp cultivation is legal; and yet it's not a very popular choice for what to grow. Because it is not brilliant at anything in particular.

But some DUers think that the world's farmers, when making a choice of what to grow, are way behind the DUers (most of whom have absolutely zero experience with growing or selling hemp, and won't have met anyone with that experience either) who are convinced it's more important than wheat. But while wheat, like rice and maize, is produced at more than 500 millions tons a year, hemp production between 1961 and 1998 didn't reach a thousandth of that: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/css/330/two/index2.htm (from http://www.kltprc.net/foresight/Chpt_21.htm).

[Madrone]

54. I belive there are something like 30 countries in which it is legal to grow.

Of that 30, most were banned for growing it at some point. Many of those didn't have the bans lifted until the mid - late 90s. The US is the only industrialized nation where it is not an established crop.

Reactionary attitudes have more to do with why it isn't grown than anything else. That and I suspect it's not fun to have the government breathing down your neck every step of the way while you're growing it. Showing that some crops (commodities) are grown more than hemp does not mean hemp is not useful - and it doesn't do anything to prove the commodities you listed are MORE useful. What it is is a strawman.

[Dreamer Tatum]

25. I read the poll differently

I'm reading it as, "one has clear value, the other mostly putative, but which has the potential to positively affect more humans?"

If hemp truly as as many applications as claimed, then it is an extremely valuable crop.

[Swamp Rat]

30. Oxygen, paper, clothing, rope, biodegradable fuel, medical uses, et al.

It probably has many more applications and useful attributes.

[tweeter78]

61. Wheat vs. Cannabis , Huh

These are two different plants that effect humans in two
different ways, not comparable !!!!!

[NoPasaran]

74. If the global MJ crop failed ...

Phish would be phucked

[liberal_at_heart]

15. depends on who you are

I'd say for the person dying of cancer they are probably equally as important. People need wheat to eat and sick people need cannibus to have a good quality of life. My husband has glaucoma. He has experienced more pain in his life than anyone should ever have to endure. He described glaucoma to me as filling a balloon up to its capacity and then keep filling it without a way of releasing the pressure. Their eyes fill up with vitrous fluid and there is no way to release the pressure. It just keeps building and building until you think your eye is going to pop. He has been on so much legal pain medication in the past I was afraid he would have some kind of accidental overdose. Sometimes at night his breathing would be very shallow and it was very scary. I've seen the devastation that kind of pain can have on someone. I DON'T CARE WHAT ANYBODY THINKS ABOUT IT. I WILL ALWAYS SUPPORT THE LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA. Sorry. That was not directed at you. I'm just tired of the uneducated prejudice against marijuana.

[Touchdown]

19. I would say rainforest trees for the oxygen, but I'm not a pot head, so what do I know?

:shrug:

[Uncle Joe]

21. Yes but the use of hemp for paper and such could help save the rain forest.

In addition to that, apparently hemp has over twice the protein of wheat.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=243x25921

[Madrone]

27. Wheat = food. Hemp = food, fuel, AND fiber.

Some of ya'll are as bad as republican reactionaries around here. You think the only use for hemp is getting high? REALLY? Do you not realize that hemp and marijuana are not identical? Do you understand that because of the reactionary anti-marijuana laws that HEMP is illegal under federal law to grow in the US?

You all know what wheat gives us. Let me educate you about hemp.

FOOD:

Hemp seeds contain all the essential amino acids and essential fatty acids necessary to maintain healthy human life.<14> The seeds can be eaten raw, ground into a meal, sprouted, made into hemp milk (akin to soy milk), prepared as tea, and used in baking. The fresh leaves can also be eaten in salads. Products range from cereals to frozen waffles, hemp tofu to nut butters. A few companies produce value added hemp seed items that include the seed oils, whole hemp grain (which is sterilized as per international law), hulled hemp seed (the whole seed without the mineral rich outer shell), hemp flour, hemp cake (a by-product of pressing the seed for oil) and hemp protein powder. Hemp is also used in some organic cereals, for non-dairy milk<15> somewhat similar to soy and nut milks, and for non-dairy hemp "ice cream."<16>

Within the UK, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has treated hemp as purely a non-food crop. Seed appears on the UK market as a legal food product, and cultivation licenses are available for this purpose. In North America, hemp seed food products are sold, typically in health food stores or through mail order. The USDA estimates that "the market potential for hemp seed as a food ingredient is unknown. However, it probably will remain a small market, like those for sesame and poppy seeds."<17>


FIBER:

The fiber is one of the most valuable parts of the hemp plant. It is commonly called bast, which refers to the fibers that grow on the outside of the woody interior of the plant's stalk, and under the outer most part (the bark). Bast fibers give the plants strength. Hemp fibers can be 0.91 m (3 ft) to 4.6 m (15 ft) long, running the length of the plant. Depending on the processing used to remove the fiber from the stem, the hemp may naturally be creamy white, brown, gray, black or green.

The use of hemp for fiber production has declined sharply over the last two centuries, but before the industrial revolution, hemp was a popular fiber because it is strong and grows quickly; it produces 250% more fiber than cotton and 600% more fiber than flax when grown on the same land. Hemp has been used to make paper. It was used to make canvas, and the word canvas derives from cannabis.<23><24> Hemp was very popular as it had many uses. Abaca or Manila replaced its use for rope. Burlap, made from jute, took over the sacking market. The paper industry began using wood pulp. The carpet industry switched over to wool, sisal, and jute, then nylon. Netting and webbing applications were taken over by cotton and synthetics.


FUEL:

Biofuels such as biodiesel and alcohol fuel can be made from the oils in hemp seeds and stalks, and the fermentation of the plant as a whole, respectively. Biodiesel produced from hemp is sometimes known as hempoline<37>.

Henry Ford grew industrial hemp on his estate after 1937,<38> possibly to prove the cheapness of methanol production at Iron Mountain. He made plastic cars (the so-called Hemp Car) with wheat straw, hemp and sisal. (Popular Mechanics, Dec. 1941, "Pinch Hitters for Defense.") Filtered hemp oil can be used directly to power diesels. In 1892, Rudolph Diesel invented the diesel engine, which he intended to fuel "by a variety of fuels, especially vegetable and seed oils



Hemp is FAR more useful and valuable to us than wheat. By an order of magnitude.

[anigbrowl]

38. You are deluding yourself

How much hemp would you have to grow to provide the same amount of energy that wheat does? If it was all that as a food source, tell me one society that ever made it into their main dietary staple. There's a reason that rice and wheat and maize are more cultivated, and historically it's not because of the unavailability or prohibition of marijuana.

[Madrone]

41. I am deluding myself? Really?

There's no denying hemp has nutritional value. What you're missing (while calling me delusional) is that it ALSO has fuel and fiber value. That's HUGE.

It is, all around, more beneficial than wheat. Which WAS the hypothetical question at hand.

[anigbrowl]

42. So does wheat, if you think about it.

Agricultural history shows us that some crops 'go big' for a reason. If hemp was really as flexible 'out of the box' as you suggest it to be, it would have become the primary cultivated crop somewhere. It's great in multiple ways, we should grow much more, but it just doesn't break the yield curve the way some other crops do.

[bob4460]

65. Popular Mechanics called it the new BILLION dollar crop

in 1937 right before the Government banned marijuana!!!
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/popmech1.htm

[anigbrowl]

76. So what?

That's absolutely meaningless with a comparison to something else. So a billion is a big number; well the US is a big country, anything that's grown widely enough will be a billion dollar crop (or a multi-billion dollar crop, today). Look, being pro-pot doesn't excuse you from the need for critical thinking. Do you think maybe wheat, cotton, or corn were billion-dollar crops in 1937? Do you really think pot was the biggest crop in the US?

It's like people saying that Marijuana is CA's biggest cash crop. Well, technically it is, but some of that 'value' comes from it being illegal and the resultant high prices for bud - people who say it's the biggest cash crop use the most inflated estimates of sales and street value that the DEA etc. puts out to make their point. Additionally, while we have many other cash crops in California (eg we supply 90% of almonds sold in the US, and grow a lot of grapes for wine), the other crops, like pot are fairly specialized. When it comes to dietary staples, the big bucks are in things like soybeans, wheat, or potatoes, which amount for vast sums of money in states like Iowa, Kansas or Idaho.

I love pot. I've loved it for years. I love it so much that I'm examining the licensing requirements for opening a dispensary right now. But it's not about to displace rice, bread or potatoes when I go grocery shopping.

[Seldona]

47. Please. There hasn't been a modern society where it wasn't banned.

There is no comparison. For instance if you knew anything about hemp-based bio-diesel, you would know that the main by-products is one of the most complete foods known to mankind. If we legalized industrial hemp, and simply put our diesel fleet on it we would be producing tons of the foodstuff alongside the fuel.

If industrial hemp were legal, it would have more uses that wheat, corn, and cotton, combined. It wouldn't even be close.

[muriel_volestrangler]

52. It is legal in many countries

just not in the US. Why do you think that those other countries aren't producing millions of tons of hemp?

[anigbrowl]

55. None of those bans are over a century old

You're simply not thinking this through. If marijuana had ever been a staple food crop this would be a matter of recent history. It's all very well to say it's one of the most complete foods known - indeed, that's perfectly true in nutritional terms - but that means absolutely nothing if the yield required to feed a person entails a large area under cultivation.

"If industrial hemp were legal, it would have more uses that wheat, corn, and cotton, combined. It wouldn't even be close."

No it wouldn't. It woul dhave multiple uses, but if it were such a super-plant as you describe it would have been an enormously dominant cash crop, and corn, what and cotton would have been minority crops. History shows that the opposite is true.

I don't need convincing of the benefits of cannabis. I've been advocating for it's legalization for about 20 years. But it is not and never has been a major food crop.

[Xicano]

48. Here, I think you should read this:

As you can see from the link provided below, Jack Herer has put his money where his mouth is with regard to what he has printed in his book (excerpt below), by offering anybody who can debunk what he says he'll pay them $100,000.

The Emperor Wears No Clothes
By Jack Herer



Food Oils & Protein

Hempseed was regularly used in porridge, soups, and gruels by virtually all the people of the world up until this century. Monks were required to eat hempseed dishes three times a day, to weave their clothes with it and to print their Bibles on paper made with its fiber.

(See Rubin, Dr. Vera, “Research Institute for the Study Of Man;” Eastern Orthodox Church; Cohen & Stillman, Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana, Plenum Press, 1976; Abel, Ernest, Marijuana, The First 12,000 Years, Plenum Press, NY, 1980; Encyclopedia Britannica.)

Hempseed can be pressed for its highly nutritious vegetable oil, which contains the highest amount of essential fatty acids in the plant kingdom. These essential oils are responsible for our immune responses and clear the arteries of cholesterol and plaque.

The byproduct of pressing the oil from the seed is the highest quality protein seed cake. It can be sprouted (malted) or ground and baked into cakes, breads and casseroles. Marijuana seed protein is one of mankind’s finest, most complete and available-to-the-body vegetable proteins. Hempseed is the most complete single food source for human nutrition. (See discussion of edestins and essential fatty acids, Chapter 8.)

Hempseed was, until the 1937 prohibition law, the world’s number-one bird seed, for both wild and domes-tic birds. It was their favorite* of any seed food on the planet; four million pounds of hempseed for songbirds were sold at retail in the U.S. in 1937. Birds will pick hempseeds out and eat them first from a pile of mixed seed. Birds in the wild live longer and breed more with hempseed in their diet, using the oil for their feathers and their overall health. (More in Chapter 8, “Hemp as a Basic World Food.”)

*Congressional testimony, 1937: “Song birds won’t sing without it,” the bird food companies told Congress. Result: sterilized cannabis seeds continue to be imported into the U.S. from Italy, China and other countries.


http://www.jackherer.com/chapter02.html

:smoke:

[anigbrowl]

56. This has no bearing on the argument

Wheat isn't grown for protein, neither are maize or rice. They're grown for their value as complex carbohydrates. Seed food, no matter how healthy the proteins and oils derived from it, are never going to be the central plank of a typical diet because people typically need 8-10x more carbohydrate than protein.

A lot of you seem to think I'm saying that marijuana has no food value. I'm not. I'm saying that it doesn't deliver anything like the kind of food value that crops such as wheat, rice, maize, potatoes and so on do. This food value is mainly in the form of carbohydrate...and complex carbohydrates like this are the staple in most diets, around the world. It has been like this for millennia and has nothing to do with good companies or the ban on marijuana. It has everything to do with the basics of human nutrition.

[Xicano]

50. Just a bit more from "The Emperor Wears No Clothes"

Excerpt from chapater 8: BTW Jack Herer the author provides the whole book online for free to anyone who wishes to read it. And again, on this website he offers $100,000 to anyone who can disprove what he writes about pot in this book.

Hempseed: Humanity's Best Single Food Source

Of the 3-million plus edible plants that grow on Earth, no other single plant source can compare with the nutritional value of hempseeds. Both the complete protein and the essential oils contained in hempseeds are in ideal ratios for human nutrition. Only soybeans contain a higher percentage of protein. However, the composition of the protein in hempseed is unique in the vegetable kingdom. Sixty-five percent of the protein content in hempseed is in the form of globulin edestin.1 (The word “edestin” comes from the Greek “edestos,” meaning edible.)

The exceptionally high edestin content of hempseed combined with albumin, another globular protein contained in all seeds, means the readily available protein in hempseed contains all the essential amino acids in ideal proportions to assure your body has the necessary building blocks to create proteins like disease-fighting immunoglobulins -antibodies whose job is to ward off infections before the symptoms of sickness set in.2

Cannabis seed protein even allows a body with nutrition-blocking tuberculosis, or almost any other nutrition-blocking ailment, to get maximum nourishment.*

*Cohen & Stillman, Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana, Plenum Press, NY, 1976; Czech. Tubercular Nutritional Study, 1955.

Even more important for building a strong immune system, hempseeds are the highest source in the plant kingdom of essential fatty acids. These essential oils, linoleic and linolenic acids, are responsible for the luster in your skin, hair, eyes, and even your thought processes. They lubricate (clear) the arteries and are vital to the immune system.

These essential fatty acids were used by Dr. Joanna Budwig (nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year since 1979) to successfully treat "terminal” cancer patients, as well as those suffering from cardiovascular disease, glandular atrophy, gallstones, kidney degeneration, acne, dry skin, menstrual problems and immune deficiency.

This, as well as other research, prompted William Eidleman, M.D., UCLA, and R. Lee Hamilton, Ed.D., Ph.D. Medical Researcher-Biochemist UCLA Emeritus, to speak out on behalf of “the life-giving values” of cannabis hemp. They state:

“These essential oils support the immune system and guard against viral and other insults to the immune system. Studies are in progress using the essential oils to support the immune systems of persons with the H.I.V. virus. So far they have been extremely promising.

“What is the richest source of these essential oils? Yes, you guessed it, the seeds of the cannabis hemp plant ... The insane prohibitions against the most valuable plant on Earth, cannabis hemp, must yield to public demand ... The promise of super health and the possibility of feeding the world is at our fingertips.” (December 29, 1991 and April 2007)

Hempseed extracts, like soybeans, can be spiced to taste like chicken, steak, or pork and can be used to make tofu-type curd and margarine, at less cost than soybeans. Sprouting any seed improves its nutritional value and hemp can be sprouted and used like any other seed sprout for salads or cooking.

Sprouted hempseeds make milk, just as soybeans do. Alan “Birdseed” Brady of Santa Cruz, California and Abba Das of Colorado use this milk to make a delicious and nutritious ice cream in many flavors that actually lowers cholesterol levels.


http://www.jackherer.com/chapter08.html

[Xicano]

45. Wheat = food. Hemp = food, fuel, AND fiber. Also medicine and mind expanding intoxicant. . :)

I know you knew that, but you know how hard headed other folks are.

:smoke:

[tweeter78]

63. Why do people argue over the importance of hemp and cannabis , it's a no brainer!!!!

Legalize it,  Peter Tosh

[HamdenRice]

70. Wow. There has never, ever been an agricultural society based on eating hemp as a staple

If fact one of the remarkable things about our history is that all agricultural societies have settled on just a handful of crops that deliver the most nutrition for the work, as several have pointed out: rice, corn (maize), wheat, millet, sorghum, plantain/banana, white potato, beans, beets, sweet potato/yam, and manioc/cassava. Agricultural societies also have adopted a wide range of secondary crops like oats and barely. Other plants, like hemp, have been tested and found wanting. If it was that great a food plant, one of the many societies that had the main food crops and hemp would have gone with hemp. None of them did. None of them have even adopted hemp as a major secondary crop.

The most astounding thing about this thread is that people seem unable to think through the question at the head, what would happen if each crop failed completely. In one instance billions of people would starve to death. In the other case, millions would not be able to get their buzz on (plus thousands of AIDS and cancer patients would be affected negatively).

What this thread shows is that the ability of billions to eat and not starve to death is under-rated by many compared to the ability to get a buzz on.

[Madrone]

96. "millions would not be able to get their buzz..."

Excuse me? You can't get a buzz on hemp. That you made that that comment at ALL shows you are being reactionary. It also shows that you don't know what you are talking about.

[Lorien]

28. Hemp and marijuana are not the same things. The fact that so many people

are confused about this fact, or that so many people INTENTIONALLY confuse the two and lump them together is the reason why we import all of our hemp products from Canada and China instead of growing in here.

[Dreamer Tatum]

31. In fairness, I've heard weed smokers call it "hemp" a LOT nt

[tweeter78]

64. Same family, two different things

Read some books, you may learn something !!!

[eShirl]

69. well that proves it then!

:think:

[anigbrowl]

40. They come from the same plant genus. Nothing dishonest about that.

Pretending they're completely different insult's peoples intelligence and doesn't get us any closer to legal cultivation.

[Lorien]

83. Oh geez. So do shitake mushrooms and "'shrooms". One is available in

grocery stores, the other will get you arrested. Hemp CANNOT make you high. It's intellectually dishonest of you to suggest otherwise.

[bob4460]

66. Marijuana is a name the government made up so they could ban it. n/t

[Lorien]

86. No. They are two different plants:

Hemp and Marijuana are two different types of the same plant. They look very much alike. The difference lies within the chemical composition of the plants. Marijuana gets its psychoactive characteristics because of a high level of THC (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol), the authorized hemp only contains 0,3% of THC.

http://www.naihc.org/hemp_information/content/hemp.mj.html

[cherokeeprogressive]

36. Wheat isn't responsible for slackers' addiction to video games and the indoors.

So I say wheat.

[rd_kent]

90. Neither is pot, but thanks for playing.....

[SammyWinstonJack]

98. +1

:applause:

[madokie]

46. I'd rather have a big ole joint as a loaf of bread

if that tells you anything :hi:

[juno jones]

49. Hemp seed makes a great flour

although the gluten of wheat gives a dough more elasticity.

Then again, people who are allergic to wheat can usually eat hempseed.

And hemp makes oils, fiber and drugs, wheat doesn't

Both are valuble, It's hardly a black and white/either-or thing.

Industrial hemp doesn't get anyone high. What's the problem?

[NuttyFluffers]

53. the historically correct answer is hemp. your opinions are adorable, but unnecessary.

many societies never had, nor needed wheat. the grains are plenty plentiful from oat, rye, barley, millet, amaranth, corn, rice, etc. just about every major society had hemp. the balance on average favors hemp by far.

hemp was one of the first cultivatable plants, spreadable to just about every climate, and thus taught humanity much about agriculture wherever human trade and contact with this plant went.

further hemp provided more than just seeds for oil (which wheat is a poor source of) or seeds for food. it also provided a huge source for strong fibers for clothes, ropes, sails, etc. this cannot be overstated. wheat cannot clothe you. the rest of the wheat hay cannot make quality rope or sails for you. they can barely make a decent basket for you. the best you can do with the rest of the what hay is feed it to animals, which you can already do with hemp hay. oh, and making bricks, but you can again do the same with hemp hay. so you lose out to major construction tools that help create more complicated civilization.

throw in that marijuana can be used for medicine and the choice is definitive for hemp/marijuana.

wheat gives you: storable carbohydrates, explosives in the form of flour (rare usage), chaff + hay for animals and bricks.

hemp gives you: storable oils, storable carbohydrates (though not as much as wheat), chaff + hay for animals and bricks, fibers for clothes, ropes, sails, baskets, climate flexibility for the crop, ease of agriculture, and more harvests per year on average. and with some, it's also medicine atop all that.

the balance is clear. the discussion is pointless, yet both plants are respectable. please continue your entertainment...

[Bjorn Against]

57. Wheat is certainly a valuable crop, but it does not have as many uses as hemp

While wheat is certainly an essential crop, hemp is the more beneficial of the two plants. Many people have already listed the many uses of hemp, but I want to emphasize that hemp makes great paper products which do not contribute to deforestation. Global warming is currently threatening our planet and protecting our forests is key to addressing the issue, if we start getting our paper supply from hemp rather than from trees we can protect our forests and it will go a long ways towards creating a more sustainable way of life. That is just one of many benefits that hemp has, it is truly a miracle crop.

[kid a]

58. wow...you're all stoned!

:evilgrin:

[Romulox]

60. Which would you prefer: oxygen or shoes?

Time to ban shoes!

:eyes:

[piratefish08]

62. Just Say No!

to wheat.........

[Gravel Democrat]

67. 1942: US Government considers Hemp so vital it makes a movie: Hemp for Victory

Hemp for Victory is a black-and-white United States government film made during World War II, explaining the uses of hemp, encouraging farmers to grow as much as possible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp_for_Victory



Watch Hemp for Victory at Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne9UF-pFhJY

Can't find a "Wheat for Victory". Wheat is important for sure so I wouldn't be surprised if it exists.

The sails of the USS Constitution were made from Hemp, as the US Government film linked above shows. In fact most of the sails of the ships around the world were made from Hempen fabric. So Hemp provided a means of travel. I'm not aware of any comparable use of wheat.



HempCar:
A little over 9 years ago Grayson Sigler and Kellie Ogilvie drove a Diesel Mercedes 10,000 miles around the US on Hemp oil.
A network of hemp activists provided us with the hemp oil at planned intervals throughout the country



Of course the media was out to lunch, probably laughed it up.

The car toured America, with stops in Canada, frequenting alternative-energy, environmental, and hemp-legalization events. The car departed from Washington D.C. on July 4, 2001 and returned home on October 2, 2001. The car generated publicity, emphasizing the utility of industrial hemp to modern society. We provided the public with information about biofuels, hemp, their uses, and current American laws. We established a world distance record for a vehicle utilizing hemp for fuel: 10,000 miles.

http://www.hempcar.org/indexOLD.html

I know that you can make ethanol from wheat. Not being an expert in ethanol production (or hemp oil production) I'd be interested in seeing which is more economical.

Henry Ford and Hemp
It is a little known fact that the great automaker Henry Ford constructed a car made almost entirely of hemp fiber, and hemp based plastic. It also ran on ethyl alcohol created from hemp. Henry was ahead of the curve here reporting that ethyl Alcohol was the fuel of the future and that "The fuel of the future is going to come from fruit like that sumac out by the road, or from apples, weeds, sawdust -- almost anything,"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxlj6fgQ-ZU

Then there's Hemcrete® an established walling material for carbon negative highly thermally efficient walls which has the following advantages over traditional building materials...
http://www.limetechnology.co.uk/pages/hemcrete.php


If you've never had roasted, salted, flavored Hemp seeds, you have a nutritious treat waiting.

Wheat is important. But Hemp has more uses. As others said Food Fiber Fuel and Medicine. Wheat might score 2 of 4.

Uncle Sam sez: "Hemp for mooring ships; hemp for tow lines; hemp for tackle and gear; hemp for countless naval uses both on ship and shore. Just as in the days when Old Ironsides sailed the seas victorious with her hempen shrouds and hempen sails. Hemp for victory!"

[eShirl]

68. I am pretty sure hemp has a lot more uses than wheat.

Although I could be wrong.

[Zynx]

72. Seriously? How is this even close?

[LeftinOH]

73. Neither of those; its the potato.

[harun]

81. Wheat vs. Rice vs. Potato show down!

[guitar man]

77. one makes the other more valuable

Give me my hemp and then just try to get between me and the Wheat Thins! :rofl:

[jmowreader]

78. Hemp's greatest value would be in a crop rotation plan

Do a five-year rotation: wheat, clover, either wheat or another grain crop like oats or barley, soy, hemp.

[dysfunctional press]

80. it would greatly reduce the need for chemical fertilizers.

so it isn't likely to happen anytime soon.

[dysfunctional press]

79. starch is not a natural part of the human diet.

we are hunter/gatherers by nature, not farmers.

[HamdenRice]

87. What do you think hunter gathers were gathering? Mostly starchy root vegetables

You're flat out wrong. And the gathering was a bigger part of the diet than the hunting.

[dysfunctional press]

92. the starch in roots/vegetables is encased in cellulose...

and isn't absorbed by the digestive system unless it's softened by cooking.

cooking isn't part of our 'natural' way of eating.

sorry.

[HamdenRice]

97. uh, sorry, no. People were making fire and cooking before they were people

You've got it exactly backwards. People have been cooking before they were actually people. Fire and cooking complex carbs made us people. It's not like we evolved to be people and decided to start cooking complex carbs.

Google when fire came under control of our ancestors.

[Ganja Ninja]

82. Dope will get you through times of no wheat better than ...

wheat will get you through times of no dope.

[Taverner]

84. Huh?

I vote flowerz cuz teh so pr3tt1!!!

[The2ndWheel]

85. Substitute civilization for humanity, and I think you've got yourself a question

[DiverDave]

88. As much as I liked eating

well, the bud.
A nice loaf of wheat bread is great.
Had to pick wheat...but close. real close.

[bamacrat]

91. Cannabis has many more uses than wheat.

You can eat wheat or make beer out of it not much more. You can smoke cannabis, make food out of it, make paper, cloth, rope, oil and fuel out of hemp. Cannabis hands down.

[Ozymanithrax]

93. Nutritional value of wheat trumps nutritional value of hemp.

Billions of people have survived on wheat and lived long lives that never consumed marijuana in any form or used the old fashioned ropes made from hemp.

Removing wheat from the earth would have drastic effects and lead to wide spread famine. Removing marijuana from the face of the earth would not cause wide spread famine.

This is another apples and oranges thread.

[eShirl]

100. bullshit ("Nutritional value of wheat trumps nutritional value of hemp")

Hemp contains:

* All 20 amino acids, including the 9 essential amino acids (EAAs) our bodies cannot produce.
* A high protein percentage of the simple proteins that strengthen immunity and fend off toxins.
* Eating hemp seeds in any form could aid, if not heal, people suffering from immune deficiency diseases. This conclusion is supported by the fact that hemp seed has been used to treat nutritional deficiencies brought on by tuberculosis, a severe nutrition blocking disease that causes the body to waste away.3
* Nature’s highest botanical source of essential fatty acid, with more essential fatty acid than flax or any other nut or seed oil.
* A perfect 3:1 ratio of Omega-6 Linoleic Acid and Omega-3 Linolenic Acid – for cardiovascular health and general strengthening of the immune system.
* A superior vegetarian source of protein considered easily digestible.
* A rich source of phytonutrients, the disease-protective element of plants with benefits protecting your immunity, bloodstream, tissues, cells, skin, organs and mitochondria.
* The richest known source of polyunsaturated essential fatty acids.

http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/03/hemp-seed-nutritional-value-and-thoughts.html

[HamdenRice]

102. Utter nonsense

As has been pointed out upthread, no agricultural society in human history has made hemp a staple or even a secondary food crop.

Since hemp was known and available to almost all of them, and assuming people were rational as farmers, their choice not to grow and eat hemp shows that it has little value compared to traditional food crops.

[HamdenRice]

101. I agree -posted it because someone in another thread said canabis is the MOST USEFUL PLANT ON EARTH

a position I thought was utterly absurd. I asked, what about wheat, and the person said marijuana was more important than wheat. Then the thread was locked.

I posted this as a reality check -- only to realize that a very significant minority of DUers don't actually live in reality.

[LanternWaste]

94. Mmmmmm.... sacred cows.

Mmmmmm.... sacred cows.

[ecstatic]

95. This poll explains A LOT nt

[mikeSchmuckabee]

99. Make mine CORN

So much good comes from corn.

I suppose some bad things too.