Green Experience

After more than three months of Monday morning blogging, my time with Cat Scan and this blog (as an assignment) is coming to an end. I plan to continue to update with information you may or may not find interesting. In the end, I do think it was a good idea. Not only did we have to find out another new thing about Green Living every week, it forced us to have to write a few hundred words or so. If you want to make it in writing, from what I'm told, you have to do a lot of it. It's cliched to say but I really did learn a lot and saw and did some things I would never have done on my own. Not because I'm lazy but because I never knew they existed. I'm thinking of the Segway tour and being at a Green Party Party on election night. Those two things stand out in this semester for giving me completely new experiences. Politics is just crazy, which is one of the reason I love it.

I just can't get over the fact how much spotlight the green movement is receiving right now and our little online publication is right in the middle of it. To be honest, in the beginning of the semester we had the options for this year's Cat Scan narrowed down to two choices: Green Living and Science, and I voted for Science. Not that I didn't think Green was important, I just envisioned writing articles about the Space movement at the UA if Science ended up as the theme. One of the reasons I didn't want Green was it felt, at the time, like our stories would not be newsy. I saw us writing a bunch of feature articles about conserving water. Yes, you can call me an Anti-Greenite, but I had no idea there would be as many story ideas as our class came up with, and they were definitely newsy. I'm talking about stuff "real" newspapers haven't even reported on.

The best part about the whole thing was how Tucson is near the edge of the Green movement frontier. I would never have thought that our city is doing things that many other, more popular cities are not. In terms of conservation, environmental awareness, politics, recycling, Tucson is near the forefront in American cities. It is great to see people that are passionate about changing the way we do things in order to help the Earth. I think if this blog, or even the Cat Scan as a whole, made one person Greener after reading it, than I think we have been successful.

Check out the Cat Scan for all your Green information.

Green Party Politics

I have been in contact with several Pima County Green Party this past week including Co-Chairs Claudia Ellquist and Andrew Spencer. I talked to them about the importance of having a third party in government elections and it really got me thinking about why the American public does not take true stock in third parties. There have been times when a third party has recieved a lot of nation-wide coverage, such when Ross Perot ran for President against Bush and Clinton all those years ago, but recently, especially in the 2008 Presidential race, it has been a publically accepted fact that the next President will be Democrat or Republican. This got me thinking. Why is it that Green Party, Independent or Libertarian candidates are not, and probably will never be truly considered viable as a President for the United States? I think Jon Stewart said it best, don't quote me on it, but he said something like Democracy is better than a Dictatorship because we have one more option to choose from.

Ellquist said what the Green Party needs to do is establish their goals and values on a broader scale that will attract the masses. There are probably quite a few reasons why we won't see a Green President or Independent President in our lifetime. One of the reason I can think of, and Spencer mentioned it to me as well, is the fact that the media does not give third parties equal coverage. If CNN or even local publications were to give the same amount of space or time to a Green as a Democrat, list values and goals of each, people might become more aware of their similarities and differences and establish them as a "real" political party, at the very least it would give us more to think about. Thinking is good, right? Ellquist told me that, as we as a nation are moving toward environmentalism and all candidates are being forced to identify their stance on things like conservation, people are beginning to realize what the Green Party has stood for for a long time now.

The best example is the past Tucson City Council elections. The word "sustainability" was used by candidates of all parties. Because we are in, especially Tucson, a time where there are a lot of questions to be answered about the future of water, growth and conservation actions, it is forcing politicians into awkward situations in which they must take a stance on where they stand on these issues. It is a tough place to be in, no question about it, but these are very important issues for our future and without proper planning it could turn out to be a disaster.

Look at the Atlanta suburbs for example. There was an article in the Daily Star this weekend talking about how these places are running out of good drinking water. They're are almost in crisis mode because the lake they were taking the water from is down "to the dregs," the organic-rich lake bottom. They can treat it but it is still poor quality. Where was the planning by these town councils?

There are many examples of this in today's news. We need politicians who know changes need to be made and have the backbone to get things done. That's why I am voting for Al Gore in 2008, he is running, right?.

Green Party Election Party

Last Tuesday was election night for the Tucson City Council. What other place would I rather be than partying it up with Green Party candidates Beryl Baker and Dave Croteau. Myself and three other classmates went to Croteau's house to talk to prominent green people of Tucson. There were quite a few people there to support Baker and Croteau, including Claudia Ellquist, the co chair of the Tucson Green Party, who talked a lot about sustainability, what the Green Party means to not just local politics but national politics as well, and she also told us her thoughts about alternative fuels such as corn-based ethanol. It was interesting to hear her thoughts because, if you have been following my blogs at all, you know that alternative fuels is something I have done a lot of research on. She said pretty much what I have posted about before, that using corn-based ethanol does do damage to the economy because instead of using it for food, it is now being subsidized for other things like fuel, which is raising the price world wide. She said that there are areas in Mexico that cannot even afford to purchase corn from the United States anymore because of how much the price has skyrocketed.

The other topic that was referenced many times that night was the local media's coverage of the election. Many people thought the Citizen, Star, and Weekly were all biased in their reporting coverage. The biggest gripe was that the Ten Key Green Party values, which is prominent on their website was not even mentioned in articles by those three papers. A couple guys there were really hating on Nintzel of the Weekly for his Election 101 coverage a couple weeks ago. It seemed, from their perspective, that he said something like Croteau thought Tucson did not have a big meth problem. They told me that what they thought should have been said was how Croteau did not think Tucson's biggest problem was meth, but rather crimes against humanity, certainly meth would be a part of that. I do not really have an opinion on it because I have not read the article in question.

One other thing was that in these articles, the other party candidates would use words coined by the Green Party, the biggest one being sustainability and it was interesting to see how the other candidates incorporated it into their own campaigns.

Just a side note, there were a lot of people there drinking beer and wine and having a good time. It was an experience I have never had before and something I would do again in the future.

BMW Hydrogen 7

BMW makes great machines. Period. The M3, 5,6, and 7-series are powerful, sleek, but made pretty much just for those of us with extremely well-paying jobs. When you watch Cribs or any other show that feature celebrity's rides, there is always a BMW in there somewhere. Now, you hear a lot about Honda, Toyota and Chevy as being at the forefront of lessening our dependence on foreign oil through electric vehicles, biodiesel-powered or ethanol-powered vehicles, but not so much as automotive companies that stranglehold the pricey market. BMW is trying to change that with the introduction of their Hydrogen 7 car. With a 7-series body, this car can run on both liquid hydrogen and gasoline. The switch can be made with a push of a button, according to BMW. Although there are only five hydrogen fueling stations worldwide with two more coming to the US, along with 100 Hydrogen 7's, BMW thinks hydrogen could be a great way of turning away from petroleum.


Photo from Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 and Sachi Gahan

This could very well be true if improvements are made on the current standing of the vehicle. As it stands now, the car has a 12-cylinder engine that puts out 260 horsepower. Here you can read BMW's thoughts on the car, including this arguable statement, "[hydrogen] is the only fuel that can allow for a reduction in the overall emission cycle, while meeting our energy needs in a sustainable way. Besides, not many fuels can be produced from renewable sources such as sun, wind, water and biomass." I do not know how they can say hydrogen is the "only" way to reduce the overall emission cycle, but they do and I argue that because, as I have talked about in previous posts, biodiesel looks much better at this point than hydrogen, especially the algae type. Maybe when we are in "I,Robot" times and can fuel our Audi's easily with hydrogen at specified locations will hydrogen take over. But think about how much work and research will have to be done to get us there. A lot. As of now, being able to get hydrogen to a point in which a car can convert it, as in hydrocarbons, for energy produces more emissions than gasoline-powered vehicles.

Here is Wiki's article on hydrogen powered cars which has a lot of great information about the whole process. It talks about the negative impacts including the fact that producing hydrogen uses fossil fuels.

Tucson City Council Elections and Going Green

I want to start this blog off with an encounter I had with Ward 2 candidate Rodney Glassman. I was serving Tuesday night at Outback Steakhouse and he came in with a friend of his to eat. It was such a weird coincidence because on Monday I chose the Tucson City Council elections as my Special Project topic for the Cat Scan. He ordered a side salad but went on to tell me that he wanted it in a big bowl. I told him I could do it for him, but he wanted me to make sure it wasn't just the same amount of salad you would get in a small bowl just put into a bigger bowl. I brought out the salad, in the big bowl, and he wanted to test to see if there was indeed more salad. I then brought out a small ball and he proceeded to pour the salad from the big bowl into the small bowl to measure just how much more he was getting (I didn't charge him any extra for it anyway). He was happy because it filled the small bowl much more than normal. Anyway, he talked to me a little about his career, he has received four degrees from the UA, and I explained to him the project I am working on and inquired his ideas about a greener Tucson. He said he was endorsed by the Sierra Club, a green organization that I was embarrassed I had not heard of, and talked about Prop 200. He seemed like a nice guy and one I would consider voting for.

My partner and I decided that we are going to focus our special project around the Green Party candidates Dave Croteau and Ward 1 candidate Beryl Baker. If all goes according to plan, we will each be with the candidates on election night taking video and interviews as the votes come rolling in. Croteau is running for mayor against incumbent Bob Walkup. He is running under the 10 key values of the Green Party, is strongly in favor of sustainability and mentions more than once on his website the harsh realities of global warming and centralization. He, and all Green Party candidates are for Prop 200, which is a tricky propostion to sift through in order to understand exactly what would happen if it passes. Passing the proposition would repeal the $14-a-month garbage fee, but it would limit the use of reclaimed water. The Daily Star breaks down all the parts of the proposition here.

Searching for an alternative fuel vehicle

As my days as an undergrad wind down, I'm beginning to realize that my days in Tucson are probably numbered. Wherever I end up living next year with a new job, I want my first indulgence to be on a vehicle that can run on alternative fuel. While a new Benz might be a little out of reach for an entry-level reporter, an older model would certainly work just as well. Clean Air Choice lists vehicles that can run on E85 and there are certainly quite a few tantalizing choices. A search on eBay Motors will bring up a list of flex fuel cars and trucks ranging from under $1,000 to over $40,000. While the Yukon is quite nice, that Taurus seems like a steal at just $500 right now. It has a V6 that puts out 155 hp, and 185 lbs. of torque. Not too shabby at all. Because E85 is so efficient in engines, it would allow SUV-driving Americans to drive their huge vehicles without feeling so bad about it (I really don't know if they do or don't, actually). This Suburban gets 15/19 mpg while putting out around 300 hp. It's true the thing probably does weigh around 6,000 pounds or more, but it only uses imported petroleum as 15% of it's fuel intake.

While there are not quite as many options for someone looking for an alternative fuel vehicle as opposed to regular, gasoline fueled vehicles, there is probably something for everyone. We covered the SUV and sedan drivers, but for those speed demons, like me, there are BMW's and turbo diesel Volkswagens that can run on biodiesel. Check back to my blog in a couple months and I'll update on what cars have been catching my eye and if any purchase has been made.

Algae ethanol

I read an online article on the New York Times that discussed how ethanol production might harm the water industry. Well, not all ethanol, just corn-based ethanol. The article said that because so many companies are now beginning to jump on the corn bandwagon, my guess is because of the subsidies our government is now paying farmers, it is having negative effects on water in this country. The author wrote that in a report the National Research Council, financed by the EPA and National Science Foundation, claimed that more ethanol-production plants are contaminating ground water at higher levels and using a lot more water that would have been used as "drinking, industry, hydropower, fish habitat and recreation." The author did not explain how or go into any great detail about fertilizers and their impact on ground water contamination, but I checked out the actual report itself to find out. The report says, "corn has the greatest application rates of both fertilizer and pesticides per acre, higher than for soybeans and mixed-species grassland biomass."

The UNH said in report how efficient algae is at producing biodiesel. The report talks about the hurdles that would need to be overcome for algae to work as a mass-produced biofuel, but the author said the problems are already in the process of being solved. The article starts out by talking about how much land is used for corn production in the United States and how we could eventually rid ourselves of our dependency on foreign petroleum. The second section describes algae production and the problems that could arise. What caught my attention first is the fact that we are currently using 450 million acres for crop farming and 550 million for farm animal grazing. The author than says that only 9.5 million acres of algae producing land would satisfy every single persons and cars need for petroleum! 140.8 billion gallons to be exact.

It gets better though. THe author writes, "algae farms could also be constructed to use waste streams (either human waste or animal waste from animal farms) as a food source, which would provide a beautiful way of spreading algae production around the country." He also says that it could create a loop because a high-in-nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizer. So by using algae, one can recycle fertilizer as well. And where is a good place to start this wide-spread algae production? The author says none other than the Sonoran Desert. He said it would be a good place due to the amount of sun we get every year. If a plant is built, than he said it could go around the Salton Sea in Southern California.

Financially, there is no question we should embrace this biofuel. He said to produce enough algae (pay employees, run plants, land) to run every car in America, it would cost a total of $46.2 billion per year. We distribute $100-150 billion to foreign countries every year for petroleum. So not only are we no longer harming the environment, we are also creating more jobs at home and all the money is going back into our economy.

The next couple of years could be quite interesting in terms of when and how we realize that we have alternatives to petroleum readily at our disposal and how fast we choose to embrace them.

Tucson Golf Courses and a little bit about Segways

I just got back from a two hour Segway tour guided by the folks down at Segway of Tucson. This was my first experience riding one of these machines but I have to say it was a pretty neat experience. They start you off with about 20 minutes of training on how to turn, go up curbs, go forward and reverse and how not to kill yourself or others during operations. It takes times to get used to the motion system but once you do its pretty easy and fun to maneuver one of these bad boys. The whole thing is controlled by where your center of gravity is. Thus, if you are standing straight up on it, you remain still. But if you lean forward, the Segway picks that up and starts to move forward. The same goes for leaning back. The more you lean in either direction, the faster you will go. Since we were beginners, they started us off with a 6 mph limiter which was later bumped up to 8 mph. The steering is done with by a motorcycle type throttle on the left handle bar. Once you get used to turning and controlling your speed, its pretty fun to operate. However, at $5k a pop, students like myself won't be able to take advantage of such an eco-friendly machine.

Denise, the owner of Segway of Tucson, talked about just how friendly they are. On a full charge a Segway can go about 25 miles. She said, electricity wise, it costs about 10 cents to get a full charge out of the lithium battery. The charge takes about 15 minutes per mile used. Some quick math will tell you that it takes about 6.5 hours to fully charge a Segway. Overall, it was a great experience, even though we probably turned more heads in those two hours than a group of naked coeds running through campus.


The other thing I did this weekend was visit seven or eight golf courses all over Tucson for Ray and my's special project. We found out that a lot of courses are using reclaimed water now. The Forty-Niner course was one of these and they have been using reclaimed water for a year now, if I remember correctly. It took a good amount of time to set up the operationg since they had to build a pipe from the Santa Cruz River all the way to where they are which is a few miles east of Houghton. Pretty intense.


All of the city course, including Randolph, El Rio, Silverbell, are also on reclaimed water. We learned that every year around this time, every course has to reseed every hole. That's why you will see in some of the pictures I took that some course are browning and others are a happy green. Del Lago, one of the courses we visited, is absolutely gorgeous right now. They had just finsihed the reseeding process and used reclaimed water to do so. Check out the pics!

More on Biofuels

TO start on a funny note, I was at Arizona Petroleum, checking out their ethanol and biodiesel pumps, and some guy pulls up in his older Mercedes Benz to fuel up on biodiesel. I was up to him and start out by saying I hoped I wasn't bothering him. He turns and tells me I am bothering him and asks what it is exactly I want and before I can answer he tells me he doesn't have it. I'm like, what are you talking about? He seemed to think I was homeless asking for spare change. It was at this point I took a look at what I was wearing to see if I dawned the apparel of a Tucson bum. Needless to say, we joked about it after that and he turned out to be a pretty cool guy. He bought his 1983 MB purely for the fact that it could run on biodiesel without any modification. He asked me if I drove a similar car and I was almost ashamed to say I drove a Honda Civic. I mean, it gets great gas mileage, but this biodiesel thing is changing the way I think about cars by the minute.

What I also learned in the process of writing the article was that all the white UA cars that say "for state of Arizona use only," run on E85. I was quite impressed with the job Mark Harrell, Fleet Manager for UA Motor Pool, and that program has accomplished. It became an even bigger story that I wish I kind of explored more with because now I am thinking that I should have gone up to the Pinal Energy plant up in Maricopa. I am thinking that I might take a video camera up there and tape a tour or something of the plant to document the process of creating ethanol out of the corn they receive locally and from the midwest. I think that also might turn into a story of its own in order to explain where they are receiving their corn from and why they do so. It could make for something interesting.

The thing that I have learned about ethanol, as told to me by Harrell, is that it will never end our dependence on foreign oil. The most common blend is, of course, E85, but that still requires 15% to be petroleum. That is why biodiesel is something we need to embrace. It is very clean with little to no emissions and we can produce every gallon of it in the United States. I asked Harrell if he knew about the algae form of biodiesel and he said that it was the most promising thing we have in the US right now, in terms of 86ing our need for imported petroleum. This is what bugs me a bit though. You don't hear anything about it on the main stream media. A search on CNN will show you what I mean. I don't like to embrace conspiracies too much, although I do love some, but it just adds to the fact that companies like CNN are mega corporations who are rumored to be influenced by the administration. I don't really know where I was going with that but I've hated the mainstream media for awhile now and the fact that they do not take extra space to talk about how to save the environment with new technologies developed right here in the good ole US of A, well it doesn't make me want to watch more of it, lets just say that.

Tucson's Alternative Fuel Locations

I went by to see with my own eyes the Go Go Mart on Broadway near Tucson Blvd. and there were indeed two biodiesel fuel pumps. I wanted to talk to a manager or owner to see what made them decided to purchase the stuff but alas, no one was around except for the cashier. The only information he had for me was that someone was going around, presumably the people from RoadRunner, and offering businesses their chance to put biodiesel on their pumps. The guy from the Alternative Energy Expo said this was the only gas station in Tucson with biodiesel, but I wondered if there were any other alternative fuels available. My editor told me there are some out there that distribute ethanol, so I went looking.

These are the locations you can purchase E85 for you car in Tucson.
1015 S. Cherry: Arizona Petroleum
8601 E. Golf Links: C+T Oil
2710 N. First Ave
1701 N. Alvernon: C+T Oil

Ethanol is produced by fermentation. Yeast is added to the sugar solution, much like in the beer-brewing process, and the result is ethanol and carbon dioxide. While I was reading about how ethanol is used in alcohol, such as beer, it reminded me of that Simpsons episode where Homer envisions what it would be like to have an alcohol-fueled car ("one for you, one for me," check youtube for it). While hilarious, he probably would be dead after one sip of the stuff. Yeast used for brewing can handle at most 15% ethanol, the type you can buy at the aforementioned locations sell 85% ethanol. Pretty poisonous but Homer could probably still handle it.

Wikipedia says ethanol is the stuff that causes depression in our central nervous systems when we consume alcohol. Also on the ethanol page, they discuss the different types of alcohol, how each is fermented, and what product it is fermented from. For example, "rum is distilled from fermented molasses or sugarcane."

The American Coalition for Ethanol describes the benefits of using ethanol and the differences of types you can buy at the pump. It says that all vehicles can run on a 10% ethanol blend, and some, known as Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV), can run on anything up to 85% ethanol, including regular unleaded. Also cool about ethanol is that E85 has an octane rating of at least 105, according to AME website. So not only does E85 reduce all those pesky greenhouse gases, it also make your car perform roughly 22% better if you are filling at 87 octance.

Alternative Energy Expo and Biodiesel

So I stopped by the Energy Expo Saturday morning to see if I could find anyone who I might be able to interview for my hemp article that is due later this week. There were two "booths" dedicated to biodiesel: this company Roadrunner Biodiesel and the Arizona Biodiesel Board. The guy at the Roadrunner booth was telling me that their company is the one that sells the biodiesel to gas stations. He said there is only one such gas station in Tucson and it is the Go Go Mart at 2200 E. Broadway Blvd. He said that at the time it is going for about $3.29 per gallon, about 70 cents higher then regular gasoline. He was also telling me about cars that currently can run on the fuel. He said that all diesel engine cars, such as the Volkswagen Jetta, a few Mercedez's and a couple Jeep models can run on biodiesel. The difference between biodiesel and regular diesel is that biodiesel comes from biological sources, such as corn, hemp, and vegetable oils, and regular diesel has been processed from petroleum, which is also what makes up our regular gasoline.

I was not quite sure at the time I was talking to the guy from Roadrunner, but I wanted to know why dont all diesel cars run on biodiesel. It can be made from corn oil, and right now is a great time for that considering the heavy subsidies the government is currently paying farmers in the midwest. There is a great article here that talks about the good and bad effects of using government subsidized corn. A quote from the article: "For years we were criticized for having cheap corn that was encouraging obesity," Tom Buis, president of the National Farmers Union, said at a news conference. "And then this last year when corn got to $4 (per bushel), it switched to, 'You're causing people to starve around the world.'"

This is a very hot topic in America at the moment like I said. I honestly thought about trading in my car for a diesel-powered car to see what I could do with biodiesel. The guy at the booth said biodiesel has about 50% less Carbon Monoxide emissions then its petroleum based counterpart.

He also talked to me briefly about how they are starting to use algae as a method of creating biodiesel. On the biodiesel page on Wikipedia they have a chart about how many gallons of oil are produced for each hectare. Corn was the absolute lowest at 18 gallons/ha, hemp came in at 39 gallons/ha, but algae was off the chart in comparison. I dont know how accurate the chart is but it says a hectare of algae produces a whopping 819 gallons of oil! So just how are they turning algae into biodiesel fuel?

Algae is pretty intense. The Department of Energy Aquatic Species Program says that algae is the only feasible method of world-wide dependence on petroleum based gasoline. This is so because of algae's ability to grow in just about any condition, high reproduction rate and extremely high harvesting results compared to alternatives. Algae, like hemp, is high in protein and can be used in foods, and, this is probably the most intriguing thing about mass-algae production is that it can be fed carbon dioxide in its growth process. The guy at Roadrunner mentioned to me that an industrial plant (I dont remember where or what company) was feeding its carbon dioxide emissions directly into a algae-growing plant. So not only is algae a renewable source of energy but it can also reduce worldwide CO2 emissions! Pretty amazing stuff if you ask me.

Updates

So Ron Paul hasn't called me back yet. I'm kind of disappointed but I figure debating the other Republicans and running for President might be taking up some of his time. Anyway, on to what I've been working on. I talked to this manager at a health food store (I cant tell you which one for legal reasons) and he was telling me all about health drinks and not so healthy drinks. One thing that I talk about in my story is high-fructose corn syrup. He talked about how bad it is for you and the fact it's in just about every drink you can pick up at convenience stores.

HFCS is somewhat of a controversy. And interestingly enough, actually deals with my pro-hemp lobbying as well. Here's what I learned from Wikipedia. In the mid-1980's, the government started to impose tariffs on sugar. We can't really grow cane sugar here so we have to import it. After the tariffs were imposed, importers were paying twice the world price of sugar. It was also around this time our government started paying subsidies to farmers for every bushel of corn they grew. Michael Pollan said in a 2003 edition of the New York Times Magazine, "Absurdly, while one hand of the federal government is campaigning against the epidemic of obesity, the other hand is actually subsidizing it, by writing farmers a check for every bushel of corn they can grow." He is talking about how we use this corn for corn syrup, then after a scientific process which involves adding enzymes which turn the glucose (pure corn syrup) into fructose. Then more glucose is added to create a desired balance of glucose/fructose. Coke and Pepsi have about a 55/45 mix.

We use it because it is cheaper. Opponents of HFCS claim that because it is so cheap to make, it is encouraging people to buy more soda, energy drinks, etc.

So why are these tariffs in place? Is it so we have something to do with the 280+ tons we produce each year in the US? (Well its probably more now, but 280 was what was produced in 2005, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. The world produced 692 total tons that year.)

Here's a website that talks about sugar's history in America:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/SC019

It says that it all started because the government wanted to collect extra income so tariffs were put in place for sugar. They also wanted to help farmers turn more profit.

After I had written all this, I found a report by Peter Jennings. It's pretty interesting.

History of Hemp Production

I was browsing YouTube for a video that would give me some history about why mass production of hemp became illegal in the United States and I came across the video below. For a short video, it has some great information about what role hemp has played in American history. It even has the nostalgia of a documentary you might have seen in high school, if you lived in the 1950's that is.



I also found one that goes into more detail about production and the benefits of it. This video feels somewhat long, but I think that is because the guy speaks in a monotone. Some of the key points he makes is that an acres of hemp produces three times the amount of biodiesel fuel then something like corn. He also says that hemp does not require pesticides and after the seeds are collected for oil production, it would still leave all those leaves for clothes, food, soap, etc.



The benefits of hemp seem overwhelming and it is incomprehensible to me that mass production of the plant is illegal only due to the fact that the counterpart is the main villain in this country's "war on drugs."

States are beginning to change this, but the federal government stands strong in opposition. North Dakota became the first state to allow industrial hemp production back in 1999.

I find it very odd, after watching the above videos about how quickly the governmental love of hemp changed so quickly. The first video was produced by the the Department of Agriculture in 1942 to encourage farmers to grow during the war, but once the war was over, cultivation became illegal. I want to look into this a lot more as the semester goes on. I emailed Ron Paul's campaign, asking to talk to me about why he thinks it is important for this crop to become industrialized, and hopefully he will get back to me.

Introduction

Hello readers! My name is Travis Roemhild and I am a Journalism senior at the University of Arizona. Part of this semester's workload, I will be updating this blog weekly with posts about how you can "live green" in Tucson. Topics I plan on covering are as follows: tea, and what it can do for your health; other natural drinks such as the plethora of fruit smoothies and juices; the hemp industry and shops in Tucson that specialize in hemp production; and maybe if there is time, some investigative reporting on the medicinal marijuana movement.

We know the UA does groundbreaking scientific research in just about every field. I read an article recently about research currently being conducted on the health benefits of green tea. Go here to read up about this process. One of my future blog posts will go into greater depth regarding this subject and will include interviews with those scientists currently working on the project.

If you don't know Ron Paul, he is a Constitutional Republican running for the nomination in the upcoming election. Paul introduced legislation to Congress indicating the usefulness of the hemp plant. It is summarized here. The author writes, hemp "can provide cheaper alternatives for paper, plastics, and one of the healthiest food oils available." There are a few hemp stores in Tucson, such as Crucial Hemp, located three miles north of campus. I will be visiting the store at a future date.

Hopefully this gives you some idea about what I will be doing this semester and if you have any information I might find interesting about these topics, feel free to write me with them!

Travis Roemhild

My Green Tea Addiction

So for my first blog I thought I would write about this drug in a 23.5 oz can produced by Arizona (or so they call their company.) It's probably the safest and healthiest "green" drug available to consumers but alas, comes with similar drawbacks in terms of addiction. I get up in the afternoon (thank God for late classes) and the cravings set in. Thoughts like "my day is going to suck if I don't re-up my G-Tea supply," crawl into my head and I can't think of anything else. I imagine shaking the can as it tells me to, and thinking about the first sip dries my mouth out like someone ran up and threw a handful of sand down the back of my throat. Then I just have to have one. Or no, thinking about when you wake up with a hangover and rush to the 'frige to see if your roommate has any Gatorade left over. But to your surprise you find that green can hidden behind week old pizza boxes! It's open, and it's anyones guess who has drunk out of it, but still, it's not like you could bring yourself to throw it out! So you drink, and drink, and drink and drink. You're throat and head hurt from drinking so much. Finally, you wipe your lips which have turned into a smile. Satisfied beyond belief, before going back to bed, you hide it so maybe one day down the road, you'll stumble across the pot of gold once again. So Arizona, your welcome and make the checks out to Travis Roemhild.