Ez Sez: If you're gonna sell out... at least be hempy about it!
(Ezra holding Hemp Bliss hempmilk at Pete's Frootique in Halifax, 7/2007, Photo by Alexandra Yanofsky)
Bob Dylan said if he ever advertised for anything it would be for 'ladies undergarments'. 39 years later his music was used for a Victoria's Secret TV ad in which he even appeared personally. People blamed him for selling out. At least he kept his word.
Good news, Ez Sez friends...
I am now sponsored by Manitoba Harvest Hemp Seeds & Oils to be an official spokesperson for their company and products.
Yes, like Bobby, Ez has now sold out too.
(The way I see it... better to do so for a company you love, which makes products you love made from a plant you love than to do so for just any company.)
I'd been eating Manitoba Harvest's tasty hemp food products for years and then one day I noticed a link on their web site featuring a number of "Hemp-Fuelled Athletes", athletes eating hemp foods for their health. On a whim, I contacted the company and asked them if they'd ever entertain the idea of a "Hemp-Fuelled Filmmaker". They loved the idea and signed me up!
As the company's first Hemp-Fuelled Filmmaker (and likely the world's first too), I'll be eating lots of hemp, talking it up (as I've always done) to friends and family and even making the odd appearance at company events here and there. 
(Hemp growing to 15-20 feet tall in a Canadian field)
The reason I'm such a fan of hemp (I eat it every day, wear almost exclusively hemp clothes, use many hemp oil based beauty products and have my business cards printed on hemp paper) is because hemp is simply the most versatile naturally-grown material you're ever likely to find. Thank you Mother Nature for this.
Hemp, the non-psychoactive version of marijuana, has been used by mankind for thousands of years, is grown pesticide-free (compare that to cotton crops which use between 25-50% of all pesticides used in the USA), its fibres are longer and stronger than any other naturally-grown fibre and it can be used from everything from food to fuel to paper to plastic (yes, hemp plastic now exists) to car parts to fabric to beauty products and on and on. 
The U.S. government, which banned it during the reefer madness scare in the 1930s, even ran a Hemp For Victory campaign during the Second World War and used massive amounts of hemp fabric and ropes for uniforms and ships.
The three founders of Manitoba Harvest (a company co-owned by the farmers who grow the seeds for the company's products) were actually the spearheaders of the push to get the Government of Canada to reinstate hemp as a legal crop in 1998. Hemp is now perfectly legal to grow, eat and use in Canada even though our friends in the States still cannot grow it legally to this day.
I'm extremely proud to now be representing these delicious and nutritious products from a company I really believe in.
Look for them at your local health food store and at other fine stores in your neighbourhood or order them online at the Manitoba Harvest web site.
All my best to you all. In health and hempiness!
Ez
P.S. In case you were wondering... Ez Eats: Hempmilk in his breakfast cereal, hemp seeds on salads and sandwiches, a tablespoon of hemp oil in his OJ and yes, hemp seed butter on his toasted bagels. He loves the high protein it offers (higher by mass than beef, fish or eggs), the smooth skin it gives him and the omega essential fatty acid he and every other human needs to survive. He loves the fresh, nutty taste too!
Read about Ez in the latest Manitoba Harvest Newsletter
Read Ez's Hemp Facts
Read about Ezra's Hemp For The Homeless project
Take a tour of a real hemp field!
(Hemp cookies with Manitoba Harvest hemp seeds distributed to homeless shelters and homeless individuals as part of the Hemp For The Homeless initiative in 2007)
