Why Hemp Is A Cash Crop Just Waiting To Happen. Again.

Hemp is a plant that has been cultivated in parts of the world for 10-12,000 years – possibly longer – and is estimated to have between 25,000 to 50,000 uses, with 5,000 uses in the textiles industry alone. Hemp has had a bad rap in the United States, supposedly thanks to the protectionist policies of a powerful few people in government and industry who had investments in key industries including pulp and paper. Hemp was lumped together marijuana usage, and used to pass the Marijuana Tax Act, partially by misinforming Congress and leveraging racial politics of the 1930s.

The hemp plant, originating in Asia, has the scientific name Cannabis Sativa L. (Linnaeus). There are three variants of the cannabis plant: cannabis sativa sativa, cannabis sativa indica, and cannabis sativa ruderalis. The first is what is used for industrial hemp; the second associated with marijuana production. Hemp comes from a strain of cannabis that is significantly lower in THC (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol) than the strain we think of as the drug marijuana (cannabis sativa indica), and hence does not have the pyschoactive properties of the latter.

Industrial Hemp Crop Uses

Industrial hemp uses, as noted above, number as high as 50,000. A table of usage categories is shown below, taken from a document published by the University of Vermont Legislative Research Shop, as identified by the Canadian Department of Agriculture and Food in 2007. The table is split into three categories: hemp seed use, hemp oil use, hemp fibre use.

Hemp Seed Product Uses	Hemp Oil Product Uses	Hemp Fibre Product Uses
Confectionary	Cooking	Fabric
Beer	Salad Dressing	Insulation
Flour	Dietary Supplements	Carpeting
Feed	Body Care Products	Paneling
Dietary Fibre	Fuel	Pulp and Paper
Snacks	Detergents	Recycling Additive
Non-dairy Milk and Cheese	Spreads	Automobile Parts
Baking	Paint	Animal Bedding and Mulch

In addition to the table above, other uses of hemp include but are not limited to:

• Medicine: sedatives, analgesics
• Textiles, including sails for ships
• Food products: e.g. tea, snack bars, cereal, etc.
• Body care/ hygiene: e.g., creams, lotions, ointments, salves, tinctures, soap, shampoo
• Clothing
• Rope/ cordage
• Linoleum backing
• Artist’s canvas for painting. Historically, these were made from hemp. (“Canvas” is a word with French, Latin and Greek origins and means either cannabis/hemp or made with such.)
• Plastics
• Dynamite and TNT
• HempCrete (one of several building materials made from hemp)
• Livestock and pet feed: e.g., bird feed
• Oil for cooking
• Oil for lamps (sometimes in religious ceremonies)
• 
  

This is a tiny list, and given just these uses, it’s easy to understand why the paper, fuel and other industries were afraid of hemp — especially if there really are as many as 50,000 uses. In the Jan 1938 issue of Popular Mechanics was an article about hemp being a future cash crop.

Some Health and Evironmental Benefits of Hemp

The U.S. is the only industrialized nation where there’s a ban on industrial hemp farming, despite the proven benefits, both in the U.S. in the past, and in other countries. Hemp is thought of by some as a superfood. In addition to the food and body care uses listed above, here are some noted health benefits. (This is not a claim of health benefits, only a summary of outcomes documented in both studies and historic use. Please consult your health care practitioner if you have any concerns.)

• Hemp is numerous medical uses, as historical use in other countries as well as in the U.S. show. For example, various hemp extracts in medicine include treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, epileptic fits and more.
• Once one of the largest agricultural crop in the world (including in the U.S.), until about 1883, hemp was used in the U.S. for a number of purposes, including fabrics, paper, fiber, lighting oil and medicine. In fact, according to the documentary movie “The Union: The Business Behind Getting High” (available on YouTube; see references), 50% of medicines “in the last half of the 19th century (in the U.S.) was made from cannabis.”
• Over 60 molecular compounds known as cannabinoids are only found in cannabis. One such compound, THC (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol), is the psychoactive ingredient of marijuana. Another is CBD (cannabidiol), is found in in hemp strains of cannabis. CBD is considered to be an anti-pyschoactive and has been used for medicinal/ healthcare uses, including reducing epileptic seizures, amongst other users.
• Hemp seeds have up to 24% protein, a handful of which satisfies an adult’s minimum daily requirement of protein.
• Hemp seeds have all the essential amino acids that human bodies need but cannot produce. These amino acids aid muscle control, brain function, and regular maintenance of body cells, tissues, muscles, and organs, and collectively help the body’s immune system.
• Hemp seeds have a 1:3 ratio of EFAs (essentially fatty acids) Omega-3 to Omega-6. This is thought to be an ideal ratio by some health and wellness professionals.
• Hemp also has Omega-9 and other EFAs. Collectively, EFAs in hemp are good for heart health, for various reasons, including dissolves plaque in arteries and reducing blood cholesterol. EFAs also have anti-inflammatory benefits.
• Omega-3, found particularly in hemp seeds, lowers blood pressure and reduces risk of cardiovascular disease. It potential delays or reduces the chances of getting Alzheimer’s disease.
• Omega-6 helps regulate metabolism, aids brain function, and stimulates growth of skin and hair, amongst other benefits.
• Hemp seeds contain a higher level of EFAs than any other known oil made from nuts or seeds.
• In addition to EFAs and amino acids, hemp seed oil has GLAs (gamma linoleic acids), polyunsaturated fatty acids and more — all of which are valuable to hair and skin care.
• Hemp seeds and protein powder can regulate blood sugar – due to the protein and fiber slowing digestion — and can make you feel fuller longer you feel fuller, especially when taken with breakfast.
• Smoking hemp cannot get you high as with marijuana, due to the extremely low THC levels. As well, CBD in hemp blocks the psychoactive properties of any negligible THC content that might be present. Marijuana strains of cannabis are harvested for the leaves and buds. Hemp strains are harvested for the stalk and seeds. Any attempt to extract THC from hemp plants would not be worthy the costly effort.
• Consuming hemp-based products will thus not negatively affect any drug tests for THC.
• Hemp oil can be used to produce non-toxic, biodegradable inks and paints.
• Using hemp for paper production takes less toll on the environment, which ultimately is beneficial for our health. For example, tree-based paper production generates “harmful dioxins, chloroform and over 2,000 chlorinated organic compounds,” which hemp does not. Hemp-based paper production also requires less chemicals.
• Hemp crops can be harvested around four months after seed is planted, compared to the decades or longer for trees (depending on their intended use). Thus hemp crops can help with the deforestation that ultimately affects animal and plant habitats, and the environment in general.
• Hemp fuel, turned into ethanol form, burns more cleanly than other fuels.
• Ethanol use produces energy, water vapor and carbon dioxide — the latter of which can be absorbed by plants, resulting in a sustainable cycle.

Facts and Statistics About Hemp

Here are is a relatively small list of general facts about hemp.

• Hemp is thought to be the first domestically-cultivated plant, with evidence of hemp fabric dating to 8,000 years ago found in Turkey (former-day Mesopotamia). Other evidence suggests cultivation further back by two or more thousands of years.
• The word hemp has been used in the past to Europe to describe other fiber plants, including sisal and jute.
• Beer hops (Humulus genus) are a close cousin of genus Cannabis, both of which fall under family Cannabaceae.
• Hemp products are now legal in the United States, although ingredients or end products are currently imported from other countries – particularly Canada.
• Hemp was not always treated as the same as marijuana by the U.S. government.
• The word “marihuana” (now marijuana) was coined in the 1890s, but not used until the 1930s by the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics (replaced by the DEA) to refer to all forms of cannabis.
• According to the documentary “The Union: The Business Behind Getting High” (available at YouTube), the first marijuana law in the United States was enacted in 1619, in Jamestown Colony, Virginia, and actually required farmers to grow hemp. Benjamin Franklin used hemp in his paper mill – one of the country’s first – and the first two copies of the Declaration of Independence were supposedly written on hemp paper.
• In parts of the Americas, hemp was legal tender and could be used to pay taxes.
• Hemp paper is stronger than wood-based paper, and can withstand more folding. In general, hemp has strongest natural fiber of any source.
• Hemp paper hundreds of years old (found in museums) has not yellowed, and is thus a high quality paper of archival quality.
• Marijuana plants cannot be hidden amongst hemp plants. The former grows wide and less tall (5-10 feet), whereas the latter is grown more densely and taller (10-15 feet), to produce maximum stalk fiber lengths.
• Hemp can grow nearly anywhere in the world, in many types of soil — even in short growing seasons or in dry regions — and helps purify soil as well as kills some types of weeds
• Hemp can grow without pesticides. The crop is also kills some weeds, purifies soil, and is suitable for rotation use, due not only to its short harvest cycle (120 days).
• Hemp is a high-yield crop. One acre of hemp produces twice as much oil as one acre of peanuts, and nearly four times as much fiber pulp (for paper) as an acre of trees.
• Hemp paper is naturally acid-free and does not yellow as quickly as tree pulp-based paper.
• Hemp has the strongest (and longest) plant fiber in the world, resistant to rot and abrasion, and was in long use before DuPont patented nylon in 1937. It was used for ship rigging, military uniforms, parachute webbing, baggage and more.
• Because of its strength, hemp fiber can be be used for composite materials that could be used to make anything from skateboard decks to car and stealth fighter bodies.
• A hemp composite material (with limestone and water) forms a type of concrete (hempcrete) that can be used for home building, at 1/9th the weight. It also acts as insulation and repels some vermin.
• Levi jeans were originally made from hemp sailcloth (and rivets), for goldminers in California, who would fill their pockets with gold.
• By the 1800s, the state of Kentucky produced about half of the industrial hemp in the U.S. The first hemp crop there was planted in Boyle County in 1775.
• Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, created a plastic car in 1941 which ran on hemp and other plant-based fuels, and whose fenders were made of hemp and other materials. Ford had a plan to “grow automobiles from the soil.” (Note: a company in France is experimenting with a similar vehicle in current day.)
• Despite the active Marijuana Tax Act and the official federal government stance on hemp and marijuana, the U.S. Army and the Dept of Agriculture jointly produced a 1942 film, “Hemp for Victory,” encouraging farmers to grow hemp for the country’s effort in World War II — particularly for textiles and rope, imports of which had been cut off by war. Over 100,000 acres of hemp was growing in the U.S., but all related permits were canceled when WW II ended.

The American Market for Hemp-Based Products

A February 1938 Popular Mechanics article (republished at Kannaway.com) titled “New Billion-Dollar Crop” was published around the same time that the Marijuana Tax Act took effect (Jan 1938), though it was prepared in 1937. The article referred to the potential for industrial hemp to be a billion dollar cash crop across numerous industries, with over 5,000 uses for the textile industry alone, as well as over 25,000 total uses including dynamite, Cellophane and more. At the time, hemp yield was about 3-6 tons per acre, and new machinery called a decorticator could harvest the crop more cheaply than ever — supposedly even more so than DuPont’s chemical process for harvesting trees for pulp and paper products. In 2014 dollars, the equivalent market potential would be nearly $17B. However, with a much larger populace now, the market could likely be much larger.

With industrial hemp crops still being illegal to grow in the United States, except in certain states, the market for hemp products here is at the billion-dollar level yet. However, hemp product use is legal and growing. The HIA (Hemp Industries Assocation) — which represents over “280 farmers, processors, manufacturers, importers, distributors, retailers, researchers and publishers worldwide” — published their estimates in Feb 2014, for the U.S. hemp-based products market for 2013. Here are some of those statistics.

• $581M — The total value of hemp products sold in the United States in 2013.
• Items that are doing particularly well are in the hemp food and body care market, particularly “non-dairy milk, shelled seed, soaps and lotions.”
• The total for hemp foods and body care alone is under-reported, due to retailers that do not supply sales data. Based on available sales data, the total for these categories was over $61.4M, an increase of 24% ($11.89M) over 2012 (year end Dec 23).
• 
  

Due to the growing American demand for hemp products, Canadian farmers are increasing acreage for hemp crops. “U.S. farmers’ frustration at being shut out of the lucrative worldwide hemp market is catalyzing real movement throughout all levels of government to legalize industrial hemp,” according to Eric Steenstra, Executive Director of the HIA.

A Farm Bill amendment was passed in early 2014 that allows states with their own passed hemp legislation to do industrial hemp research. Two more separate bills – the “Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2013″ and a companion bill – were introduced in congress in Feb of 2013. Collectively the bills, if passed, would allow removing industrial hemp from the definition of “marihuana” (in the Controlled Substances Act) and “give states the exclusive authority to regulate the growing and processing of the (industrial hemp) crop under state law.” This refers to the “non-drug oilseed and fiber varieties of Cannabis.”

• As of the end of Feb 2014, 32 states had introduced pro-hemp legislation; 20 passed their legislation.
• 10 states have defined industrial hemp as distinct from marijuana and thus allow the crop to be farmed: California, Colorado, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia.
• 3 states passed bills for “creating commissions or authorizing research”: Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland.
• 9 states passed resolutions: California, Colorado, Illinois, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Vermont, Virginia.
• 8 states passed study bills: Arkansas, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota and Vermont.
• 2+ states, including Kentucky and Colorado, have pilot programs for hemp research starting spring 2014.

As to why hemp became illegal in the United States in the 1930s, there is evidence that hemp was perceived to be a threat to a number of industries, including pulp and paper, oil, medicine and others, and that certain powerful people had personal stakes for preventing hemp’s success. If you’re interested in learning more, search for information on hemp and marijuana in relation to the following topics/ search terms:

• Andrew Mellon, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury for five presidents (Woodrow Wilson through Herbert Hoover), and head of Mellon Bank and other companies, who had invested money in a pulp and paper operation.
• Federal Bureau of Narcotics.
• Harry Anslinger, nephew-by-marriage to Mellon, and first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, a branch of the Treasury Dept — previously a deputy commissioner of the Prohibition campaign. (Alcohol prohibition was repealed in 1933, meaning that campaign staff likely needed new jobs.)
• William Randolph Hearst, owner of the newspaper and magazine publishing giant Hearst Corporation, who had also invested money in timber and wood paper mills, which would be using DuPont chemicals in the process.
• DuPont, a chemical company that had invested in a chemical process to cheaply produce pulp and paper, and who had patented nylon as a replacement material for rope / cordage and other products.
• Pharmaceutical companies, who were just starting to produce synthetic medicines to replace natural medicines.
• Marijuana Tax Act of 1937.

References

1. http://www.care2.com/greenliving/5-surprising-health-benefits-of-hemp-2.html
2. http://www.hempfarm.org/Papers/HempFacts.html
3. http://kannaway.com/magazine/history-of-hemp/new-billion-dollar-crop-popular-mechanics-february-1938/
4. http://www.naihc.org/hemp_information/content/hemp.mj.html
5. http://rediscoverhemp.com/
6. http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/05/hemp-seeds-oils-baking-eating-is-legal.html
7. http://www.thehia.org/PR/2012-09-19-Market_for_Hemp_Food.html
8. https://www.uvm.edu/~vlrs/Agriculture/industrialhemp.pdf
9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT-UIe7l3-Q

HEMP ~ THE PLANT THAT CAN SAVE MOTHER EARTH

The following is a transcript of a remarkable commentary on hemp, the world's premiere renewable natural resource, by journalist and commentator Hugh Downs speaking for ABC News radio out of New York in November, 1990. Mr. Downs did his homework exceedingly well for this report--he succeeded in including a great deal of useful information in the short timespan of only nine minutes, forty seconds. Seeking to leverage off the clarity of his research, nine footnotes have been added to the text to provide people with a cross-section of the reference material substantiating the facts Mr. Downs articulates.

It is my hope that people will be motivated and inspired by the facts contained herein. Since the mid-1930s, this society has been reduced to an infantile status concerning an appreciation of the tens of thousands of uses of the vegetable hemp. Simply by changing the way we have been taught to think about this plant, we can clear away the stagnant, constipated, tired and inappropriate thinking inhibiting some of the very best qualities of human innovation, creativity, and resourcefulness for more than half century.

As the documentation below explains, the uses of cannabis hemp are as varied and multi-faceted as any of us could ever possibly imagine or hope for. This plant can indeed provide us solutions to MANY of the critical imbalances we as an industrial culture have created in the brief span of the past few hundred years. From the production of all forms of paper products, to plastics as tough as steel, to fuel that can replace all oil, gas, coal and nuclear power consumption, to a rich source of vegetable oil and protein, to all manner and form of fabrics and textiles, to medicinal products for the management of pain, chronic neurologic diseases, convulsive disorders, migraine headache, anorexia, mental illness, and bacterial infections, to 100% non-toxic paints and varnishes, to lubricants, to building materials that can replace drywall and plywood, to carpets, rope, laces, sails, . . . the list rolls on and on and on.

And the only thing that prevents us from once again employing this premiere raw raw material is the way we have learned to think about hemp:

"You can't use it--it's illegal."
"Even if we could save the planet's life systems by changing that?"

"That's right." This is the kind of frozen, devolutionary thinking we must expand our conscious awareness out beyond to once again encompass the capacity for hopes and dreams of the kind of world we want to, and can, provide our great-grandchildren's great-grandchildren with.

Trust your own infinite intelligence and creativity. There is NO LIMIT to what we as sentient beings can do to change the world for the betterment of all. All we need to appreciate is that any and all change starts with how we consider or think about the world. We can stop cutting down ALL trees used for making paper and fuel; stop extracting and consuming petroleum we continue to spill into the oceans, as well as be partially consumed and end up forever in the atmosphere destroying the protective screen from the sun that has existed for millions of years; we can stop burning coal and begin to end the recently created phenomenon of acid rain; we can stop unearthing uranium and transmuting it into the most deadly man-made substance known to human beings. None of these limited, dirty and expensive forms of energy sources need be relied on anymore. The choice and decision is all of ours to make and implement.

Teach yourselves and all you know or meet about this lifeline to our collective future. Send copies of this post to elected/appointed officials asking them why cannabis hemp/marijuana prohibition laws are allowed to stand when this premier natural resource can truly save the planet, ourselves and all future generations of all life on Mother Earth. The "leaders" will eventually have to follow and change course from the current going `alternative' of "lemming death." (As always a PostScript version of this file is available for any wanting "prettified" page-defined hardcopy.)

                                             -- ratitor
                                                version 1.1

. . . the most important thing is not to be dualistic. Our "original mind" includes everything within itself. It is always rich and sufficient within itself. You should not lose your self-sufficient state of mind. This does not mean a closed mind, but actually an empty mind and a ready mind. If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few. 

-- Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind,
Weatherhill, 1985, p. 21.

transcript of Hugh Downs' commentary on hemp, for ABC News, NY, 11/90:

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Voters in the state of Alaska recently made marijuana illegal again for the first time in 15 years. If Alaska turns out to be like the other 49 states, the law will do little to curb use or production. Even the drug czar himself, William Bennett, has abandoned the drug war now that his "test case" of Washington, D.C., continues to see rising crime figures connected with the drug industry.
Despite the legal trend against marijuana, many Americans continue to buck the trend. Some pro-marijuana organizations in fact tell us that marijuana, also known as hemp, could, as a raw material, save the U.S. economy. That's some statement. Not by smoking it--that's a minor issue. Would you believe that marijuana could replace most oil and energy needs? That marijuana could revolutionize the textile industry and stop foreign imports? Those are the claims.
Some people think marijuana, or hemp, may be the epitome of yankee ingenuity. Mr. Jack Herer, for example, is the national director and founder of an organization called HEMP (that's an acronym for "Help End Marijuana Prohibition") located in Van Nuys, California. Mr. Herer is the author of a remarkable little book called, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, wherein, not surprisingly, Mr. Herer urges the repeal of marijuana prohibition. 

Mr. Herer is not alone. Throughout the war on drugs, several organizations have consistently urged the legalization of marijuana. High Times magazine for example, The National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws or NORML for short, and an organization called BACH--the Business Alliance for Commerce in Hemp.
But the reason the pro-marijuana lobby want marijuana legal has little to do with getting high, and a great deal to do with fighting oil giants like Saddam Hussein, Exxon and Iran. The pro-marijuana groups claim that hemp is such a versatile raw material, that its products not only compete with petroleum, but with coal, natural gas, nuclear energy, pharmaceutical, timber and textile companies.[1]
It is estimated that methane and methanol production alone from hemp grown as biomass could replace 90% of the world's energy needs.[2] If they are right, this is not good news for oil interests and could account for the continuation of marijuana prohibition. The claim is that the threat hemp posed to natural resource companies back in the thirties accounts for its original ban.
At one time marijuana seemed to have a promising future as a cornerstone of industry. When Rudolph Diesel produced his famous engine in 1896, he assumed that the diesel engine would be powered by a variety of fuels, especially vegetable and seed oils. Rudolph Diesel, like most engineers then, believed vegetable fuels were superior to petroleum. Hemp is the most efficient vegetable.
In the 1930s the Ford Motor Company also saw a future in biomass fuels. Ford operated a successful biomass conversion plant, that included hemp, at their Iron Mountain facility in Michigan. Ford engineers extracted methanol, charcoal fuel, tar, pitch, ethyl-acetate and creosote. All fundamental ingredients for modern industry and now supplied by oil-related industries.[2]
The difference is that the vegetable source is renewable, cheap and clean, and the petroleum or coal sources are limited, expensive and dirty. By volume, 30% of the hemp seed contains oil suitable for high-grade diesel fuel as well as aircraft engine and precision machine oil.
Henry Ford's experiments with methanol promised cheap, readily renewable fuel. And if you think methanol means compromise, you should know that many modern race cars run on methanol.
About the time Ford was making biomass methanol, a mechanical device[3] to strip the outer fibers of the hemp plant appeared on the market. These machines could turn hemp into paper and fabrics[4] quickly and cheaply. Hemp paper is superior to wood paper. The first two drafts of the U.S. constitution were written on hemp paper. The final draft is on animal skin. Hemp paper contains no dioxin, or other toxic residue, and a single acre of hemp can produce the same amount of paper as four acres of trees.[5] The trees take 20 years to harvest and hemp takes a single season. In warm climates hemp can be harvested two even three times a year. It also grows in bad soil and restores the nutrients.
Hemp fiber-stripping machines were bad news to the Hearst paper manufacturing division, and a host of other natural resource firms. Coincidentally, the DuPont Chemical Company had, in 1937, been granted a patent on a sulfuric acid process to make paper from wood pulp. At the time DuPont predicted their sulfuric acid process would account for 80% of their business for the next 50 years.
Hemp, once the mainstay of American agriculture, became a threat to a handful of corporate giants. To stifle the commercial threat that hemp posed to timber interests, William Randolph Hearst began referring to hemp in his newspapers, by its Spanish name, "marijuana." This did two things: it associated the plant with Mexicans and played on racist fears, and it misled the public into thinking that marijuana and hemp were different plants.
Nobody was afraid of hemp--it had been cultivated and processed into usable goods, and consumed as medicine, and burned in oil lamps, for hundreds of years. But after a campaign to discredit hemp in the Hearst newspapers, Americans became afraid of something called marijuana.
By 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act was passed which marked the beginning of the end of the hemp industry. In 1938, Popular Mechanics ran an article about marijuana called, "New Billion Dollar Crop."[6] It was the first time the words "billion dollar" were used to describe a U.S. agricultural product. Popular Mechanics said,

. . . a machine has been invented which solves a problem more than 6,000 years old. . . .The machine . . . is designed for removing the fiber-bearing cortex from the rest of the stalk, making hemp fiber available for use without a prohibitive amount of human labor.
Hemp is the standard fiber of the world. It has great tensile strength and durability. It is used to produce more than 5,000 textile products ranging from rope, to fine laces, and the woody "hurds" remaining after the fiber has been removed, contain more than seventy-seven per cent cellulose, and can be used to produce more than 25,000 products ranging from dynamite to cellophane.

Well since the Popular Mechanics article appeared over half a century ago, many more applications have come to light. Back in 1935, more than 58,000 tons of marijuana seed were used just to make paint and varnish (all non-toxic, by the way). When marijuana was banned, these safe paints and varnishes were replaced by paints made with toxic petro-chemicals. In the 1930s no one knew about poisoned rivers or deadly land-fills or children dying from chemicals in house paint. People did know something about hemp back then, because the plant and its products were so common.
All ships lines were made from hemp and much of the sail canvas. (In fact the word "canvas" is the Dutch pronunciation of the Greek word for hemp, "cannabis.") All ropes, hawsers and lines aboard ship, all rigging, nets, flags and pennants were also made from marijuana stalks. And so were all charts, logs and bibles.
Today many of these items are made, in whole or in part, with synthetic petro-chemicals and wood. All oil lamps used to burn hemp-seed oil until the whale oil edged it out of first place in the mid-nineteenth century. And then, when all the whales were dead, lamplights were fueled by petroleum, and coal, and recently radioactive energy.[7]
This may be hard to believe in the middle of a war on drugs, but the first law concerning marijuana in the colonies at Jamestown in 1619, ordered farmers to grow Indian hemp. Massachussetts passed a compulsory grow law in 1631. Connecticut followed in 1632. The Chesapeake colonies ordered their farmers, by law, to grow marijuana in the mid-eighteenth century. Names like Hempstead or Hemphill dot the American landscape and reflect areas of intense marijuana cultivation.
During World War II, domestic hemp production became crucial when the Japanese cut off Asian supplies to the U.S. American farmers (and even their sons), who grew marijuana, were exempt from military duty during World War II. A 1942 U.S. Department of Agriculture film called Hemp For Victory extolled the agricultural might of marijuana and called for hundreds of thousands of acres to be planted.[8] Despite a rather vigorous drug crackdown, 4-H clubs were asked by the government to grow marijuana for seed supply. Ironically, war plunged the government into a sober reality about marijuana and that is that it's very valuable.
In today's anti-drug climate, people don't want to hear about the commercial potential of marijuana. The reason is that the flowering top of a female hemp plant contains a drug. But from 1842 through the 1890s a powerful concentrated extract of marijuana was the second most prescribed drug in the United States. In all that time the medical literature didn't list any of the ill effects claimed by today's drug warriors.[9]
Today, there are anywhere from 25 to 30 million Americans who smoke marijuana regularly. As an industry, marijuana clears well more than $4 billion a year. [This must have been a misreading of his notes--for 1990, the minimum figure would have been at least $40 billion for the entire nation. (phone interview with Jack Herer)] Obviously, as an illegal business, none of that money goes to taxes. But the modern marijuana trade only sells one product, a drug. Hemp could be worth considerably more than $4 [$40] billion a year, if it were legally supplying the 50,000 safe products the proponents claim it can.
If hemp could supply the energy needs of the United States, its value would be inestimable. Now that the drug czar is in final retreat, America has an opportunity to, once and for all, say farewell to the Exxon Valdez, Saddam Hussein and a prohibitively expensive brinkmanship in the desert sands of Saudi Arabia.

This is Hugh Downs, ABC News, New York.

3 More Reasons to Legalize Industrial Hemp

There are numerous undeniably beneficial reasons to legalize hemp. U.S. imports of hemp and hemp products increased more than 300% over the last decade. We are spending millions (or more) on the plant when we could be making millions instead. The problem, however, is that industrialized hemp remains banned by the federal government while hemp products do not. This means we must buy our hemp from other countries – countries who are seriously profiting from our growing demand. I gave you some reasons for hemp legalization last week. But, if that wasn’t enough, here are some more:

Hemp was Once Grown in Every Household

Did you know hemp was grown by the founding fathers of this nation? It was. In 1619, the Virginia General Assembly passed a law requiring every household to grow the crop. It’s value was undeniable and it was even used as legal tender in early colonies. As recently as World War II, the federal government subsidized the plant. This means they actually paid U.S. farmers to grow it. For fuel, textiles, rope, animal bedding and feed—hemp’s use in the United States is far from a new occurrence. While hemp remains illegal, the U.S. government is subsidizing much safer (sarcasm) GMO crops.

Not all age-old practices are acceptable, but this one is.

Hemp is Green

In addition to being historically cultivated (and prized), hemp production is measured “greener” than many other crops. It’s sustainable and can be grown in the same plot of land year after year, not depleting the soil like some other crops. It can actually be used as a rotation crop, helping to regenerate the soil normally used to grow things like soybeans. Further, the plant doesn’t need as much fertilizer as corn, nor does it need to swim in pesticides. When planted with other crops, the roots can prevent runoff and erosion while the leaves can protect paired plants from the elements.

Hemp actually removes soil contaminants. Phytoremediation removes a variety of toxins from the soil including pesticides, metals, oil, and even nuclear contaminants. Its system of roots acts as a filter, stabilizing contaminants within the soil. Hemp was even planted at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster to help remove nuclear toxins.

More Jobs

Finally, with the national unemployment rate hovering somewhere near 8% (an estimate quite low in reality), legalizing industrial hemp could bring jobs back to the country. Currently, we are employing workers in other countries to supply hemp products to meet our demands—to the tune of $400 million in retail sales alone in 2010. Not only could legalizing hemp give farmers another source of viable income, it could create an hemp production, manufacturing, and distribution industry.

We aren’t talking about marijuana here, the plant that gets you high (though that should be legal too). This is hemp – the cannabis plant that doesn’t offer psychoactive effects. And while there are sufficient reasons for legalizing pot, the legalization of this particular plant offers reasons of its own, namely as a potential windfall for a beleaguered economy and a return to what the originators of this country rightfully saw as a crucial natural resource. And of course, our rights and freedom.

Source: http://naturalsociety.com/3-more-reasons-to-legalize-industrial-hemp/

Let Our Farmers Grow Hemp!

Back in the day before America was misled into believing a whole slew of lies, the good old U.S.A. was a worldwide center of hemp production. Beautiful fields of this incredibly useful crop were cultivated all over the country. 

Right before prohibition went into effect in the U.S., two articles about hemp appeared in major U.S. magazines. 

They were:

"The Most Profitable And Desirable Crop That Can Be Grown" 

From: Mechanical Engineering, February 26, 1937

It stated that if hemp was cultivated using 20th Century technology, it would be the single largest agricultural crop in the U.S. and the rest of the world. 

"New Billion Dollar Crop" From: Popular Mechanics, February 1938

 It was the first time a cash crop had a business potential to exceed a billion dollars.

In the 1930's, innovations in farm machinery would have caused an industrial revolution when applied to hemp. This single resource could have created millions of new jobs generating thousands of quality products. Hemp, if not made illegal, would have brought America out of the Great Depression.

William Randolph Hearst and the Hearst Paper Manufacturing Division of Kimberly Clark owned vast acreage of timberlands. The Hearst Company supplied most paper products. Patty Hearst's grandfather, a destroyer of nature for his own personal profit, stood to lose billions of dollars because of hemp.

In 1937, Dupont patented the processes to make plastics from oil and coal. Dupont's Annual Report urged stockholders to invest in its new petrochemical division. Synthetics such as plastics, cellophane, celluloid, methanol, nylon, rayon, Dacron, etc., could now be made from oil. Natural hemp industrialization would have ruined over 80% of Dupont's business. 

I think most of us would agree.....Hemp is a superior resource making it the ultimate cash crop, producing more fiber, food and oil than any other plant on this planet!



One acre of Hemp produces:


8,000 pounds of Hemp seed per acre. When cold-pressed, the 8,000 pounds of hemp seed yield over 300 gallons of hemp seed oil and a byproduct of
6,000 pounds of high protein hemp flour.

These seed oils are both a food and a biodiesel fuel. Currently, the most productive seed oil crops are soybeans, sunflower seeds and rape seed or canola. Each of these three seed oil crops produce between 100 to 120 gallons of oil per acre. Hemp seed produces three times more oil per acre than the next most productive seed oil crops, or over 300 gallons per acre, with a byproduct of 3 tons of food per acre. Hemp seed oil is also far more nutritious and beneficial for our health than any other seed oil crop.


In addition to the food and oil produced, there are several other byproducts and benefits to the cultivation of Hemp.



Six to ten tons per acre of hemp bast fiber. Bast fiber makes canvas, rope, lace, linen, and ultra-thin specialty papers like cigarette and bible papers.


Twenty-five tons of hemp hurd fiber. Hemp hurd fiber makes all grades of paper, composite building materials, animal bedding and a material for the absorption of liquids and oils.


The deep tap root draws up sub-soil nutrients and then, when the leaves fall from the plant to the ground, they return these nutrients to the top soil for the next crop rotation.


The residual flowers, after the seeds are extracted, produce many valuable medicines.



Our farmers need this valuable crop to be returned as an option for commercial agriculture.

Hemp has been considered to be the plant that started humans down the road toward civilization with the invention of agriculture itself. All archaeologists agree that Hemp was among the first crops purposely cultivated by human beings at least over 6,000 years ago, and maybe even more than 12,000 years ago.


Restoring industrial Hemp to its rightful place in agriculture today will return much control to our farmers, and away from the multinational corporations that dominate our political process and destroy our environment. These capital-intensive, non-sustainable, and environmentally destructive industries have selfishly destroyed our economic resources particularly the world's forests, caused massive oil spills, wars, toxic waste, massive worldwide pollution, global warming and the destruction of entire ecosystems all around the world.

It's time we STOP THE MADNESS and catch up with other countries around the world!

AUSTRALIA, AUSTRIA, CANADA, CHINA, FRANCE, GERMANY, HUNGARY, JAPAN,
NETHERLANDS, NEW ZEALAND, POLAND, RUSSIA, TURKEY, UKRAINE, KOREA,
PORTUGAL, THAILAND and many more!

If the U.S. does not legalize hemp for commercial use, a significant economic and environmental opportunity will continue to be lost and the benefits will only be reaped by our economic competitors.

Although we consider the majority of them friends and have nothing but respect for countries like Canada; where we import our seed from to be able to provide Versativa Hemp Products, we as citizens of America have got to come together and take a stand for what is our god given right to be able to provide and opportunity for each other and future generations to come!

Until next time friends, Thanks for taking a minute to stop by and supporting the movement. We're always glad to connect with like-minded people and even more glad to continue our mission of.........H.elping E.ducate M.isinformed P.eople. 

If you're as passionate as we are about Hemp, then we encourage you to consider connecting with us and thousands of other like-minded people in the Versativa Movement.

The Versativa brand is quite possibly the biggest eco-solution of our time. It’s bigger than all of us and will never manifest in one broad stroke. Versativa is our trademark name for Hemp which specializes in High-Quality Hemp Nutrional Products and to distinguish it for what it is, not for what it was wrongfully made out to be. Once before in American history Hemp saved our economy and it is now making its profound comeback through millions of  people like you and I.