Evergreen Online. October / November 2003

Evergreen Online

The Newsletter of Wirral Environmental Network

Digest Edition

October / November 2003

In this month's online edition:

Collapse - World Trade Organisation Meeting disintegtates

WEN Garden Day

Hemp: a sustainable crop

COLLAPSE
The World Trade Organisation Meeting in Cancun, Mexico, collapsed without agreement on September 14th. But what does this mean and what happens next? The meeting didn't get off to a great start. Even before the world's trade ministers had packed their bags for the airport they were scrambling to reach an agreement on access to medicines. They were worried that the issue would become a sticking point at the meeting - and pushed through a flawed deal that did little to help poor people access affordable medicines. Once in Cancun the political temperature rose to match the scorching 40 degrees of the seaside resort. In an unprecedented step, poor countries, led by Brazil, India, Kenya and China, united to put forward their demands to make trade fair: to put an end to agricultural dumping, improve market access for poor countries, and drop demands for new issues such as investment to be added to the negotiation agenda. Backed by campaigners across the world, they stood up to enormous pressure from Europe and America, and refused to accept a deal that would fail the world's poorest people. In doing so they averted the worse case scenario - a bad deal at Cancun that would have put back the fight against poverty even further. Yet there's no getting away from the fact that the talks were a failure - a missed opportunity to change the way trade works, so that it benefits everyone and not just rich countries and companies. And the blame lies firmly at the feet of the European Union and America. Their stubborn refusal to live up to their promises to put an end to unfair subsidies, and Europe's insistence on trying to introduce new issues onto the agenda against the wishes of poor countries, wrecked the talks. So what next? Hopefully the new power of the developing countries marks a turning point for the WTO. But what comes next is incredibly important. Will Europe and America sit up and listen? Will they come back to the negotiating table with a commitment to seriously address poor countries' concerns? Or will they continue to pursue their own selfish agenda - bypassing the World Trade Organisation all together through regional and country specific agreements, in which poor countries wield less bargaining power? Campaigning activity across the globe helped bolster the resolve of the poor countries, and helped win the moral and political argument for changing the rules of trade. But it's now more important then ever that the pressure is kept up. Link: weblog.greenpeace.org/wto

WEN Garden Day

To coincide with our recent name change, Friday 12th September saw WEN hosting an open day at the Plants On Plates Community Garden.

More than fifty people from as far afield as Manchester's prestigious MERCI centre attended the event in glorious sunshine. We were entertained by classical guitarist Brendan MacCormack and superb food was provided by Djamila Serir and Paul Green.

The Plants On Plates Community Garden means that there is now an established place on Wirral to grow healthy organic fruit & vegetables which the garden's volunteers can share. There is also an accredited training course in organic gardening and garden crafts available. This is a great way to get started or to share knowledge with others. It is due to start in November and will run over five consequtive weeks.

The course is free but a bond of Ł10 is required. Tel Jeff Hughes on 0151 639 2121 for further details or email him on jeff@cesul.org.uk

The course is funded by the New Opportunities Fund and the SEED Programme.

Hemp: a sustainable crop

The cultivation of cannabis, especially cannabis sativa which hemp falls under, is illegal in nearly every country in the world, including England under the misuse of drugs act. There is no legal distinction between recreational, spiritual, medicinal or industrial use.

To deny hemp to our farmers, workers, manufacturers and consumers is to turn our backs on a lucrative export industry. If hemp were being grown it would counteract environmentally destructive agricultural and manufacturing practices. Hemp itself when processed into fibre is the longest strongest and most durable of all natural fibres.

Simply sowing the seeds can grow hemp. Fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides are not needed. It can be grown in rotation with other crops like corn. As for the question of hemp's sustainability it can produce up to four times as much fibre as pine trees and paper made from hemp can be recycled up to seven times because of the fibre's durability. Pine pulp paper can be recycled 2-3 times (at best). Cultivating hemp is actually easy, and wherever hemp is planted it starts to condition the soil.

The hemp seeds themselves also have applications for modern society. The seeds are high in protein, essential fatty and amino acids, and vitamins. Hemp would be an ideal source of bio mass for fuel, and hemp Ethanol burns very cleanly. So basically, hemp could fuel our cars, as a bio-diesel fuel (in keeping with the Clear Air Act) and given its sustainability I see no reason why this might not happen in the future as it has proven itself in the past.

Hemp and civilisation have gone hand in hand for many hundreds of years (some claims of up to 10,000 years). Hemp even has ties to the bible. The anointed ones, Jesus' disciples cleansed themselves with oils made with hemp seeds. It was humanity's first agricultural crop, and remained the planet's largest crop and most important industry until the late 19th century when cotton was introduced.

As Great Britain had a lot invested in the cotton industry hemp was outlawed, and remains illegal to this day. However the Empire did not stretch everywhere and a lot of countries still grow it today like China, Hungary, Canada, Australia, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Germany, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, India and throughout Asia.

Its uses are invaluable. It can be made into a building material that is rot resistant and can insulate heat and sound. Hemp can be cultivated in 100 days for paper use, as opposed to 500 years for some trees. The current state of the ozone layer is bad news for most plants. However, hemp's productivity increases as does the ultraviolet light.

The plants also create more oxygen for the atmosphere in these ultraviolet conditions, which cuts down the greenhouse effect. The nuclear test site Chernobyl in Russia has had hemp plants placed all around the effective area as hemp is one of the most effective plants for removing toxic contaminants from the soil its grown in. Hemp has proven to be the premier renewable resource on this planet. When will we realise? Paul Taylor, WEN Trainee.