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Industrial Hemp in the United StatesDave Kristula, March 29, 2000The hemp plant "has played a vital role in world commerce for at least six thousand years," according to John W. Roulac, author of Hemp Horizons (27). Originally cultivated in China and used for making rope and fishnets (HH 27), today hemp is grown throughout the world - except in the United States, where it is illegal to grow the plant but not illegal to manufacture and sell products made from it. Many hurdles face the reintroduction of industrial hemp into American agriculture, manufacturing, and commerce. Hemp is an annual fiber crop with over 25,000 known uses (HH back cover). Common products that can be made from hemp include clothing, paper, and building materials. The advantages of hemp cultivation over traditional crop cultivation are numerous. For example, Roulac suggests that "one acre of industrial hemp can produce up to four times as much paper as one acre of trees" (HH viii). Hemp can be grown in most fields "with little or no herbicides or insecticides" and rotates well with grain, beans, and flax (HH 129). Hemp's true botanical name is Cannabis Sativa L. In many countries, including the United States, hemp is grown illicitly to produce marijuana. Virtually all varieties of hemp contain "[t]he potentially psychoactive chemical . . . delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)" (HH 9). Marijuana-producing hemp usually has a THC content of three to fifteen percent or higher while industrial hemp usually contains less than one percent THC (HH 9). Hemp was cultivated in the colonies that would later become the United States soon after settlement (HH 32). The Declaration of Independence was written on paper containing hemp fiber (HH 32). States where hemp was once an extremely important crop include Kentucky, Florida, Alabama, New York, Georgia, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Each of these states has at least one town whose name contains hemp including Hempfield, Pennsylvania (HH 33). The first law preventing the cultivation of hemp in the United States was the Marihuana [SIC] Tax Act of 1937, which virtually eliminated a farmer's right to grow the plant (HH 42). In 1937 THC had not yet been identified as the chemical causing the psychoactive effects of marijuana (HH 48). Although THC was identified as "marijuana's psychoactive agent" in 1964 (HH 64) Congress passed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act in 1970 (HH 62) which continued to disallow the cultivation of industrial hemp because all hemp was still classified as psychoactive, regardless of actual THC content. The United Kingdom and Canada passed similar legislation following the lead of the United States, but both of these countries lifted their bans on industrial hemp in the 1990s (HH 21). Jon Gettman, in his 1996 Business Survey entitled Hemp Power, discovered that American hemp business owners believe most of the hemp fiber used in the products they sell are imported from China, Hungary, Romania, and Thailand (13). The most popular hemp items in 1996 were clothing, accessories, hats, and caps (HP 11). Gettman found that hemp imports in Germany and the United Kingdom totaled over $3 million in 1994 (HP 15), and predicted in his report that gross revenues in the United States from hemp products sold in 1996 would total at least $23.3 million (HP 19). The eyes of those involved in the American hemp industry were focused on Canadian farms in the late 1990s. On March 12, 1998, hemp cultivation was once again permitted with license in Canada (ICPIH). In August 1998, Doug Campbell of Consolidated Growers and Processors of Canada Ltd. announced company plans to build a $6 million hemp processing plant in rural Manitoba (CHF). According to David Kuxhaus, legislative reporter of the Winnipeg Free Press, "Campbell said [Canadian] farmers could gross in excess of $400 per acre" (CHF). In a 1998 study the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Kentucky estimated a typical hemp crop in Kentucky would be worth from $220 in net revenue for grain production to $600 in net revenue for certified seed production (FH 3). Tobacco is the only crop capable of producing higher revenues (FH 3). The United States Drug Enforcement Administration recently allowed a test plot of hemp to be grown in Hawaii. The University of Hawaii received $200,000 in funding for this project from Alterna, a hair care company interested in using the hemp seed in their products (HBHE). The results of this experimental plot may determine the likelihood of further allowance of industrial hemp cultivation in the United States. Given the rise in petroleum prices, it is unfortunate that so little attention has been paid to the industrial hemp industry. The oils of the hemp plant have been made into both biodegradable plastics (HH 120) and ethanol fuels (BOH). Both of these uses of hemp oil would be more ecologically sound when compared to using their petroleum counterparts because most petroleum-based plastics are not biodegradable and the burning of petroleum-based gasoline, unlike biomass (plant) fuel, is a major cause of air pollution. Farmers, corporations, business owners, and consumers will all play a major role in the reintroduction of industrial hemp into American society. According to a United States Department of Agriculture report "Canada's 35,000 acres [of industrial hemp] seemingly oversupplied the North American hemp market in 1999" (IHUS). An increase in the demand for hemp products as well as widespread knowledge of the benefits of hemp is ultimately necessary for the reintroduction of this crop to be both feasible and successful. Works Cited
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