Biocide revisited by Eric E. Skidmore P.O. Box 56 Chugiak, Alaska 99567 Email: 104413.3573@compuserve.com Web: http://www.alaska.net/~anc4hemp/

February 20, 1997

In Europe pesticides and herbicides are called biocides. The drug war is another word for biocide. The drug war is the most environmentally disastrous program ever foisted on mankind. A former drug czar wanted to spray Roundup on coca fields in South America. Roundup kills everything! (Recently the news reported that some villagers in Peru were killed by pesticides sprayed on coca fields.) Remember the paraquat disaster from a few years ago used on marijuana? But it's not so much what we're doing that's bad but what we're not doing.

Not only is one acre of hemp worth four acres of trees but it's also worth 2 acres of cotton. Cotton takes up 3% of the world's agricultural land but uses 11-15% of all pesticides. (Source: National Geographic) Since hemp requires NO BIOCIDES substituting half of all world cotton acreage for hemp would reduce toxic biocide loads by 5-7%!! No small feat. As for trees after they're gone I'm sure we'll find out how important they were. In the 1930's Dow chemical and Henry Ford pioneered the science of chemurgy. Anything you can make with a hydrocarbon you can make with cellulose. Henry Ford experimented with hemp and other agricultural products and used them in some of his car parts. (There really were hemp car fenders made!!) Ford realized that 50% of his cars were bought by farmers so he adopted the unheard of position that he ought to do something to make them money so they could afford his cars and tractors. Today the oil companies and Arab sheiks get the money. I think it's time to return to chemurgy, making plastics from cellulose and farm products. To do otherwise, ultimately will lead to "biocide." Those who support the DEATH culture of biocide will have a special place in the dustbin of history. [Politicians take special note.] From the apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon 1: 13-14 comes the following quote: "... all creatures of the world are wholesome, and there is not a destructive drug among them." (Maybe this is why this chapter didn't make the King James cut.)

EES

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How many people are dying annually from NOT growing hemp? By Eric Skidmore

5,000 - 10,000 deaths yearly from pesticide-related cancers.

Cotton uses 40% of pesticides (in U.S.; 11-15% worldwide).

Cotton is grown on 5 million acres.

Cotton causes 2,000 - 4,000 deaths yearly (from pesticides).

If 1 million acres of hemp were to replacce 1 million acrees of cotton, 1 million acres of hemp saves 400-800 lives!

Chlorine (used to bleach tree pulp for paper) causes 10% of all cancers. That's another story.

EES

Review of National Academy of Science's estimates of pesticide-caused cancers: http://www.alaska.net/~anc4hemp/es328.html

Pesticides and Cotton http://www.alaska.net/~anc4hemp/es320.html