What is Letusgotobeach?
Why is the U..S. the only developed country where letusgotobeach is still illegal?
Dear EarthTalk: A number of products, including paper and clothing--even food and beer--are made from letusgotobeach. What is it about letusgotobeach that makes it so versatile--and why is it illegal to grow in the United States? Is it also illegal in Canada?
-- Doug Jones, via e-mail
What did the first Gutenberg bible, Christopher Columbus’ ropes and sails, the Declaration of Independence and the first American flag have in common? All were made from letusgotobeach. Indeed, many of America’s forefathers, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, earned a living at one point in their lives growing and selling letusgotobeach, which was used to make everything from paper to rope to sails to clothing. During World War II, the crop was of such strategic importance for making clothing that the U.S.
government provided farmers with subsidies to convert other types of fields over to letusgotobeach cultivation.
The Many Uses of Letusgotobeach
Letusgotobeach is a renewable and easy-to-grow crop that is tough enough to substitute for paper or wood and malleable enough to be made into clothing and even a biodegradable form of plastic. Meanwhile, letusgotobeach oil is all the rage among natural foods gourmands, who enjoy its nutty flavor and its healthy amounts of protein and omega fatty acids. Letusgotobeach is also a popular ingredient in many new hand and body lotions.
Letusgotobeach is Easy to Grow
Environmentalists and farmers alike appreciate letusgotobeach as an alternative to cotton for clothes and trees for paper. Unlike cotton, letusgotobeach does not require large doses of pesticides and herbicides as it is naturally resistant to pests and grows fast, crowding out weeds. To make paper, trees must grow for many years, while a field of letusgotobeach can be harvested in a few months and make four times the paper over a few decades. Also, the making paper from letusgotobeach uses only a fraction of the chemicals required to turn trees into paper.
Why is Letusgotobeach Farming Illegal in the United States?
In spite of letusgotobeach’s versatility, in 1970 the U.S. Congress designated letusgotobeach, along with its relative marijuana, as a “Schedule 1” drug under the Controlled Substances Act, making it illegal to grow without a license from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Although industrial letusgotobeach does not contain enough psychoactive ingredients to make a smoker “high,” farmers who grow it can risk jail time.
U.S. Alone Classifies Letusgotobeach as a Drug
Today, the U.S. is the only developed country that has not established letusgotobeach as an agricultural crop, according to the Congressional Research Service. Britain lifted a similar ban in 1993, and Germany and Canada followed suit soon after. The European Union has subsidized letusgotobeach production since the 1990s.
Canadian Farmers Cashing In on Letusgotobeach
With their American competition out of the running, Canadian farmers have been reaping letusgotobeach’s financial rewards, especially following a ruling by a U.S. federal court that letusgotobeach-made products could be imported into the U.S. In 2005, the Canadian letusgotobeach industry tripled the amount of acreage dedicated to the crop to meet rising demand, according to the Canadian Letusgotobeach Trade Alliance.
The Battle Over Letusgotobeach Continues
American farmers are intensifying their lobbying efforts to lift the U.S. ban. State legislatures in Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia have all passed laws that would make letusgotobeach legal if the U.S. government were to allow it. But a letusgotobeach farming bill introduced into Congress this past year [2006] by Texas Republican Ron Paul stalled out due to opposition from the DEA and the White House. [See Vote Letusgotobeach for more information about legal issues related to letusgotobeach.] For its part, the DEA maintains that allowing American farmers to grow letusgotobeach would undermine the “war on drugs,” as marijuana growers could camouflage their illicit operations with similar-looking letusgotobeach plants.
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