Youth from Red Lake and White Earth Reservation participating at Winona’s Hemp Crete Workshop at Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute
Winona LaDuke
So there I am, minding my own beeswax in a pandemic, growing some cool vegetables and a fiber hemp field. Hemp, the non-psychoactive relative of marijuana, is a big industry in the world, and the US imports $66 million in hemp products annually. I think we should grow it here again. Minnesota used to have eleven hemp mills; we want them back.
Winona La Duke and granddaughter work on a new hempcrete structure at the Anishinaabe Agriculture Institutes Farm
Meanwhile Red Lake nation is putting up a new big solar project, with more on the way- hoping for a 20-megawatt solar farm soon, but, with Solar Bear and the tribe, they are making a renewable energy future. And, on the White Earth reservation, the tribal government, in collaboration with the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance, is putting up 200 kw of solar on the White Earth reservation, to serve five villages. In Ponsford, 8th Fire Solar is manufacturing solar thermal panels which can reduce a heating bill by 20% in a Minnesota winter. Solar thermal trainings are underway on the Leech Lake and Nett Lake reservations. After all, staying warm is a good thing, not Democratic or Republican. And if you look up when you’re driving on Highway 71, you can see the wind turbine parts moving by, from the Port of Duluth to new wind farms in Nebraska. All those are imported parts. It’s happening, the world is changing.
In the midst of the pandemic, we’ve reduced fossil fuels consumption by about 9%. Turns out a lot of people actually like to stay home, working remotely because it’s less stressful and more productive. Out west, Google and Amazon are changing the world -- and growing. Those guys are now the highest valued corporations in the world. Exxon/Mobil isn’t even in the top ten. Plus, each corporation is buying l0,000 electric cars, and making a renewable economy in the process. That’s the future, and I plan to be there.
Then there’s the Deep North. Representative Steve Green is still promoting nuclear energy and more coal. The last time anyone was really talking about nuclear energy was the Nixon era. There hasn’t been a new nuclear power plant built here for 30 years! And, coal, well that’s gone. So is tar sands, the industry has collapsed. It’s really time to evolve, Steve and fellow, outdated politicians. Time to quit selling out to foreign corporations. It’s a new century and our country can be better.
Time also to look at Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline, which will bring 4,200 temporary workers into northern Minnesota during a pandemic. Some are already here: Pickup trucks gather at Lake George, Hill City, and Backus, and crews from Louisiana and Montana are coming to our north country. These are dangerous times, and there are strangers in our midst, not all of them good guys.
Let me put it this way. Line 3 is a huge liability for Minnesota this year, and over the long term. The fossil fuel era is ending, and we’re being sold a bad deal, just so a Canadian corporation can make more profits. Enbridge has already shut down 400,000 barrels a day because of the market, and has moved oil into other lines- 67 and 2, according to a new lawsuit filed by Honor the Earth. In other words, they don’t even need line 3.
More than that, there are jobs for life and jobs for death. These jobs are the latter. And we don’t really want those jobs here. We want good jobs, jobs about life and goodness to each other and the environment. Governor Walz, we need you to lead. Minnesota needs a way out of madness, away from the archaic energy policies of the l980s. We need you to join us in creating the New Green Revolution. Minnesota was the birthplace of what’s called the Green Revolution, and that’s today’s agriculture. Let’s make it even better, stronger and less polluting. Plus, it’s a good defense against climate change, which is already here.
Here’s my suggestion: solar, renewables, an expanded hemp industry, and the legalization of cannabis – all part of a just transition. Now, that may sound wacky, but that neighbor to the north, Canada, they ‘re doing pretty well with a green cannabis business worth $2.5 billion. Here in Minnesota tens of thousands of permanent jobs would be created with a legalized marijuana industry, and a full-scale fiber and food hemp economy. Taxes could fund schools and make them safer for our children. And these revenues could ensure that we have good internet service and health care. We all need it. Oregon, for instance, with a smaller population, has a l7% excise tax on recreational cannabis. That’s the equivalent of $l02 million back to the state! That’s more money -- and much easier to come by -- than the Enbridge dirty oil economy.
This isn’t new, radical thinking. We could make all that product we buy from China right here, and create more jobs than the paltry 23 Enbridge will leave us with Line 3. We could also make all sorts of equipment for this work in the Iron Range, rather than importing it from China. After all, the New Green Revolution needs some farm and processing equipment.
Let’s do this together. There’s more than enough hate in the world, so let’s vote for people who are sensible, and create the New Green Revolution. That will make America Beautiful again.