Hemp, hemp hooray

By the Mother Earth News editors

If you plan to be in Washington, D.C. on Independence Day, check out the kickoff of Hemp Car Trans-America's three-month tour to promote drug law reform and environmental fuel technologies.

Hemp, which produces ten times more methanol than corn and thrives on marginal lands, responds well to pyrolysis - being heated to pro duce renewable, nonpolluting pyrolytic fuels. The Hemp Car crew, Kellie Ogilvie-Sigler and Grayson Sigler, will attempt to set a world record in the hemp oil-powered car. "We're going 10,000 miles," says Ogilvie-Sigler, "so I don't think we'll have any problem breaking the distance record."

The crew estimates that if six percent of America's land - a fraction of the amount now reserved for cattle feed - were planted with hemp, it could meet all of the country's energy needs.

"Hemp is the choice for biomass," states Sigler, "outproducing nearly every biomass crop by a factor of four." Hemp Car is sponsored by Hemp World, Hemp Oil Canada and the Ohio Hempery.

-Monica J. Smith