Showing posts with label hemp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hemp. Show all posts

Friday, March 14, 2014

Karma Crew #2 - Recreator! Re-Creating the Hemp Industry in America

Dear Reader,

We present for your enjoyment and education: Recreator - an LA organization determined to bring back the Hemp Industry in America. You guys know we support hemp and its proliferation in America hardcore, and we are so excited that this movement has a loud voice from young LA locals!




The big news with Recreator right now is their Kickstarter campaign. These guys are rocking it, with their initial goal met with more than two weeks left in the campaign! They've reached $25,000 and they're shooting for $50,000. They'll use the funds to employ artists, attend festival events as vendors, continue to outreach and advocate for Hemp and most excitingly, when they reach their stretch goal of $50,000, they'll expand their clothing line to include some warm weather gear and other new items!



What we love most about this organization is that it is run by young people looking out for the future of our country. I consider that to be true patriotism - using a natural solution and bringing that to our soil - "sowing the seeds" of change towards a sustainable, carbon neutral solution for many of the problems plaguing our society and the Earth in general.

They were inspired by Jack Herer, a writer and hemp legend. Justin, the group's PR whiz, says, "His omnivorous, sort of enthusiastic taunting to authority really captured the imagination of each one of us and got us thinking about what we could do with hemp, especially with young people who embrace cannabis as a lifestyle. It's beyond the "hippie" stigma and turning into something else…although I'm not sure what that is yet."

To us, it's clear that what "that" is right now is a near billion dollar industry built on great hemp products... that are made with hemp from China and Canada. Recreator's critical mission is to bring about a truly local "seed to stitch" process for American Hemp and bring more prosperity to our economy. The side effect of a Hemp economy is: reduced carbon in the atmosphere, more economical solutions for clothing, fuel, building materials, and the list goes on and on.



From our perspective, the Hemp movement is the most important movement of current times, perhaps for our whole generation. Its potential can change the trajectory of history and help us evolve our societies into ones that honor the sacred beauty and bounty of our mother Earth.





 While their main goal is to put Hemp into the forefront of American discourse, Recreator is more than just an advocate group. They have created an editorial short film, ACTAEON and have are developing a blog and community to be launched post-kickstarter-madness. There the guys will be curating local art, sharing hemp news and generating discussion about this amazing sustainable movement and the culture of hemp in general. It will be a great place to find out about the current status of the industry, learn about Hemp and connect with like minded hippies2.0.  


 KarmaCollective has backed Recreator and we encourage you to, as well. Though you can pledge anywhere from a dollar to your life savings, $40 gets you a great hemp shirt and smaller amounts will net you some awesome stickers!


 You never know who you can reach with a sticker. On a night out in early February, we saw an awesome "HEMP" sticker in the bathroom of a bar in Hollywood. Of course that went straight to instagram, tagged #hemp. The guys saw the post and hit us up. Ever since that fateful connection on social media, we knew we needed to share the work these guys are doing, big time.


 Welcome to the KarmaCrew, Recreator! We're super stoked to have you. NAMASTE!


BACK RECREATOR TODAY TO SUPPORT THE QUEST FOR AMERICAN HEMP. 
 +
Check out ACTAEON here! 

love&light to all! 




Monday, February 24, 2014

Hemp.

I feel very strongly about hemp. Sometimes my enthusiasm bubbles over and I start to feel like all we need to solve all of our challenges is hemp. I get dizzy with excitement and potential and then I take a step back and reorient myself, looking at the situation with a discerning eye.  Then I think to myself, "Yup, still feels like hemp is a major piece of the current earth puzzle."

In an America where we have conscious capitalism and widespread industrial hemp, we can create sustainable solutions for fashion, energy, construction and most preciously - food.

Check out this awesome, info-packed graphic from BurnandLearn. It gives an amazing visual overview of industrial hemp's uses and benefits.



Just by looking at the graphic, you can see what I'm saying. I would love to know the drawbacks of industrial Hemp. I'm sure it's not a perfect solution but so far I've literally never heard how hemp hurts the environment.

I just keep finding out more amazing facts about it! Farmed responsibly, hemp replenishes up to 60% of the nutrients in the soil after it is grown. It absorbs CO2 from the environment so when used/burned for fuel, it releases that which it used from the environment, keeping the overall release closer to neutral than fuel sources pulled from the ground. Gosh, we could all go on for hours about this.

Let's continue to expand the commercial use for hemp and to advocate for wider industrial authorization from the Federal government. VoteHemp has compiled an updated list of legislative action. So far, thirty two states have introduced pro-hemp legislation, and ten states have passed legislation clearing the way for legal industrial hemp production!

To immerse yourself in some hemp right now, support your local merchants! We are lucky in SoCal to have many likeminded people around us, and many of them have been working with hemp for years. It would be a beautiful thing to find a future where these businesses can create garments out of locally farmed hemp! Here are just a few local hemp merchants:

Vital Hemp - Hemp clothing boutique in Santa Monica

Natural High Lifestyle - Hemp clothing and lifestyle products in Santa Monica

The Recreator - Local advocacy group working to "recreate" the industrial hemp industry in the US. Follow this link to their Kickstarter campaign!

Lassen's Natural Food and Vitamins - Natural food, hemp oil products and vitamin shop located in Los Feliz