You wouldn’t expect David Monson to talk favorably about something that’s illegal. After all, he’s the Assistant House Majority Leader in the North Dakota Legislature, is superintendent of schools here and is a well-respected Cavalier County farmer.

People will eat anything these days. Insects, dirt, wheatgrass, headcheese, foie gras. There’s even a whole section in the grocery store for fruit roll-ups. This isn’t to say that hemp foodstuffs are insanely bizarre and unthinkably uneatable. But how many of us, besides Woody Harrelson, are currently sprinkling crushed hemp seeds on our salads? Or eating grilled hemp cheese sandwiches for lunch? Not many, that’s for sure.

America’s first president George Washington grew it some years before convict Australia exported it while motoring tycoon Henry Ford made and ran a car from it. Now a Melbourne business has revolutionised a technique to process it.

Nestled in a Hockley Valley ecology retreat near Toronto, the Hemp Industries Association held their seventh annual convention among the maple and aspen trees. This year’s gathering saw 35-55 attendees which allowed for intimate meetings and planning sessions.

Today Vote Hemp published its long awaited voter guide publicizing the positions of all those running for the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate and the White House on the subject of deregulating Industrial Hemp Agriculture.