Industrial Hemp

 
CSS vertical menu + submenu

Overview

WHAT IS INDUSTRIAL HEMP?

Industrial hemp is a variety of the plant Cannabis sativa. It is a versatile crop that can be processed into different products with multiple uses. Its stalk can be used to produce biofuel, auto parts, paper, upholstery, and fiber for cloth and other textile items. The stem can also be processed into building materials, industrial products and different kinds of papers. Industrial hemp seeds can be used to produce feed or food or the sources of oil that can be converted into a lotion or cosmetic products.

Currently most industrial hemp products sold in the U.S., including food, personal care products, clothing and even construction materials, are imported to the U.S. from Canada, China, Europe and other countries where the crop was not illegal to grow over the last decades.

Fiber-type varieties are used mainly for production of fiber that has multiple applications in the textile industry for yarns and fabrics, sail ropes and canvas. The remaining plant parts are used for industrial applications including paper, building material reinforcement, insulation material, bio-energy and more. Hemp seed is also valuable. It contains high quality oil currently used in the food, pharmaceutical, medical and cosmetic industries. The seed has a high protein content with a balanced amino acid profile and is used in human dietary supplements. Left-over cake material from oil extraction is a rich protein source used as an animal food supplement.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MARIJUANA AND HEMP

Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is botanically related to marijuana, but with very different properties. While marijuana is rich with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component that makes pot a drug of choice by many, hemp contains only the smallest traces of THC (<0.3%), making it virtually impossible to get high from. But it does produce strong fibers, and the seed has good quality oil that once made it a cash crop for America.

HISTORY OF INDUSTRIAL HEMP

Globally, industrial hemp was one of the first plants to be spun into usable fiber 10,000 years ago. 

In Virginia, it has a long and storied history. Hemp fiber was so important to our young nation that colonial farmers were often mandated to grow it. The Declaration of Independence is said to have been drafted on hemp paper, and our nation’s victory in the American Revolution can in many ways be attributed to the patriots’ use of hemp in making their ships’ sails, rope, riggings and more. George Washington grew it, and Thomas Jefferson bred improved hemp varieties. Abraham Lincoln also used hemp seed oil to fuel his household lamps. During World War II, the USDA developed a “Hemp for Victory” film to encourage everyone to grow the crop to support the war effort. The fibers were used for parachutes, rope, shoes, clothes and more.

But during the midpart of the last century, strict legislation was passed that made it illegal to grow this versatile crop in the U.S., largely due to its relationship to its high-THC relative, marijuana. As a result, cultivars that once thrived across the country have been lost or remained unimproved, and no significant work has been done on production techniques and variety developments. Previous processing facilities collapsed and market availability that once drove production and supply has ceased to exist.