HEMP: HIPPIE HYPE OR HELPFUL HERB?

            Cannabis sativa has been called a miracle plant, and for many more reasons than its hallucinogenic properties.  More commonly known as hemp, it is actually a variant of the plant that produces marijuana and contains less than one percent tetrahydrocannabinol (TCH), the hallucinogenic chemical found in marijuana (which has three percent or more THC).  Instead of giving people a buzz, hemp’s fibers can be used to produce everything from paper to business suits to houses; it can be broken down to ethanol and used as a fuel to heat homes and power cars, or its seeds and oil can add essential nutrients and a nutty taste to a wide variety of foods, and according to hemp advocates, those are just a few of thousands of possibilities.  But if hemp is the answer to so many different needs, it would seem likely that it would be widely cultivated in the United States, a world leader in agriculture, as well as in the production and consumption of paper, textiles, and fuel. Instead, the exact opposite is true; hemp is rarely used in the United States, where it cannot be grown legally, and hemp products, often imported from China or India, are heavily regulated (Robinson 1996).  This was not always the case; hemp was one of the most important crops in the U.S. Colonies, and its ability to provide colonists with clothing, rope and sails for ships, and paper that didn’t have to be imported from England was one of the arguments for secession used by Thomas Paine in Common Sense (Robinson 1997).  Hemp later became extremely important to the United States in another fight against tyranny; though the government had effectively banned hemp cultivation in 1937, it began to subsidize it during World War II to meet the demand for rope, clothing, and parachute webbing.  Cultivation was stopped again after the war, however, due to the enforcement of drug laws banning marijuana and the restriction on growing hemp continues today (Robinson 1996).  However, with the world facing problems such as deforestation, pollution, and global climate change, hemp could once again hear the call of duty and help us fight against practices and products that degrade the environment.  If the negative stigma associated with hemp can be erased, it could provide a sustainable source of fiber that could be used in countless products. 

           

In his book Hemp Horizons: the Comeback of the World’s Most Promising Plant (1997), John Roulac describes a possible future scenario in a society where hemp has many uses:

So imagine that one day within the next ten years, you wake up in a house whose walls, roof, flooring, insulation, and paint are derived from hemp.  You feel great after sleeping on your hemp-stuffed mattress, covered with soft linens spun from hemp fiber.  Your feet sink into the hemp carpeting as you get out of bed and open the hemp drapes.  It’s a beautiful morning.

 

            Roulac goes on to describe your morning as you shower with soaps made from hemp oil, eat foods that contain hemp seed, dress in hemp clothing, and drive to work in a car built with hemp composites and powered by fuel derived from hemp.  While the scene he imagines may seem far-fetched, all of the hemp products he describes can and have been created. 

Hemp Paper   

Probably the most immediately promising application of hemp is its use as a substitute for tree pulp in paper.  Hemp paper is by no means a new idea, however; the Chinese were using hemp paper as early as 100 BC.  Gutenberg’s first Bibles were printed on hemp, and here in the U.S., the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were both signed on hemp paper (Robinson 1997).  Because hemp is acid-free, many of these early documents have survived as historical records; had they been printed on wood-pulp paper produced before acid removing treatments were available, the would have disintegrated within 100 years. 

            Hemp’s strength and longevity are not its only advantages over tree pulp, however; using hemp for paper is far more sustainable and environmentally friendly than timber harvesting.  Since commercial timber harvesting began in North America a little over a century ago, 97 percent of the continent’s mature forests have been cut down, contributing to topsoil erosion, waterway pollution, the loss of habitat for many terrestrial species, and fewer trees to help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (Robinson 1996).  About half of the trees that are harvested in North America are used to produce paper products, so replacing tree pulp with another source of fiber could significantly reduce problems associated with deforestation (Robinson 1996).  This will become increasingly important if paper consumption continues to rise as it has over the last 90 years—worldwide consumption totaled 14 million tons in 1913 and rose to 250 million tons in the 1990’s, even as technological advances made electronic communication an alternative to using paper (Roulac 1997).  Another significant environmental advantage to hemp is its density; per acre, hemp yields about four times more fiber than trees.  The plant’s density also shades out any weeds that can grow, eliminating the need for herbicides that pollute the soil and get into groundwater (Robinson 1996).  Hemp also has very few pests, so pesticides, which can also pollute the soil and be dangerous to humans and other animals, are also rarely needed (Roulac 1997).  In addition, hemp can be cultivated yearly, while trees take 20-30 years to mature enough to be harvested for pulp, and it can be grown in a wide range of climates, allowing it to be grown locally to where it would be processed (Robinson 1996).  In contrast, many U.S. paper companies have begun to import wood from tropical countries.  Harvesting this wood takes valuable resources away from local communities, and transporting costs money and adds to fossil fuel pollution (Roulac 1997). 

            Actually producing hemp into paper is also more environmentally friendly than producing paper from either tree pulp or, surprisingly, post-consumer recycled paper.  Although recycling post-consumer paper waste reduces the number of trees that need to be cut for new paper, thereby reducing deforestation and habitat loss, the processing needed to remove ink from post-consumer recycled paper creates more pollution than processing virgin wood.  While 100 tons of paper produced from virgin wood creates five tons of sludge that can sometimes be used as fertilizer, 100 tons of paper produced from post-consumer waste paper produces 40 tons of sludge that must be disposed of carefully in landfills due to its toxicity (Robinson 1996).  Hemp, on the other hand, is processed into paper using an ammonia-sulfate-alcohol process whose by-products can be pumped back into the system, producing no pollution (Robinson 1996). 

Other Hemp Products

             Paper is not the only product in which wood can be replaced with hemp; in fact, hemp can be used as a substitute for wood in almost every type of wood product (Roulac 1997).  Its biggest use so far has been in fiberboard, a non-structural wood composite material often used in furniture, cabinetry, and wood paneling.  Because it has longer fibers than wood, fiberboard made from hemp is significantly stronger.  Hemp also tends not to mildew and is more insect resistant and fire resistant than wood (Robinson 1997).

            The substitution of hemp is not limited to wood products, however; it can also be used in place of fiberglass, processed into paints and solvents, and used to manufacture almost any type of plastic—all products that traditionally require the refining of non-renewable petroleum resources and other chemicals.  Finished products made from hemp are completely biodegradable or recyclable (Rowan 1997).  The possibilities for hemp in manufacturing were apparent even as early as the 1930’s, when Henry Ford took advantage of hemp’s incredible strength and versatility to manufacture cars out of materials created from hemp, citing the environment as his primary reasoning.  “Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forests and mineral products in the annual growth of the fields?” he asked (Roulac 1997).  Using the same reasoning today, some European automobile companies are using hemp cellulose to build cars that are almost completely organic and biodegradable, right down to brake and clutch linings made from hemp (Roulac 1997).  Within the last few years, hemp has even been used to build houses.  Several French companies have developed processes to turn hemp hurds into a plaster like material that is stronger yet lighter than concrete, as well as more flexible (Roulac 1997 and Robinson 1997). 

Hemp vs. Cotton

            While the possibilities of hemp in everyday products seem almost endless, the most viable use for hemp next to paper is probably in textiles.  Just as hemp can be cultivated instead of trees, it can also be grown in place of cotton with several environmental advantages.  As it does in paper and building materials, hemp’s long fibers give it the strength to create a finished product that is much stronger and more durable than one produced out of more common materials (Roulac 1997).  In textiles, more durability means longer lasting products, which will be used longer before being disposed of; this equates to less garbage and a reduction in the amount of textiles that have to be produced.  In addition, almost all textile products that can be made from hemp can later be recycled and used to produce hemp paper or other hemp-based products (Robinson 1997). 

The environmental advantages of hemp textiles are not simply limited to the finished product; growing hemp is also much more environmentally friendly than growing cotton.  Though grown on only one percent of the United States’ agricultural land, cotton uses more than 25 percent of the pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and defoliants used in the country, chemicals that can pollute soil and groundwater and be extremely dangerous to humans (Roulac 1997).  Hemp on the other hand, requires no chemicals to grow, and has advantages even over organically grown cotton, which requires much more irrigation, contributing to erosion and desertification (Robinson 1997).

Healthy Hemp

            In addition to being healthy for the environment, hemp is healthy for humans and animals too.   Hemp seed can be harvested and processed into a wide range of foods, from hemp flour to hemp milk and hemp burgers.  Many consumers find its nutty taste to be better than soybeans, and it has higher protein content (Robinson 1997).  Hempseed oil is also one of only a few natural sources that contain all of the essential fatty acids, lipids required by the body but found only in food.  The oil is particularly known for its high levels of the omega-3 fatty acid, which helps lower cholesterol and blood pressure (Robinson 1997). 

            Hemp can also be used for a variety of personal care products, from soaps and cosmetics to baby diapers and feminine hygiene products (thanks to hemp’s highly absorptive properties) (Robinson 1996).  While these food and personal care products may not seem to be directly environmentally friendly, the fact that they are produced from hemp that is grown and processed in a more sustainable and less polluting way than other oils and chemical-based products does have significant environmental implications. 

HEMP AS A FUEL

            In a car made almost entirely of hemp, from the exterior panels made of strong hemp fibers and resins, to the cushiony interior upholstery made from hemp and the engine parts made from hemp composites, only one thing is missing: a way to actually make the car run on hemp.  While this may sound somewhat futuristic, the technology does actually exist to turn hemp into ethanol and use it to power cars, heat homes, and do all the other things traditional, non-renewable energy sources do (Roulac 1997).  Last summer, the Hemp Car, a 1983 Mercedes that was converted to run on biodiesel (a cleaner substitute for gasoline) created from hempseed oil, made a tour across the United States, demonstrating the possibility of using hemp as a fuel.  The car produced 80% less greenhouse gases than a standard gasoline-burning automobile (Baard 2001)

Though the technology for producing biofuels from hemp has not been perfected and probably will not be for quite some time unless the public drastically changes their automobile buying habits and politicians can be pried out of bed with big oil, the possibility does exist for much cleaner fuels processed from sustainable resources.  In addition to sustainability and lower emissions, reliance on biofuels would bring many other environmental advantages, including the elimination of mining and drilling (meaning that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could stay untouched) and as a result, the elimination of oil spills (Robinson 1996).  The economic advantages are plentiful as well; with crops for biomass being produced locally, communities would gain jobs and industry, and shipping costs would be greatly reduced.  Growing biofuel crops in the United States could help end our dependence on foreign oil, and eliminate the possibility of any more Gulf War-like conflicts (Robinson 1996).  Though many different agricultural products could be used for biofuel, hemp should be at the top of the list because of its high yield, versatile growing conditions, and ease of growing organically, as well as the fact that energy from hemp could simply be converted from the waste from the production of other hemp products, such as paper, textiles, and foods (Robinson 1997). 

Making it Hemp-en

            With so many possible benefits to the consumer, the economy, and the environment, it seems surprising that hemp is not widely cultivated in the United States.  The reason is largely political, and stems from hemp’s association with marijuana.  After more than a century as one of America’s most important crops, hemp largely disappeared from the fields after the Marijuana Tax Act was passed in 1937 (Roulac 1997).  At this point, no one had isolated TCH as the hallucinogenic ingredient in Cannabis, so even though there were obvious differences between hemp that was smoked and hemp that was harvested for industrial use, farmers who grew only industrial hemp found themselves under the microscope of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (a precursor to the DEA).  Though the FBN promised not to make the growing of industrial hemp illegal, increased restrictions and regulations encouraged farmers to find other crops (Roulac 1997).  While industrial hemp never did actually become illegal, over time the definitions of hemp and marijuana blurred, and when Congress passed the still-current Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act (CDAPCA) in 1970, the definition of marijuana gave few provisions for industrial hemp (Roulac 1997).  As hemp began to regain some of its prominence in the last few years thanks to a small, environmentally conscious niche market, the DEA began to take a closer look at hemp once again.  Last October, the DEA released a clarification of its definition of marijuana, which stated that “the legitimate industrial uses of ‘hemp’ allowed under the 1937 act will generally be allowed under this rule” (Federal Register 2001).  The new rules went on to say that products produced from hemp that do not contain TCH or can not be ingested into the body will remain legal, but the rules did not address whether non-TCH containing hemp may be grown in the U.S., which according to DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson is a moot point.  “Many Americans do not know that hemp and marijuana are both parts of the same plant and that hemp cannot be produced without producing marijuana,” he stated in a media advisory (DEA 2001).  With this assertion, he flatly denied scientific evidence that shows hemp can be grown without producing TCH, proving that a lack of distinction between the two types of Cannabis could be one major factor keeping hemp from being used for its many applications (Roulac 1997).   Ironically enough, other countries, as well as other government agencies here in the U.S., do make the distinction; both NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) and the General Agreement on Trades and Commodities (GATT) cite hemp as an important international commodity, and in Canada and Germany, where hemp began to be cultivated several years ago, both governments explicitly state that varieties of Cannabis containing high levels of TCH should not be confused with industrial hemp (Roulac 1997). 

With all of the confusion surrounding hemp and marijuana, the first step toward using hemp to its fullest potential is education.  The public and the government both need to be educated about the differences between the two varieties of Cannabis.  As the benefits of hemp become more widely known, public pressure should encourage the government to consider legalizing and encouraging cultivation of the plant.  Difficulties will still be present, however, since many legislators have ties to the timber and oil industries, both of which could be threatened by extensive hemp use. 

Even if hemp is legalized in the United States, it will still be a long time before it will reach the status of cotton, wood, and petroleum, because as yet, cost-effective methods of harvesting and processing hemp have not been refined for large-scale production (Robinson 1996).  However, if hemp were gradually incorporated into American agriculture, after an initial investment and a little patience it could turn out to be far more cost-effective than other materials since the long-term cost of environmental degradation would be significantly lowered (Roulac 1997).

Finding land for hemp cultivation could also present a challenge, though several possibilities exist.  In southern states, farmers who grow tobacco have been increasingly affected by anti-smoking campaigns and negative public opinion of tobacco.  Many of these farmers are already lobbying for the legalization of hemp as a crop that could revitalize their farms and local economies (Roulac 1997).  The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been looking into the benefits of hemp for years as a crop that would grow very well in the United States.  Hemp has been shown to be a good rotation crop with corn, wheat, peas, beans, potatoes, oats, barley, and soybeans, all crops that are commonly grown in the Midwest and the South (Robinson 1996).  Hemp can even help these crops grow more sustainably by leaving the soil weed-free for whatever is to be grown next, which also makes it a good part of a crop rotation on an organic farm (Roulac 1997).  In addition, hemp can leave the field fairly well fertilized for the next crop if a practice called field retting is used.  Retting is the process of separating the fibers of the hemp from the core after allowing the plant to rot for a few weeks once it has been cut; with field retting, the hemp is left in the field until it begins to rot, which allows the flow of nutrients back into the soil (Roulac 1997).

In addition to maintaining soil quality, growing hemp can even help to improve it.  Hemp has been shown to draw contaminants out of the soil, so it could be planted on land that is considered too contaminated for farming, or it could be used to clean up the soil after pesticides and herbicides have been used, though in both cases the resulting crop would have to be used in materials that wouldn’t release the toxins when processed, such as fiberboard (Roulac 1997).

Overall, the advantages to growing industrial hemp seem to outweigh the disadvantages of having to carefully regulate the crop to ensure that farmers do not begin growing varieties that contain TCH.  However, even this shouldn’t be too much of a challenge; according to Roulac however, the difference in the plants’ appearances are enough that law enforcement officials could easily be trained to distinguish the two; non-TCH varieties of hemp are tall and have no branches and few leaves, while marijuana is shorter, with more branches, leaves and flowers (Roulac 1997)

 

Legalization and cultivation of hemp in the U.S. may not be the key to solving all of the world’s problems as some hemp advocates claim, but hemp has been shown to be an incredibly versatile plant that, with a little effort, can be grown sustainably.  If hemp is to ever be used to its fullest potential, however, more research needs to be done and cost-effective methods of harvesting and processing the plant must be developed.  Both of these require that the negative stigma surrounding hemp be erased, which can only happen if people are educated about the difference between hemp and marijuana and the benefits of using hemp over other materials like tree pulp, cotton, and fossil fuels.  Once public opinion is swayed, legislators will be much more likely to reconsider their position on hemp.  Currently, about 15 other countries, including Germany, France and Canada, allow hemp cultivation (Robinson 1996).  These nations are witnessing first-hand how the crop can make a difference to the environment, but if hemp is to ever have a lasting impact, a world power such as the United States will need to lead the way in developing sustainable methods for harvesting and processing it.  With the rapid destruction of forests and good agricultural lands and the mounting evidence that petroleum and oil products contribute to global climate change, the time is coming when we will have no choice but to find sustainable alternatives; we would have to be hallucinating not to consider hemp to be one of the best choices. 

References

 

Baard, Erik. (2001, August 14).  “Refill Madness.”  The Village Voice, pp. 32-34.

 

“Exemption from Control of Certain Industrial Products and Materials Derived from the Cannabis Plant.” (2001, October 9).  Federal Register, vol. 66, no. 195, pp. 51539-51544.

 

Robinson, Rowan.  (1997).  The Hemp Manifesto.  Rochester, VT: Park Street Press.

 

Robinson, Rowan. (1996).  The Great Book of Hemp: the Complete Guide to the Environmental, Commercial, and Medicinal Uses of the World’s Most Extraordinary Plant.  Rochester, VT: Park Street Press.

 

Roulac, John W. (1997).  Hemp Horizons: The Comeback of the World’s Most Promising Plant.  White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Company. 

 

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.  (2001, October 9).  Media Advisory: DEA Clarifies Status of Hemp in the Federal Register.  Retrieved April 5, 2002, from http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/advisories/pa100901.html