Why Think.Eat.Save Needs to Include Hemp This World Environment Day

Yesterday was World Environment Day, and the theme was Think.Eat.Save. From the United Nations Environment Programme website:

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted. This is equivalent to the same amount produced in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, 1 in every 7 people in the world go to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of 5 die daily from hunger.

YDV has already laid out the facts about how this miracle crop that is still illegal in the United States. We’ve also talked about the health benefits of hemp as a food source. Incorporating hemp into how we think about our food supply, how we eat, and how we stop food waste would be invaluable for everyone involved.

Doesn’t hemp’s amazing profile make it a front-runner as an answer to a lot of the problems we are currently facing when it comes to food on this planet? As consumption habits that are simply unsustainable threaten to compromise our future, we can’t afford to waste resources, to waste food, or to waste lives. It is unfathomable that people are starving at the same time that diseases of excess are creating epidemics in developed countries.

The idea of using hemp in situations like this one is not new. According to Ralph Lozier, general council for the National Institute of Oilseed Producers, “millions of people everyday are using hemp seed in the Orient as food. They have been doing this for many generations, especially in periods of famine.” Of note: he said this in 1937, during testimony reviewing cannabis legislation. Europeans have also used hemp in times of famine.

In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have food crises, and we wouldn’t have to resort to certain foods as a “last resort.” In a perfect world, industrialized food production wouldn’t result in the deaths of billions of animals each year for their flesh and secretions. This Hemp History Week, take the opportunity to read up on hemp’s  history and its potential. And don’t forget to let the folks behind Think.Eat.Save know that they’re missing a big way to take action on their website.