Ron Bryant: To Grow Hemp or Not to Grow? That Is the Question

Let us break a taboo and talk about Cannabis sativa, more popularly know as hemp.  For years the mention of the plant caused eyebrows to raise and elicit a gasp of horror from those who felt hemp to be a gift from the Devil himself.  The crusade to destroy hemp as a legitimate crop is ongoing.  Since hemp is synonymous with marijuana in the minds of many well meaning people, it is difficult debate the pros and cons of hemp production.

Hemp has been found in ancient tombs dating from 8,000 BC.  The growing of hemp is as old in America as the first settlers who came to the New World.  Jamestown, Virginia, founded 1607 grew hemp.  Hemp was vital to the economic and military might of the American colonists, and the empire to which they belonged.

Hemp made ropes, sails, bagging, flooring and some paper.  The British Empire could not have ruled the seas without the hempen products that made possible their navy.  The same could be said of every navy in the world before 1860.  As early as 1841, Congress decreed that the American Navy to use only American hemp.

In America, hemp became a cash crop for states such as Kentucky.  Many Kentuckians believe that tobacco dominated agriculture.  Not until the latter part of the nineteenth century did tobacco become more important than hemp in the overall economy of the commonwealth.

In central Kentucky, hemp plantations produced tons of hemp from the fertile fields of the Bluegrass.  Fayette County became the center of Kentucky’s hemp production and hemp and hemp products.  By the late 1830s, Fayette County had eighteen rope and bagging factories, employing at least a thousand workers.

Prices for hemp fluctuated, but the demand for it remained steady.  A farmer could get as much as $100.00 per ton.  In peak demand, hemp could brig as much as $112.00 per ton.  With fertile soil and good weather, an acre could produce as much as 900 pounds.  Fortunes could be made by enterprising hemp growers.  In the 1840s, the cotton boom in the Deep South made hempen bagging

With the coming of the Civil War, hemp production went down due to the disruptions caused by four bloody years of conflict between North and South.  Kentucky fell into an economic slump that affected the state for decades.  In 1861, the value of land under cultivation dropped from $224,656,910 to $197,676,721.

Another blow to hemp came from the importation of Manila fiber from the Philippines.  As the price of hemp declined, tobacco became the cash crop of the commonwealth.  It would not be until World War II that Kentucky hemp would again become an important cash crop.

When Japan invaded and occupied the Philippines during World War II, cutting off the supply of Manila fiber did the United states government decide to experiment with domestic hemp as an alternative.  Kentucky became one of the states asked to produce hemp, and also to produce the hemp seeds.  The state had as much as 36,000 acres devoted the growing of hemp and between 1943 and 1944, Kentucky and a few other states produced 60,000,000 pounds of the fiber.

After the war ended, hemp production gain became obsolete.  It also became illegal.  As early as the 1920s, the use of marijuana had become an issue.  The drug could be derived from the leaves and flowering top of the hemp plant.  In the 1930s, the use of marijuana had become an issue with law enforcement as well as educators and the clergy.  In 1937 the Marijuana Tax Act placed all hemp production under the federal government’s oversight.  The negative press given to the hemp plant because of its possible use as a drug sealed the fate of legal hemp production in the United States.

Besides the brief period of war time production, the once proud and prosperous hemp farms had ceased to exist.  In Kentucky, tobacco became the dominant crop for small farms.  Not until recent years has the issue of legal hemp production become a topic of serious conversation.  The decline of tobacco in the commonwealth has many farmers wondering what they can grow that will take its place.

While hemp will not be the magic bullet that fixes all the woes of the state’s farmers, and it alone will not pull Kentucky out of its economic difficulties, hemp could be a step in the right direction in saving the small farms of the commonwealth, and boosting our economy as well.

The argument regarding industrial hemp and marijuana is valid.  While industrial hemp does not have the drug potency of plants grown for marijuana, it looks very much like its controversial kinsman.  Both hemp and marijuana come from the Cannabis sativa plant.  It is the levels of THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) that causes the problems.  Cannabis indica has been developed over the years for its drug uses.

As with any product, demand will dictate the value of hemp.  Studies have shown that the yield per acre could be nearly $200.00 per acre or as much as over $700.00 per acre for fiber.  Seed production could bring more, and the enormous amounts of that can be made from hemp is as varied as the results of George Washington Carver’s experiments with the peanut.

The costs of production of industrial hemp must also be considered.  Hemp needs fertile soil rich in nitrogen, and the plant does have pests.  Careful consideration of the cost versus the profit must be made by those who wish to bring back one of Kentucky’s most historic and profitable crops.

To grow hemp or not to grow, that is indeed the question that Kentuckians must address.  It will be interesting what their answer will be.

Ron Bryant is a Kentucky historian.