The Central Valley of California is in dire straights as I write this very article. The Central valley hosts 4 out of the 10 most polluted cities in the U.S. Apparently the smaller cities located close enough to larger ones like ( Merced-Fresno ) are considered the same area. So on the list you will see several Central Valley cities. Fresno-Madera tops the list at #1. Bakersfield is #2. Visalia-Porterville-Hanford came in at #3. And coming in at #4 we have Modesto-Merced. So technically there are 8 Central valley cities in the top 4 most polluted cities in America. I imagine all the other small cities in between them are just as bad. They most likely just don’t want to list the entire Central Valley as having unhealthy and unfit air to breathe because they need room for the larger cities like Los Angeles who was #5 on the list, and San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland who gets the honorable mention at #6. But you got to give them credit. They tried to list as many Central Valley cities as possible.

So why is the Central Valley so polluted and the air so unhealthy? Well the first and most obvious is it’s an enormous valley. I’ve been told you can see the Central Valley from space. Don’t know if that’s true or not, but I imagine you could. The Central Valley is really two valleys. The San Joaquin to the south and Sacramento to the north. All told, the Central Valley is about 450 miles long, from Bakersfield up to Redding, and is 60 miles at its widest, between the Sierra Nevada to the east and the Coast Ranges to the west. It’s larger than nine different states. The Central Valley acts as a pool for pollutants produced by the region’s residents, its industry and its large agricultural community. These emissions then get trapped in the valley by an inversion layer of warm air. Then add-on the fact California has had the worst smog problems in the United States for over 40 years and we have a real disaster on our hands here people.

California is also a large Oil producing state. What? Yes it is the 4th largest Oil producing state in the nation behind Alaska. California is also a very large oil-refining state in part because of the stringent regulations California has in place on the amount of oxygen allowed in gasoline. Oil refineries pollute our air, water, and land. Oil refineries cause smog and air pollution. Almost all refineries in every country currently pollute at unacceptable, unhealthy levels. Oil refineries emit about 100 chemicals everyday. These include metals like lead which makes it hard for children to learn. They also include very smaller size dust particles that get deep into our lungs and harm our ability to breathe. Finally, refineries emit many gases like sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxide (NO2), carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, dioxins, hydrogen fluoride, chlorine, benzene and others

Did you know the Central valley was not only loved by farmers and cultivators for its vast sunshine and ample size it was also praised for being the healthiest top soil in the nation. Now due to non organic and unhealthy agricultural practices the top soil is dead in most places. If you want to see how the land has changed because of dubious farming practices, take a drive on State Route 45 south of Wasco. Large swaths of land that are no longer farmed. Due to petroleum derived, synthetic fertilizers that they inject directly into the soil. Which in turn poisoned and killed off the living microbes and organisms in the soil leaving the soil barren, alkali and lifeless. Or take a Drive past the real HARRIS ranch, were your juicy steaks sit in a small crowded pin knee-deep in their own waste, forcing them to use antibiotics on the cows that you in turn consume after purchasing, cooking, and eating. Why? So they can push more cattle to market faster? Big Ag is destroying the local farmers way of life and our climate at the same time.

Those crafty signs blaming the government for their own misuse and malpractice of their own land doesn’t garner much attention from me. You have to spend a lot of money and be very greedy to destroy such vast amounts of fertile agricultural land for profit. Trying to alter nature to accommodate the large agricultural business model did not work and it will never work. Growing vast amounts of government subsidized Corn, SoyBean, or whatever fetches top dollar from the taxpayers is what has caused the fertile Central Valley top soil to die in the first place. Not the lack of water. They have always had all the water they needed allotted to them here, and some. Even during our current drought only residents have been asked to cut back on usage. The agricultural industry uses 80% of the water consumed in California every year. Even though everyone here in Fresno is now on Meters and now pays for every dime they sprinkle on their own lawn. Residents are the only ones currently being threatened with fines if they don’t cut back usage.

So the pollution and emissions from us, the oil Industry, large agricultural industry and all other general industries all get trapped right here and will not leave or dissipate because of an inversion layer of warm air that traps it in our valley. Now….don’t do, what everyone thinks you’re gonna do….and just, flip out man! But there is and has always been a viable solution for the Central Valley. Hemp! What if the Central Valley farmers were able to cultivate a drought resistant, pest resistant Crop that cleaned the air, and replenished the damaged soil? What If that one crop could provide Food, Paper, Fiber, Medicine, Fuel, and up to 50,000 different potential uses ? What if this single plant could create thousands of JOBS and an entire new fully sustainable and renewable GREEN industry for the California economy to thrive on? Why would any farmer, city, county, government, or economy be against that? Hemp is the only Plant on earth that can do that for California and the Central Valley.

So how Can Hemp Save the Central valley ? Hemp can help save the Central valley in several ways. Lets start with the air we breathe. This is from a bulletin by the USDA in 1916: Hemp is the miracle plant of our time, breathing in 4x the carbon dioxide (CO2) of trees during its quick 12-14 week growing cycle. Trees take 20 years to mature vs 4 months for Industrial Hemp! Our forests are being cut down 3x faster than they can grow! One acre of hemp produces as much cellulose fiber pulp as 4.1 acres of trees. (Dewey & Merrill. Bulletin #404. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. 1916) Obviously we have known that for quite some time. No other plant in the plant kingdom is as efficient at converting CO2 back into oxygen then Hemp. Burning anything produces CO2. But every year during the growing season, plant photosynthesis turns that CO2 back into oxygen. Hemp is the perfect crop for the Central Valley farmers to help combat those trapped Greenhouse gases in the valley on an annual basis.

Replenishing the damaged soil is essential to revitalizing the Central Valley and the California economy. There are so many small farming communities that rely on agriculture and farming in the Central valley. Look at Mendota, when there is no food to grow, there is no jobs, and no commerce. There are quite a few local farming communities just like Mendota that may simply vanish if the farmers are not given a drought resistant crop. One that requires very little water, no pesticides, and will grow in depleted soils and in all climates, all while replenishing the damaged top soil for all future crops there after. well Guess what? Hemp is the undisputed king of soil rejuvenation in the plant kingdom.

(From-Hemphasis.net) – It helps detoxify and regenerate the soil. Falling leaves and shrubs not used in processing fall to the ground and replenish the soil with nutrients, nitrogen, and oxygen. This rich organic mulch promotes the development of fertile grassland. Some of the carbon which is “breathed” in by the plant in the form of CO2 is left in the roots and crop residues in the field. The CO2 is broken down by photosynthesis into carbon and oxygen, with oxygen being aspirated back into the atmosphere. With each season more CO2 is reduced from the air and added to the soil.

Hemp roots absorb and dissipate the energy of rain and runoff, which protects fertilizer, soil, and keeps seeds in place. Hemp plants slow down the velocity of runoff by absorbing moisture. By creating shade, hemp plants moderate extreme variations in temperatures, which conserves moisture in the soil. Hemp plants reduce the loss of topsoil in windy conditions. Hemp plants also loosen the earth for subsequent crops. Hemp plants can even pull nuclear toxins from the soil. In fact hemp was planted near and around the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site to pull radioactive elements from the ground. The process is called phyto-remediation, which means using plants (phyto) to clean up polluted sites. Phyto-remediation can be used to remove nuclear elements, and to clean up metals, pesticides, solvents, crude oil, and other toxins from landfills. Hemp breaks down pollutants and stabilizes metal contaminants by acting as a filter. Hemp is proving to be one of the best phyto-remediative plants found.

The minimum benefit of a hemp crop is in its use as a rotation crop. Since hemp stabilizes and enriches the soil farmers grow crops on, and provides them with weed-free fields, without cost of herbicides, it has value even if no part of the plant is being harvested and used. Any industry or monetary benefit beyond this value is a bonus. Rotating hemp with soy reduces cyst nematodes, a soy-decimating soil parasite, without any chemical input. Hemp could be grown as a rotation crop and not compete with any other food crops for the most productive farmland. Marginal lands make fine soil for hemp, or hemp can be grown in between growing seasons.

Now lets focus a little more on Jobs, growth and the economy of the Central Valley and what Hemp can do to help things GROW. (Bad Pun Alert) According to Chris Conrad, a respected authority on cannabis and industrial hemp and who authored Hemp for Health and Hemp, Lifeline to the Future, the industry would be regionally sustainable, reviving the local economy wherever it was grown. “Hemp will create jobs in some of the hardest-hit sectors of the country — rural agriculture, equipment manufacturing, transportable processing equipment and crews — and the products could serve and develop the same community where the hemp is farmed: building ecological new homes, producing value-added and finished products, marketing and so forth,” he writes in an e-mail from Amsterdam, where he is doing research. ” Add to that all the secondary jobs — restaurants, health care, food products, community-support networks, schools, etc., that will serve the workers. The Central Valley of California would see a surge of income, growth, jobs and consumer goods.”

Are you aware that the United States is the #1 importer of Hemp in the world? Do you know why? Are you aware that the United States remains the only industrialized nation that refuses to distinguish Hemp from its sibling, Cannabis? (Most commonly known by its racially fueled given name Marijuana) Our United States government considers Hemp a Schedule 1 narcotic, worse than cocaine, meth, and opium, and lists it on the Controlled Substance Act alongside its non toxic cousin and prohibits its cultivation. Did you know a Hemp Bill passed in California 2 years ago and the Govinator vetoed it citing the bill conflicted with federal law? Do you honestly believe Cannabis is illegal 100% because its bad for you and everyone else? If you do, I do not blame you! Every single generation has been kept in the dark and lied to about Cannabis. Brainwashed into believing things like Cannabis kills brain cells, or smoking marijuana will give you man boobs and make you infertile. All lies and myths to keep you from knowing the REAL truth. Cannabis Hemp is the people’s plant. There is no other plant on the planet that can lift the poorest of our world out of economic despair. There is no other plant on the planet that can stop deforestation and replace fossil fuels, petroleum derived synthetics, and end our dependency on Oil. There is no other plant in the world that can provide you with, Food, Clothes, Housing, Energy, and medicine by just simply growing it on your property.

Being a 2nd generation, born and raised resident of the Central Valley I have taken it upon myself to educate anyone and everyone about what Hemp and Cannabis can do for this area. I think it’s harder for the older generations to truly believe this due to the mass amounts of reefer madness they were forced to endure throughout their lives. It might also be that they watched a lot of good people get arrested and severely punished for something so minor as smoking a marijuana cigarette, possessing plant matter, or god forbid, grew a non toxic plant. That is understandable. I understand that most of the Central Valley considers itself to be more conservative and traditional. If that is the case then let’s get back to the way things really use to be. Minus the reefer Madness of course. Lets get back to producing Hemp in California. We already host the worlds 5th largest economy here in California. Imagine how much the entire state would have already benefited had Arnold Schwarzenegger not vetoed the state bill 2 years prior.

We all know the politicians are paid off by the very corporations who insured Hemps prohibition in the first place right? So that makes things a little more difficult but not impossible. This very scenario and situation in which we face right now is nothing new. The state of California has a people’s initiative process. It not only has one, it paved the way for 23 other states to do the same thing. In 1911, an amendment to the California Constitution established the California initiative process, giving voters the right to enact legislation. In other words, it gave the voters a power equal to the power of legislative branch of state government. This movement toward direct democracy was part of increasing popular demand across the country in the late 1800s for social and political reform. In California, progressives concerned about the influence that monied interests, such as the Southern Pacific Railroad, exercised over the legislature led the movement. In the Midwest, the populist movement included an effort by citizens to establish the initiative and referendum process to deal with government corruption. As the groundswell grew, in 1897, Nebraska allowed cities to include the initiative and referendum in their charters. By the end of the 19th century, states were amending their constitutions to include the initiative and referendum power. Currently there are 24 states that have some form of initiative and referendum procedures.

The California Initiative process can also be a double-edged sword. There are a lot of wealthy “individuals” who own a lot of “stock” in certain “companies” who plan on “funding” certain initiatives in California that legalize Cannabis in very “specific” ways that will most likely “benefit” a few wealthy individuals or “Board Members.” The saddest and most obvious fact of all is, they don’t even touch the topic of industrial Hemp, nor do they even pretend to care in most cases. Most of them are more concerned about limiting the amount you possess or the amount you can cultivate on your own personal property. So at the same time we must all be very informed and educated on who is financing and providing funds to these initiatives. I can personally assure you from personal experience that there is only 1, all grassroots, volunteer, people funded and operated initiative and campaign out there that’s main focus has always been about restoring Hemp in California. It’s the Jack Herer Initiative. The California Cannabis Hemp Initiative 2016. They are the only ones publicly asking for donations and funds to register and qualify the initiative for the 2016 ballot. I guess the rest already have money and funding behind them and that’s why they are not asking or concerned about it. That in itself should raise some red flags.

Not a single other initiative is publicly holding events stating they need exactly 900,000 – 100,000,000 dollars for the specific reason of paying professional petitioners to insure the CCHI qualifies for the ballot. The CCHI 2014 campaign came very close to qualifying in 2014 on a volunteer basis only. This is reality folks. The CCHI is asking for you to read the initiative and make up your own mind and decide if you support it, and if you could possibly donate whatever you can spare to help them pay professional petitioners to qualify it for the 2016 presidential ballot. because the other campaigns already have funding to do the exact same thing. If we want to guarantee the CCHI qualifies for the 2016 ballot they need serious donations or thousands of motivated volunteers. The others are merely holding round tables pretending like your opinion counts or matters. When the real truth is they already have a plan, a scheme, and apparently its well-financed. Imagine that! I wonder what they have in store for all the average consumers of cannabis in California in those 28 page initiatives? I can also tell you one initiative that has already filed, while claiming its an open document, plans on making cannabis DUI’s on skateboards and bicycles a reality for the future of California. Thank you? seriously?

I mean the CCHI is not just about re-legalizing the responsible adult Consumption of Cannabis for adults 21 and over in a complicated regulatory way like most initiatives. It’s mainly about re-legalizing industrial Hemp in California. It always has been. It’s about returning a Clean and renewable energy source to the California economy. It’s about growing abundant amounts of the planets most nutritional seed for human consumption. It’s about cleaning the polluted air we breathe with mother natures best plant at converting CO2 to oxygen. Replenishing and rejuvenating the damaged over fertilized soils we cultivate with natures #1 plant at restoring damaged soil. Dropping our dependency on foreign oil and producing clean renewable energy right here at home. Producing clean, natural and biodegradable plastics from Hemp instead of petroleum-based synthetic plastics that pollute the air while being refined, and pollute the land and ocean after use. It’s about choosing a safer, smarter and healthier alternative for us, the planet and all future generations.

So I urge you to please read the California Cannabis Hemp Initiative 2016 and decide for yourself whether you like or disagree with it. It won’t take long it is only 2 pages of sensible regulations that is very easy to read and understand. The California cannabis Hemp Initiative is the Job creator and economic booster the Central Valley and Californians desperately need to progress forward into a cleaner and more sustainable future for everyone. Hemp is the key to saving the Central Valley and California’s economy. The California Cannabis Hemp Initiative is working very hard to make that a reality and they NEED our help. They need the people to stand up, support, donate, and volunteer to make this a reality. There are no heavily financed fat cats promising to fund them. So please go to their website and read over the initiative, if you agree with the initiative and want to se it succeed please donate whatever you can spare, or volunteer to be coordinator in your county or city. It’s up to the people of California to make this a reality.

BY: Dustin F. Lowery

Please go to the website – http://www.cchi2016.org – Just Click the donate button and give whatever you can spare to the CCHI 2016 today.

If you are in the Fresno area or Central valley and want to get involved in the upcoming signature gathering process, or are just have questions please contact me @dustruction or through the this E-Mail at- cchi2016Fresno@gmail.com

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( Special thanks to all Sources )

(LINK)–> http://www.alternet.org/story/133055/hemp_is_not_pot%3A_it’s_the_economic_stimulus_and_green_jobs_solution_we_need

(LINK)–> http://archive.org/stream/1916UsdaBulletin404.pdfWww.hempology.orgPrime4uWww.psywar.org/1916UsdaBulletin404.pdfWww.hempology.orgPrime4u_djvu.txt

(LINK)–> Read More Herer, I mean here–> http://www.hemphasis.net/Environment/environment.htm

(LINK)–> http://coalandfuel.blogspot.com/2008/03/pollution-from-oil-refineries.html

(LINK)–> http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/30/the-10-most-polluted-cities-in-the-u-s/?tid=sm_tw