“My friend across the border in Manitoba, Canada, is making money raising industrial hemp. I am losing money by raising wheat.”
– North Dakota State Representative David Monson
Hemp plants are good for the soil. The roots of the plant mine nutrients from below the soil, bringing them up to the top of the plant, where the nutrients end up in the leaves. The leaves are naturally high in nitrogen, a soil nutrient. As the plant grows, it continually sheds its leaves, providing for a buildup of the soil base. When hemp is harvested it is often cut and left in the fields for a number of days. During this time more leaves fall off, giving the topsoil a nutritive boost. Even when the plant is not left in the field, the leaves that are removed in the processing can be composted and returned to the soil as a nutrient. Because hemp improves soil and needs no harsh chemicals to grow, it is an excellent crop to grow in seasonal rotation with other crops.
“A limiting factor in sustainable agriculture is the lack of profitable rotation crops. Hemp could be quite profitable as it fits well into the corn-soybean rotation. The University of Minnesota has suggested that the corn-soybean rotation is unsustainable. Farmers are losing money and equity on the corn-soybean rotation. In North Dakota, farmers have been making more money by selling wheat straw to particleboard [manufacturing] plants than from the wheat itself. Due to the bulkiness of hemp fiber, processing facilities will have to be built near the production areas. This will provide new jobs and investment in rural America.”
– North American Industrial Hemp Council, NAIHC.org; 2006
“The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.”
– Franklin D. Roosevelt
Another way hemp plants are beneficial to farms is that it “chokes out” weeds. The plant is typically grown in rows that are only four inches apart. Because it creates a lot of shade and grows so densely, it prevents weeds from growing to adulthood, thus sprouting the weed seeds, but preventing more seeds from forming because many of the weeds die before they are able to produce seed. The result is that after the hemp is harvested, the soil is ideal for planting with another crop but without the problem of weeds. This reduces the use of toxic herbicides (weed killers) that are carcinogenic and a major source of land, aquifer, and water pollution.
More than half of the hemp farms in Canada do use herbicides and other farming chemicals, but the demand for organic hemp is a driving force for farmers to use organic farming methods. Hemp grown using chemical fertilizers yields more seeds, which bring in more money per acre. This means that organic hemp seed products cost more for consumers. As the demand for organic hemp increases, the farmers are developing ways to successfully grow and harvest hemp with greater yields using organic methods that will satisfy the organic market. As more farmers grow organic hemp, the prices improve for consumers.
Hemp can also be used to provide fast-growing ground cover in areas where fire and floods have left land barren and susceptible to erosion. The deep root system of the hemp plant helps prevent erosion of the soil. After the hemp is harvested it leaves behind loose soil that is perfect for growing other plants.
Now that the tobacco industry is finally losing some of its undeserved appeal for investors, it would be a good thing if the tobacco farmers could start growing hemp instead of tobacco on part or all of their land. Whereas growing tobacco is labor-intensive and requires massive amounts of fertilizer, often in the form of manure, hemp is a relatively easy crop to grow, and leaves the soil in better shape than before the hemp crop was planted. Turning a tobacco farm into a hemp farm would be an easy transition and the crop would have an instant market as it can be sold to the numerous companies that already import raw hemp materials from other countries. The farmland already exists, and hemp flourishes in the same climate as tobacco, corn, oats, wheat, flax, cotton, and soybeans – which make up a large chunk of the world’s farmlands. Hemp would make an excellent rotation crop with these other crops.
“Seeding should not begin until soil temperatures have reached a minimum of 42-46°F (6-8°C). Hemp seed germinates within 24 to 48 hours, and emerges in five to seven days with good moisture and warm temperature. Hemp grown for fiber should be seeded as early as possible while hemp for grain should be seeded later to minimize the height of the stalk.
… Fiber hemp is normally ready to harvest in 70 to 90 days after seeding.
… Retting is carried out in the field and depending on the weather it takes 14 to 21 days to be completed. During retting, the stems need to be turned one or two times in order to allow for even retting, since the stems close to the ground will remain green while the top ones are retted and turn brown. Retting is complete when the fibres turn golden or grayish colour and separate easily from wood in finer fibers.”
– A Cropping Guide for Farmers: Industrial Hemp Production, by Peter Dragla M. Sc., Redgetown College, University of Guelph, Kenex Research Associate; Kenex.com/FarmersGuide.html; quoted in A Practical Guide to Hemp, HempLobby.org
“[Hemp] could make the very difference between the survival of the family farm and its extinction. It is much more valuable than corn or other grains and has many markets.”
– Willie Nelson
Farmers may be interested in growing hemp as a rotation crop to help build the soil base, rest the land, prevent flooding, kill off noxious and invasive weeds, work as wind blocks, and provide a bonus crop between crop seasons. Hemp grows in all 50 states and this can help local economies flourish, become less dependent on outside sources, and create their own fuel. Family farmers and small companies can benefit financially by creating markets for their hemp products.
Hemp yields approximately three to four tons of dry stalk per acre, and up to more than four times more fiber than some types of trees commonly used for paper. This is similar to the kenaf plant, but hemp has a much greater range of uses. The kenaf plant is also not frost resistant, and has a longer growing season than hemp. Thus, hemp can be established as a superior crop.
Commercial, genetically engineered trees can produce more biomass and pulp per acre than hemp. Genetically engineered forest can also produce as much as six or more tons of biomass per acre annually. But the environmental problems caused by genetically engineered trees greatly surpass the benefits. (To learn more about the dangers of genetic engineering of plants, access: seedsofdeception.com.)
“Cotton uses half of all the chemicals that are used in American agriculture every year! That’s around 30 million pounds annually. That’s not good for the soil, air, water, or you. Hemp, on the other hand, is largely critter resistant, chokes out weeds effectively, and can grow in conditions that would make a cottonseed yell ‘uncle!’ Hemp fiber is at least three times as strong [as cotton] and it’s nice and soft when spun into fabric.”
– Rob Moseley, Kentucky Hemp Outfitters, KentuckyHemp.com
Hemp is easier to grow than cotton. Hemp has few natural predators, but cotton fields are typically sprayed with large quantities of pesticides, herbicides, and defoliants. Cotton farms also use chemical growth regulators that trigger even growth of the crop. Switching to hemp from cotton farming would eliminate the thousands of tons of pesticides, herbicides, and defoliants used on non-organic cotton fields every year.
“Industrial hemp processing produces different materials depending on which element of the plant is the major goal of the production. In most hemp growing areas of Europe the crop is being grown densely to produce long strong fibers for the specialty papers sector, and reinforcement fibers for the automotive trade. In China it is grown in the same way to produce fiber for the textile industry. In other regions such as Poland, and in Canada, the production of hemp seed is more developed. This means that the volume of stems produced is much less than it would be when the plant is grown for multiple uses to provide fibers, wood, and seed as it is in France.”
– Steve Allin, in the article Building with Cannabis: The Hemp House I Built and the Book That Came from It, Cannabis Culture magazine, November/December 2006; CannabusCulture.com. Allin is the author of Building with Hemp; HempBuilding.com
Hemp farming needs to be decriminalized. Farmers should be able to grow it without threat of prosecution, and to sell it freely to manufacturers of the thousands of products that can be made with hemp fiber, pulp, cellulose, oil, protein, and resin.
In February 1938, Popular Mechanics magazine recognized the absurdity of importing fabrics that could be made domestically. In its Billion Dollar Crop article, Popular Mechanics said that “Our imports of foreign fabrics and fibers average about $200,000,000 per year; in raw fibers alone we imported over $50,000,000 in the first six months of 1937. All this income can be made available for Americans.” (The article largely was based on information written in an October 12, 1937, letter from H.W. Bellrose, president of the World Fibre Corporation, to Elizabeth Bass, district supervisor of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.)
Today as the worldwide hemp industry is expanding, it would benefit the U.S. to stop importing hemp, and to start growing it and processing it domestically. Hemp industries in other countries won’t suffer if they stop exporting their hemp to the U.S. This is because the hemp market is expanding so quickly that domestic markets will eventually require all of that hemp, and more.