History Of Weed Essays - Cannabis, Entheogens, Medicinal Plants

History Of Weed Marijuana in the New World Marijuana in the New World The first definite record of the marijuana plant in the New World dates from 1545 AD, when the Spaniards introduced it into Chile. It has been suggested, however, that African slaves familiar with marijuana as an intoxicant and medicine brought the seeds with them to Brazil even earlier in the sixteenth century. There is no record that the Pilgrims brought marijuana with them to Plymouth but the Jamestown settlers did bring the plant to Virginia in 1611, and cultivated it for its fiber. Marijuana was introduced into New England in 1629. From then until after the Civil War, the marijuana plant was a major crop in North America, and played an important role in both colonial and national economic policy. In 1762, Virginia awarded bounties for hemp culture and manufacture, and imposed penalties upon those who did not produce it. George Washington was growing hemp at Mount Vernon three years later-presumably for its fiber, though it has been argued that Washingt on was also concerned to increase the medicinal or intoxicating potency of his marijuana plants.* *The argument depends on a curious tradition, which may or may not be sound, that the quality or quantity of marijuana resin (hashish) is enhanced if the male and female plants are separated before the females are pollinated. There can be no doubt that Washington separated the males from the females. Two entries in his diary supply the evidence: May 12-13, 1765: Sowed Hemp at Muddy hole by Swamp. August 7, 1765: `-began to separate [sic] the Male from the Female Hemp at Do- rather too late. George Andrews has argued, in The Book of Grass: An Anthology of Indian Hemp (1967), that Washington's August 7 diary entry clearly indicates that he was cultivating the plant for medicinal purposes as well as for it's fiber. -, He might have separated the males from the females to get better fiber, Andrews concedes-but his phrase rather too late suggests that he wanted to complete the separation bef ore the female plants were fertilized-and this was a practice related to drug potency rather than to fiber culture. British mercantile policy hampered American hemp culture for a time during and after the colonial period by offering heavy bounties on hemp exported from Ireland; but the American plantings continued despite this subsidized competition. At various times in the nineteenth century large hemp plantations flourished in Mississippi, Georgia, California, South Carolina, Nebraska, and other states, as well as on Staten Island, New York. The center of nineteenth-century production, however, was in Kentucky, where hemp was introduced in 1775. One Kentuckian, James L. Allen, wrote in 1900: The Anglo-Saxon farmers had scarce conquered foothold in the Western wilderness before they became sowers of hemp. The roads of Kentucky . . . were early made necessary by the hauling of hemp. For the sake of it slaves were perpetually being trained, hired, bartered; lands perpetually rented a nd sold; fortunes made and lost.... With the Civil War began the decline, lasting still. The invention of the cotton gin and of other cotton and wool machinery, and competition from cheap imported hemp, were major factors in this decline in United States hemp cultivation. The decline in commercial production did not, however, mean that marijuana became scarce. As late as 1937, the American commercial crop was still estimated at 10,000 acres, much of it in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Kentucky. Four million pounds of marijuana seed a year were being used in bird feed. During World War II commercial cultivation was greatly expanded, at the behest of the United States Department of Agriculture, to meet the shortage of imported hemp for rope. Even decades after commercial cultivation has been discontinued, hemp can often be found growing luxuriantly as a weed in abandoned fields and along roadsides. Indeed, the plant readily spreads to additional territory. The area of Nebraska land infeste d with weed marijuana was estimated in 1969 at 156,000 acres. * * One acre of good land yields about one thousand pounds of marijuana, enough for almost one million marijuana cigarettes. The medicinal use of marijuana in the United States. It has often been alleged that American

Philosophy of Food - An Authentic Approach to Eating

Philosophy of Food - An Authentic Approach to Eating A good philosophical question can arise from anywhere. Did you ever think, for example, that sitting down to dinner or strolling through the supermarket might serve as a good introduction to philosophical thinking? That is the foremost philosopher of food’s credo. What’s Philosophical About Food? Philosophy of food finds its basis on the idea that food is a mirror. You may have heard the saying ‘we are what we eat.’ Well, there is more to say regarding this relation. Eating mirrors the making of a self, that is, the array of decisions and circumstances that bring us to eat the way we do. In them, we can see reflected a detailed and comprehensive image of ourselves. Philosophy of food reflects on the ethical, political, social, artistic, identity-defining aspects of food. It spurs from the challenge to more actively pondering our diets and eating habits so as to understand who we are in a deeper, more authentic way. Food as a Relation Food is a relation. Something is food only with respect to some organism, in a set of circumstances. These, first of all, are bound to vary from moment to moment. For instance, coffee and pastry are a fine breakfast or afternoon snack; yet, to most of us they are unpalatable for dinner. Secondly, circumstances are bound to involve principles that are, at least in appearance, contradictory. Say, you refrain from eating soda at home, but at the bowling alley, you enjoy one. At the supermarket, you buy only non-organic meat, but on vacation, you crave for a McBurger with fries. As such, any given ‘food relation is first and foremost the mirror of an eater: depending on the circumstances, it represents the eater’s needs, habits, convictions, deliberations, and compromises. Food Ethics Probably the most obvious philosophical aspects of our diet are the ethical convictions that shape it. Would you eat a cat? A rabbit? Why or why not? It’s likely that the reasons you give for your stance are rooted in ethical principles, such as: â€Å"I love too much cats to eat them!† or even â€Å"How could you do such a thing!† Or, consider vegetarianism: a large number of those who conform to this diet do so to prevent unjustified violence being done to animals other than human. In Animal Liberation, Peter Singer labeled â€Å"speciesism† the attitude of those who draw unjustified distinctions between Homo sapiens and other animal species (like racism sets an unjustified distinction between one race and all others). Clearly, some of those rules are mingled with religious principles: justice and heaven can come together on the table at, as they do on other occasions. Food as Art? Can food be art? Can a cook ever aspire to be an artist on a par with Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Van Gogh? This question has spurred heated debates over the past years. Some argued that food is (at best) a minor art. For three main reasons. First, because foods are short-lived in comparison to, e.g., chunks of marble. Second, food is intrinsically linked to a practical purpose – nourishment. Third, food depends on its material constitution in a way in which music, painting, or even sculpture are not. A song such as â€Å"Yesterday† has been released on vinyl, cassette, CD, and as a mp3; food cannot be alike transferred. The best cooks would hence be very good artisans; they can be paired with fancy hairdressers or skilled gardeners. On the other hand, some think that this perspective is unfair. Cooks have recently started featuring in art shows and this seems to concretely disprove the previous remarks. Probably the most famous case in point is Ferran Adri, the Catalan chef who revolutionized the world of cooking over the past three decades. Food Experts Americans keep in high esteem the role of food experts; French and Italians notoriously do not. Probably, it’s because of different ways to regard the practice of evaluation of a food. Is that French onion soup authentic? The review says the wine is elegant: is that the case? Food or wine tasting is arguably an entertaining activity, and it’s a conversation starter. Yet, is there a truth when it comes to judgments about food? This is one of the hardest philosophical questions. In his famous essay â€Å"Of the Standard of Taste†, David Hume shows how one can be inclined to answer both â€Å"Yes† and â€Å"No† to that question. On the one hand, my tasting experience is not yours, so it is totally subjective; on the other, provided an adequate level of expertise, there is nothing odd with imagining to challenge a reviewer’s opinion about a wine or a restaurant. Food Science Most foods we buy at the supermarket carry on their labels â€Å"nutritional facts†. We use them in order to guide ourselves in our diet, to stay healthy. But, what do those numbers have to do really with the stuff we have in front of us and with our stomachs? What â€Å"facts† do they help us establishing really? Can nutritionism be regarded as a natural science on a par with – say – cell biology? For historians and philosophers of science, food is a fertile terrain of research because it raises basic questions regarding the validity of laws of nature (do we really know any law regarding metabolism?) and the structure of scientific research (who finances the studies on the nutritional facts you find on the labels?) Food Politics Food is also at the center of a number of funding questions for political philosophy. Here are some. One. The challenges that food consumption poses to the environment. For example, did you know that factory farming is responsible for a higher rate of pollution than airfare travel? Two. Food trades raise issues of fairness and equity in the global market. Exotic goods such as coffee, tea, and chocolate are chief examples: through the history of their commerce, we can reconstruct the complex relationships between continents, States, and people over the past three-four centuries. Three. Food production, distribution, and retail is an opportunity to talk about the condition of workers across the earth. Food and Self-Understanding In the end, as the average person enters at least a few ‘food relations’ per day, a refusal to ponder eating habits in a meaningful manner can be likened to a lack of self-understanding or lack authenticity. Since self-understanding and authenticity are among the chief aims of philosophical inquiry, then food becomes a true key to philosophical insight. The gist of the philosophy of food is hence the quest for an authentic diet, a quest that can be readily furthered by analyzing other aspects of ‘food relations’.