According to most religious texts, God gave mankind dominion over all the plants of the earth. Apparently the point was to encourage us to explore the many uses items that can be made from plants: medicine, clothing, food, shelter, boats, paper and weapons can all be made with plants. The rain forest is made of millions of acres of trees, flowers and ferns hiding a horn-of-plenty filled with medical wonders researchers have yet to fully tap. Cotton, wool and synthetic fibers are commonly used to make the clothes the entire planet wears.Few trees are safe from being turned into paper or lumber.Yet in the United States we have made one of the best alternative sources for all of these items illegal: hemp.Few plants in history have been as unfairly demonized as the cannabis plant, but Iowa legislators are taking the initiative to undo all this and bring hemp production back to America in time for the new millennium.This is a decision full of wisdom and could help Iowa farmers produce a crop the rest of the world has been happy to utilize fully for decades.Fear of marijuana has kept hemp down in this country for too long. It has become something of a joke to even talk about legalizing hemp as we snicker at the guys at the NORML table for their passion, but the real joke is in making a plant this useful illegal in the first place.No one will be getting high off hemp and our state legislators are willing to overcome that false perception. For that, they should be commended.editorialboard: Carrie Tett, Greg Jerrett, Katie Goldsmith, Andrea Hauser and Jocelyn Marcus