Hemp Much Regulated Plant
Fike: The word “canvas,” sail material – canvas is derived from the word cannabis.
Hemp may well be the most regulated plant in US history, both for and against growing it! I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.
Fike: We have historically made rope from hemp fibers.
John Fike is an associate professor in the Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Department at Virginia Tech.
Fike: We make canvas from hemp fibers. And when people first came and colonized Virginia, that was one of the regulations, as it were. They had to grow hemp, because the English navy needed lots of fibers for rope and for canvas.. As we move into the modern era, in the 30s, there was the Marijuana tax Act. It put hemp’s control under the jurisdiction of the Department of Treasury. It became onerous for anybody to produce it, given the regulations and the cost to be able to do so.
Then fast forward a few years to World War II, and there is a Grow Hemp for Victory campaign. Countries such as the Philippines that had been sources of cheap fibers, were being taken over by Japan. So that was a real concern strategically, to have the material that we needed to fit our navy. After World War II, hemp would disappear, as it came back under the pressures of this Marijuana Tax Act. Then later you’ll get to the Controlled Substance Act, and hemp goes on as a federally regulated category 1 substance.
Since the 90s in Europe and Canada, hemp has been grown as a grain and fiber.
Fike: And it’s only in the last few years that hemp, for research purposes, has been legal in the United States.
We’ll hear more about some of the uses of this remarkable plant in future programs. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.