Hemp is the industrial grade "cousin" of marijuana, used for paper, fiber, food and fuel. Both hemp and marijuana come from the plant species Cannabis sativa L., but hemp is bred for fiber or other uses, and it contains almost none of the psychoactive ingredient (THC) that makes users "high."

Hemp has a long and distinguished history of use to mankind. Hemp rope and canvas sails once outfitted the world's sailing ships, and Conestoga wagons were covered in hemp. Hemp seeds, rich in omega fatty acids, have been used in traditional foods for centuries and are still sold as birdseed in the U.S. Shelled hemp seed and oil are increasingly used in natural food products, such as corn chips, nutrition bars, hummus, nondairy milks, breads and cereals. In the last few years, the hemp foods industry has grown from less than $1 million a year to over $5 million in retail sales. Paper made from the strong hemp fiber is used in many of the world's currencies. The U.S.D.A. has determined that, acre for acre, hemp can produce four times as much paper as trees.

Hemp fiber and sterilized or processed hemp seeds can be imported legally into the U.S. (please see DEA Hemp Ban for information on the now-defunct ban on foods containing hemp), but hemp farming was effectively made illegal here with the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which imposed a prohibitively high tax on cannabis cultivation. Hemp was grown again in this country during World War II under the U.S.D.A.'s "Hemp for Victory" program. Currently, three states have passed laws allowing hemp cultivation.

Hemp offers many environmental advantages compared with other natural resources. Unlike trees, it is an annually renewable resource, and it doesn't require pesticides and herbicides like cotton does. The cellulose in hemp and other crops could be used to replace petrochemicals in plastics and fuels.

In the past several years, a hemp industry has re-emerged, with hundreds of companies worldwide offering thousands of hemp products. China, Australia, England, France, Spain, Hungary, Romania and Canada are among the countries growing, using and exporting hemp. The U.S. is the only major industrialized nation to prohibit the growing of industrial hemp.

References

1. Ernest L. Abel, Marijuana: The First 12,000 Years (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982). 
2. Chris Conrad, Hemp: Lifeline to the Future (Novato, California: Creative Xpressions, 1994).
3. Jack Herer, The Emperor Wears No Clothes (Van Nuys, California: Queen of Clubs Publishing, 1995).
4. Rowan Robinson, The Great Book of Hemp (Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions International, 1995). 
5. Ed Rosenthal, Ed., Hemp Today (Oakland, California: Quick American Archives, 1994).
6. John Roulac, Hemp Horizons: The Comeback of the World's Most Promising Plant (White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing, 1997).