hemp image via Wikimedia Commons

Yesterday, Rep. Mary Franson (R-Alexandria) and Rep. Phyllis Kahn (DFL-Minneapolis) teamed up to introduce a bill that would develop and regulate industrial hemp production in Minnesota.

As it stands now, hemp -- marijuana's big, non-psychoactive sister  -- is banned by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as a controlled substance. But some states, notably North Dakota, have thumbed their noses at the feds and passed laws to license an industry, though they (mostly) continue to wait for a green light to actually grow the stuff.

If Franson and Kahn get their way, Minnesota will be next.

See Also:
- Agriculture: Hemp Jive
- From the archives: High Expectations: Paranoia causes the Legislature to do an about-face on industrial hemp production
- Mary Franson wins recount in belated MNGOP election night success story


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Fighting against jeopardizing "our entire country just to score political points in the House."

The farm bill expired at the end of September, but first the election and now the fiscal cliff have worked like a one-two punch to knock out chatter about it. Trust Amy Klobuchar, though, to try and get our attention back.

Yesterday she took to the Senate floor to remind people just how many billions of dollars and hundreds of programs are hanging in limbo. And how generally badass Minnesota farmers are.

See Also:
- Farming for Federal Dollars: Meet the Minnesotans who receive subsidies for not growing anything
- Amy Klobuchar: "For the first time, there was a traffic jam in the Senate women's bathroom"
- Everything Must Go: How to step away from a hundred years of family farming--in four hours or less


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bionicteaching | Flickr Creative Commons

In a widespread drought, much of the country's corn crop looks like this. Minnesota farmers are faring best.

SEE ALSO:
- Minnesota's average low temperature rose faster than any other state's since 1970, says new study
- Al Franken declares Minnesota sweet corn the best in the world

Remember all those corn cobs at the state fair last weekend? Well, Minnesota's corn crop is the strongest in the country, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today. That ranking could translate into profits for our farmers, as the rest of the grain belt struggles with a drought that's causing the weakest projected yields since 1995, and the smallest expected harvest since 2006.

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The new voodoo lily at MN Zoo

​Just in time for spring, the Minnesota Zoo has acquired a flower that blooms and smells like something died.

Amorphophallus konjac--also known as Voodoo lily or Devil's tongue--landed at the zoo on Tuesday and is expected to bloom within the next few days. You don't want to miss this, because when it does, the air will be filled with the rotting scent of death.

"I read one thing that says it smells like Hannibal Lecter's compost pile on a hot afternoon," says Kim Thomas, horticulture supervisor at the Minnesota Zoo.

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kthread on Flickr

Raw Milk: some lawmakers want more of it

​State senators Sean Nienow, Gary Dahms, and Claire Robling are pushing legislation to make raw milk more widely available in Minnesota, even though the state health department says drinking it poses a serious health risk.

The bill would allow raw milk sales at farmer's markets and directly to homes. Currently, state law mandates that raw milk--which is unpasteurized--be sold only on the farm where it is produced. So raw milk lovers from the Twin Cities now have to drive hours to pick up their dairy beverage of choice.

"Raw milk is a legal product," Nienow says. "The product itself is legal--it's just the accessibility."

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Troubled Waters: You can't see it.

"Troubled Waters: A Mississippi River Story" is a damning documentary about agricultural pollution in the Big Muddy, produced by the University of Minnesota's Bell Museum of Natural History.

But someone doesn't want you to see it.

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​Sigh. It's excuses like these that give fodder to prohibitionists and anti-drug warriors. From the Worthington Daily Globe:

A Fulda teen facing check forgery charges after allegedly writing checks on the accounts of both his stepfather and grandmother told law enforcement he was addicted to salvia, a psychoactive plant that causes euphoria.

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​Salvia divinorum, a perfectly legal hallucinogen that inspires very brief and intense trips, is once again in state lawmakers' cross hairs. For the third session in a row, a bill is on the table that would criminalize possession and sale of the psychedelic mint, which, by the way, is readily available at finer head shops across the metro.

We researched (smoked) Salvia when it first attracted legislators' attention two years ago. You can read a detailed account of its effects here. Long story short: the trip incapacitates the user for five to ten minutes and effectively dissolves the ego/self. (We turned into an easy chair). When we subsequently called the bill's author, DFLer Rep. Joe Atkins, and asked him he'd like to smoke with us or, barring that, observe firsthand the effects (seemed sensible that you'd want to research something before banning it), he politely declined. Note to Rep. Atkins: That offer still stands.

​Police in Waite Park (just west of St. Cloud) have arrested a man for selling a government-outlawed plant.

A two-month investigation led authorities into a storage facility where they found 146 one-pound vacuum-sealed bags of marijuana worth about $550,000. Police proceeded to the 48-year-old suspect's where they uncovered $22,000 in cash along with a rifle and handgun.

The suspect was arrested at his job Tuesday and taken into custody. That's right-- the overseer of a six-figure pot operation was still clocking in at his day job.

A hunter was prowling for pheasants deep inside the 13,000 acre Tiffany State Wildlife Area in western Wisconsin when he stumbled upon an unexpected, highly valuable find: 2,000 marijuana plant stalks worth about $2 million according to authorities.

Instead of indulging in the offerings, the unidentified citizen alerted the police who arrived shortly thereafter to discover a set-up apparently designed by an Apocalypse Now fan-- rinky dink booby traps surrounded the site, including rat traps and neck-level ropes evidently intended to clothesline egregiously oblvious/blind trespassers.

It's the second pot operation discovered on Wisconsin public land this month, the other being a 8,000 plant uncovered in eastern Wisconsin.

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