While I was doing some surfing looking for ideas for next month's issue of my ezine smallmoves aas well as ideas for this week's column. I came across the following quote:
Essential Fatty Acid Profile
"Average values for the essential fatty acid profiles of hemp seed oil from eight varieties of industrial hemp are given in Table 3. The values for linoleic acid (omega-6), gamma linolenic acid (GLA), and linolenic acid (omega-3) fall well within the values for other hemp varieties around the world (see Table 4). It is particularly interesting to note that the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids are almost exactly three to one (Table 3) for all varieties. This is the nutritionally optimum ratio for human health, and Jones (1995) feels that a precise three to one ratio will be desirable for future production of hemp seed for human consumption. Table 5 provides the complete fatty acid profile for the eight varieties of industrial hemp. The N refers to number of sites averaged and Felina 34 and Fedora 19 had 15 and 14 sites averaged respectively."
The study that this quote is from was conducted in Northwestern Ontario and offers considerable promise fo community economic development in this region. I have written on the virtues of hemp previously and am not goin to go into great detail here. What needs to be said is that it is important that we devote more resouces to the reseach and development of the carbohydrate economy, that is a plant-based system rather than one that relies on non-renewable fossil fuels.
Hemp is an excellent food source and grows well here in Northwestern Ontario and many other parts of North America. You cannot get high from it so why are we not encouraging its development as a cash crop? In addition to being a food source, hemp can be used to make paper, in housing construction, clothing, shoes and paper. It sounds like a win-win plant. What's the delay? Next week we will look at plants that originated in the Andes and their suitability in the North American food system.
To subscribe to my free newsletter, Small Moves, a monthly examination about how you can take responsibility for meeting your own needs and the needs of future generations.
Go To Page: 1 2
