HEMP: THE CORE CROP

Hemp. The word alone brings a series of images running through my head. The one that sits with me the most is an image of a older man with dread locks sitting on his front porch smoking a spliff wearing those horrifying shoes made out of hemp that people have nicknamed “Jesus shoes”. Are my presumptions rightfully so? The DEA as of 1997 seems to believe so even though the fiber itself contains too little of THC (the hallucinogenic substance in marijuana) to even have that sort of effect. Is it time to leave our assumptions of hemp in the past along with the 70’s?

While hemp is most closely associated with linen, which is made from the fibers of the flax plant, linen only occupies 1% of the market share. And while hemp produces significantly quicker than flax (“flax grows once every six or seven years… while hemp can be grown every two or three years”) the benefits of hemp are endless as the uses for the fibers are extremely diverse (Hemp: Historic Fiber Remains Controversial). Hemp does seem like the best alternative to linen but this isn’t where the problem lies, cotton is the most applied fiber in the industry and is also responsible for taking the largest toll on our environment. Cotton is responsible for polluting the water and soil because of use of pesticides, but “because hemp is naturally resistant to mold, bacteria and pests, it is grown without pesticides, herbicides or agricultural chemicals, except some fertilization” (Hemp: Historic Fiber Remains Controversial). The entire hemp plant can be used whether it is for paper, food, and clothing or building materials, it seems almost as if this fiber has no downsides. But before we all get a natural high off the idea of this beneficial fiber there is a drawback. The high cost of hemp due to the multi-stage processing makes it much more expensive when compared to cotton.  The limited quantities available also add to that since only six states in the United States are legally allowed to grow industrial hemp. Hemp Times’ John Howell likes to call this added fee of hemp the “green rate” and believes that people will be willing to pay more knowing the undeniable benefits to our environment.

When reading about the tests that hemp went through to determine its strength when compared to cotton hemp tolerate 19.9 pounds of pressure while cotton could only withstand 12.7 pounds. This made me think about one of my favorite go to items: jeans.  I have had several pairs of jeans split in the crotch area and some of those pairs hadn’t been worn for more than a couple months. If those pairs of jeans were made out of hemp I possibly would never have had that issue of them splitting and me in need for a new pair. This makes me wonder about the demand for jeans, if the life of jeans could be extended by using hemp to construct them people would hold onto pairs for many more years and this could possibly affect the demand for jeans which could possibly result in the industry lessening there production. This leads me to believe hemp could really be a “miracle” fiber.

The documentary Hempsters: Plant the Seed follows the lives of seven hemp activists who are trying to legalize the growth of hemp in the United States. Early on in the film you see the sheriff being called to catch Woody Harrelson in the act of growing hemp. In the same state of Kentucky, Harrelson was growing hemp he was also invited into teacher, Donna Cockrel who is also a hemp activist to speak to her 5^th grade class on the benefits of hemp use. Harrelson even showed off his outfit to the class in which he bragged that everything he was wearing was made out of hemp. The teacher was later fired for bringing Harrelson into her class and the case was settled in court. The activists are very serious in getting the point across of the differences between hemp and marijuana.