8,000 pounds of hemp seed per acre. When cold-pressed, the 8,000 pounds of hemp seed yield over 300 gallons of hemp seed oil and a byproduct of 6,000 pounds of high protein hemp flour. Seed oils are both a food and a biodiesel fuel.
Thanks: That is a potential energy production of 36 million BTU per acre, or about 6 barrels of oil. It is still too early to tell definitely, but it looks promising.
Why would they want too? At 300 gallons per acre it might be cheaper than oil. State Representative Fred Maslack did a study in conjunction with the University of Vermont in 1983 on legalizing cannabis in the State. He was looking for ways to help save the State's small farmers who were rapidly failing. Their conclusion was that growing cannabis could produce fiber, oil, and animal feed, that could considerably add to the income of the State's small farmers. If cannabis can produce 36 million BTU per acre they were probably correct. He introduced a bill to legalize its production in the State, and it was widely supported. It was shot down by a multi million dollar counter campaign run, and paid for by the DEA!
With the end of the globalized petroleum production system near at hand, regional production will have to fill the gap. Bio fuels will be a part of that effort. 300 gallons per acre looks very promising. Cory Booker is now introducing a bill in Congress that would legalize cannabis, and which would also allow US farmers to grow it. As a bio fuel cannabis is likely to be far superior to corn, which is used for the production of ethanol; which has an EROI of about (nothing).
It is time to start preparing for the end of our contemporary fuels production systems. Our ridiculous superstitions, and ignorant and unsupported biases will have to be put out to pasture. The oil age is ending rapidly, and the world is long over due at providing substitutes. We will see the collapse of the present integrated Globalized fuels production system by the end of the next decade; the present economic system will likely fail much sooner. The massive multi nationals that have so dominated modern society are going the way of the Dodo Bird.