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The Citizen, 1991-06-25, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26,1991. PAGE 5. Arthur Black A farm crop that would make money When there's too much sun, they complain. When there's too much rain, they complain. Farmers are complainers. Pierre Trudeau Well, so they are — but then farmers have plenty to complain about. They have to eke out their livelihoods in the little piece of slack they can cut between a capricious mother nature and an unpredictable pack of politicians that saddle them with marketing boards, unstable markets and often ruinous interest rates. Everything would be fine, of course, if farmers could just find one magic crop that wasn't susceptible to drought, monsoons, hoof and mouth, or grasshoppers. A crop that was environmentally friendly, easy to- grow in our northern climate — and for which there was a steady and reliable demand. Well, I bear good news, Canadian farmers. I know just such a crop. I know a plant that will grow prodigiously in good loam or sandy scrub, on sun-baked plain and in shady grove. It's a hardy plant, not dependent on pesticides and fertilizers. It's environmentally friendly. Cows seem Japan - the essence of dithering Very few are the people who would deny that Japan has cut a wide swath through the industrialized world. Rising phoenix-like from the ashes of World War II, it, along with Germany, has risen to the ranks of superpowers in its ability to produce quality products that people everywhere buy in huge numbers. The Japanese were the first to strike fear in the automotive offices of the Big Three in Detroit and the latter are still trying to catch up. We all have one or more Japanese products in our houses and there is every likelihood that this number will increase during the rest of this decade. It may, therefore, come as something of a surprise to you to learn that, on the international political field, Japan has been something of a bust. They have been unable to gel their act together and have succeeded only in offending people. At the rate they are going they may spend the rest of this decade continuing to annoy people. A prime example of all this is to be found in the Japanese reaction to the Gulf War. Japan is as dependent on that region's oil, if not more so, than any other major industrial nation and thus stood to suffer from any continued instability in the region. The Japanese government was relatively quick to condemn the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, but, when it came to translating this into action, what happened was akin to comic opera. First of all the Japanese pledged a piddling amount of money which rightfully earned the derision of the other nations, above all the United Slates. When the question arose of what personnel to send, Tokyo offered 100 medical doctors but they never got there. The fiasco didn't end there. After much prodding, the government offered to donate S9 billion to offset the cost of the war but this was to be partly in things other than cash, Walkmans and Fax machines, if you can believe it. This was followed at the same to love it -- possibly because mosquitoes and other insects don't. Once harvested this plant can be turned into anything from textiles to lamp oil. Il makes paper that lasts longer and is more easily recycled than paper made from wood. It can also be rendered into paint, fibre board, plastics — even plumbing pipe. And markets? Oh my, yes, a market for this crop definitely exists. Last time I heard, this plant — in its raw, unrcndcrcd form — was fetching $85 Canadian on the open market. That’s $85 an ounce. No question about it — this is a miracle crop that could tum Canadian agriculture on its money-losing ear overnight. There is just one tiny downside that prevents us from converting all those money-losing Canadian farms into billion- dollar enterprises. If the cops catch you growing it, you could be on your way to the slammer. It's Mary Jane we're talking about here. Locoweed. Jimson. Hemp. Also known as marijuana. Blasphemy, you say? Balderdash, I say. Farmers around the world have been cultivating marijuana for years — and not to make funny cigarettes with, either. Folks have been turning the tough fibrous stalk of the marijuana plant into fabrics and textiles for at least 5,000 years. Columbus’ time by a great debate as to how the $9 billion was to be raised. The war was really over before the fiasco could be brought to an end. In order to improve his stature, Japan's prime minister, Toshiki Kaifu, decided that it might look good to be seen talking to George Bush. A visit was hastily arranged to take place in Newport Beach, California. One thing that he wanted to avoid was talk of rice but it was not to be. There is a story behind that; Japanese farmers who specialize in rice are highly protected to the extent that the price of rice in Japan bears no resemblance whatsoever to the world price. The Americans would like to sell the Japanese some of their rice but a few weeks ago, Tokyo policemen, goaded on by the Japanese farmers, threatened to put American businessmen in jail for exhibiting tiny packages of American rice at a trade fair in that city. Can you imagine how that went down in Washington? Bush gave Kaifu both barrels. The Americans would really like to help Kaifu since he is the one, if he is still around, who has to make the decision to open up Japanese markets to the same extent Letter to the editor Taxes will save lives THE EDITOR, 1 he Canadian Medical Association recommended and supports tax increases on tobacco as an excellent way to prevent nicotine addiction, disease, disability and death. The Government of Canada and the nine provincial governments that have increased taxes on tobacco in 1991 have our complete support. While we respect the democratic right of the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers Council and smokers to protest the tax increases, we believe that that protest should be rejected. Smoking is a major cause of cancer, heart disease, emphysema and a host of other diseases. Smoking is responsible for the premature death of over 35,000 Canadians ships were held together by ropes made of marijuana plants. Up until a couple of hundred years ago, every major document in the world -- including the American Declaration of Independence — was penned on paper made from marijuana fibre. In fact, hempseed oil was the most commonly used lamp oil on the planet up until the early 1800's. How did such a useful crop disappear so quickly? We can thank two agents for that: the discovery of petroleum and Harry J. Anslingcr. Anslinger ran the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 until 1962, during which time he declared full-scale, take-no- prisoners war on marijuana. He devoted his life to stamping out what he called "the assassin of youth". To Anslinger, people who smoked the stuff were "immoral, vicious, social lepers." He made it a federal offense to possess the plant. He got it removed from the official U.S. book of drug standards. Needless to say, farmers quickly stopped growing the stuff. But now that we're running out of fossil fuels, and reluctant to destroy what's left of our rain forests, maybe the lowly hemp plant will make a comeback. Maybe it will even replace a plant that's more addictive than cocaine, according to the U.S. Surgeon General. Marijuana? Nah. I'm talking about a real Assassin of Youth. Tobacco. as other industrialized nations have. Given the inept performance of his government, he needs all the help he can get. However, the Americans' patience has been sorely tried and tried again. Part of the Japanese' problem is that there are several factions within our government, all of which have their favourite son, and Kaifu is not one of them. He was very much a compromise candidate in a wake of a financial scandal which rocked the whole nation. Il forced the resignation of the then prime minister, Noboru Takcshita and, since none of the favourite sons could muster enough support, Kaifu was a reluctant choice. Thanks to Joe Clark, the Japanese may get a good chance to show that they are made of sterner sluff. One of Mr. Clark's last acts, before he was shunted out of External Affairs, was to set up the North Pacific Co­ operative Security Dialogue to give the nations of that area a chance to talk over problems of mutual concern. The first meeting has already been held without anybody going home in a huff. Still, what the Japanese need most right now is a crash course in the art of how to offend people. every year. Tax increases have proven to be an effective way to reduce tobacco consumption, to encourage smokers to slop smoking, and most importantly, to prevent young people from starling to smoke. Canada is a world leader in efforts to reduce smoking. Tax increases have played an important part in that success. The physicians of Canada wish to express their congratulations and support for those tax increases. Efforts to reduce smoking are of the highest priority in Canada's health promotion program. CAROLE GUZMAN, M.D. PRESIDENT-ELECT CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Letter from the editor Those were the days BY KEITH ROULSTON I was reading about an. art exhibition down in Montreal that shows how we've changed in our view of the future. It shows in short, we don't think things will automatically be better anymore. The show features visions by artists in the 1920's of what future cities would look like. The artists all had a bright view of the future. They saw cities that were technological marvels, full of buildings that reached for the sky and economic prosperity for everyone. Those views reminded me of the altitude even when I was growing up in the 1950's and early 1960's. Remember all the magazine articles there would be with drawings of the wonderful life we'd be leading in the future...right about now, actually. We'd be going to work in our own helicopters and our cities would be under bubbles to keep them warm in winter and cool in summer. In those articles there wasn't a hint of anything but a glorious future. Poverty would be wiped out. The writers never even thought of pollution. Everything was bright and clean and airy in those pictures. The world was moving toward heaven on earth. I guess that feeling was part of the natural evolution of our continent. People made the arduous journey to North America on leaky, smelly ships, hoping to belter their life in Europe. They had hard limes clearing the land or breaking the sod in the West, but they held that dream in front of them that things would be belter next year. There were disappointments, but in general things were better next year. Technology was a vital part of that optimism for the future. To the farm family with aching backs from using a scythe or sickle, the first reaper was a godsend and later models that actually lied the sheaves of grain were even belter. The steam locomotive was such an improvement over travel by horse. Indoor plumbing, whether for waler in the kitchen or an indoor toilet, was a wonderful luxury. There were little improvements in life nearly every year that kept people dreaming of a better life just around the corner. New medicines even prolonged lives. We never doubled that the scientists and inventors would make life better. I remember going to Douglas Point to the countries first full-scale nuclear plant. The information given out was all about the wonders of atomic power, the unlimited energy source of the future. It was like the ultimate in technological magic that could make limitless power from a handfull of uranium. We didn't know much about atomic power but we hailed this peaceful use of what had seemed at first like only a terrible weapon of destruction. We never asked what we would do with nuclear waste. We never asked what would happen if something went wrong in a nuclear plant and radiation was released. If it was good enough for the scientists, it was good enough for us. But that blind faith has been spoiled over the years. We've seen that there's a good and bad side to all technology. The gadgets that save so much work can also pollute the atmosphere, cause job related illness and throw people out of work. Objectively, most of us would have h say we're better off today than we were in the 1950's, but we don't have that kind of blind Continued on page 24.