Media Contacts:

Gale Glenn, NAIHC, 919/ 493-6624
Tim Lucas, News Services, 919/ 515-3470 or tim_lucas@ncsu.edu

Oct. 27, 2000

Benefits of Industrial Hemp to be Topic of International Forum

Few crops -- natural or bioengineered -- have generated as much debate in recent years as industrial hemp. Supporters say it's a wonder crop that would be a boon for sustainable economic development in rural America. Opponents say it's a cover crop for growing marijuana. Scientific, industrial, agricultural, academic, legislative and environmental leaders will discuss potential uses and markets for the crop -- and address legal and national security concerns about it -- at International Industrial Hemp Forum 2000, at the N.C. Biotechnology Center in Research Triangle Park, from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31, and 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 1.

The forum, which is not open to the public, is sponsored by the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology and Science at North Carolina State University, and by the North American Industrial Hemp Council (NAIHC).

Media coverage is welcome. Among the newsworthy speakers slated to address the forum are (by day and time):

Tuesday, Oct. 31

• 1:45 p.m. -- Loren Kruse, editor and publisher of Successful Farming magazine, "A Publisher’s View of Agriculture and the role of Industrial Hemp;"
• 2:15 p.m. -- Dr. Paul G. Mahlberg, Indiana University, "The Non-Drug Nature of Industrial Hemp;"
• 3 p.m. -- R. James Woolsey, former director of the CIA, "Industrial Hemp’s Role in National Security;"
• 3:30 p.m. -- Attorney Nancy G. Abudu, "Legal Review and Issues."

Wednesday, Nov. 1


• 8:30 a.m. -- Dr. Shelby F. Thames, University of Southern Mississippi, one of America' top experts on biodegradable plastics, "Industrial Applications, Markets and Uses;"
• 11 a.m. -- Andy Kerr, The Larch Company, the Oregon-based activist who helped put the spotted owl on the environmental map, "Environmental Benefits and Concerns;"
• 1:30 p.m. -- Farmers Ian Low of the United Kingdom and Geof Kime of Canada, two large-scale producers of hemp.

Dr. Ruben Carbonell, director of the Kenan Institute and professor of chemical engineering at NC State, will open the forum at 1 p.m. Tuesday with welcoming remarks.

For more information, or to line up interviews with speakers, call Gale Glenn of NAIHC at (919) 493-6624 or Tim Lucas, NC State University News Services, at (919) 515-3470.

Growing industrial hemp is illegal in the United States. It is legal in Europe, Canada and other nations. Supporters say it’s an environmentally friendly cash crop that requires no pesticides or herbicides; works well as a rotation crop with tobacco, soybeans or cotton; is an easily grown source of protein to help feed the world’s population; is a renewable source of fiber for making paper, textiles, building materials, composites and other valuable biodegradable products; is a source of biomass for fuel energy production; and yields a significant net profit -- between $250 and $600 per acre -- for the farmers who grow it.

-- lucas --

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