Brief History of Hemp Traveling back to the end of the first ice age, archaeological studies have concluded that the source plant for the CBD compound, Cannabis Sativa, was most likely one of the first crops planted by ancient man. Carl Sagan* seemed to think that Hemp may have actually been the world’s first agricultural crop, and led to the development of the civilized world. Hemp was harvested by the Chinese 8,500 years ago (Schultes and Hofmann 1980). Throughout history, Cannabis Sativa has been a versatile fiber source used for paper and cloth. It was also used for medicinal applications, and to a limited extent, utilized as an oilseed crop. Seeds and Cannabis oil were found to have been a food source in China as early as 6,000 BCE. Two thousand years later, in 4,000 BCE, evidence of textiles made from Hemp (Cannabis) was found in both China and Turkestan. This ancient source of textile fiber was introduced to western Asia and Egypt, and was to show up in Northern Europe somewhere between 1000 BCE and 2000 BCE.Hemp was the first plant known to have been domestically cultivated. The oldest relic of human history is hemp fabric dated to 8,000 BC from ancient Mesopotamia, an area in present-day Turkey.
Hemp was an American Tradition Hemp sails and ropes carried the European settlers to America for hundreds of years - 1492 to the advent of steamships in the early 1800’s. A 44 gun war ship like Americas old iron sides took over 60 tons of hemp rigging, including an anchor cable over 2 feet in circumference. The first law in the American Colonies regarding hemp actually required farmers to grow the plant for resources. Cannabis hemp was legal tender (money) in most of the Americas from 1631 until the early 1800s. You could pay your taxes with cannabis hemp throughout America for over 200 years. Benjamin Franklin started one of America's first paper mills with cannabis. Thomas Jefferson drafted both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution on hemp paper. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew cannabis on their plantations. Betsy Ross allegedly made the first flag of the United States of America out of the finest, strongest fiber available, hemp fabric. Henry Ford himself manufactured the body of an automobile from hemp- based plastic in 1941. The plastic was much lighter than steel and could withstand ten times the impact without denting. The car was even fueled by clean-burning hemp-based ethanol fuel. The United States Census of 1850 counted 8,327 hemp "plantations" (minimum 2,000 acre farms) growing cannabis hemp for cloth, canvas and even the cordage used for baling cotton.
Corporate Governance of the United States Around the turn of the 20th century companies like DuPont, Standard Oil, and Hurst Corporation as the corporate interest behind the original US cannabis ban from the late 1930s, this trio of chemical, oil and paper empires were involved with the development of plastic polymers in the 1920s and were willing to do anything necessary to ensure that the plastics industry used petroleum (which they controlled) as its base material.” One of the major materials up for consideration was – surprise – hemp fiber. Dupont created chemicals that were used in processing of paper; DuPont also created chemicals used for pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, which were used extensively by the cotton industry (cotton is MUCH more chemical and water intensive compared to hemp). While this was going on, William Randolph Hearst invested in timber and mills to produce the paper for his newspaper, which was the largest chain in the U.S. at the time. His investments in the timber industry were backed by Mellon Bank. The U.S. Secretary of the Treasury at that time was Andrew Mellon, who happened to own Mellon Bank (and was one of the backers for DuPont as well). Mellon’s niece was married to Harry Anslinger who, incidentally, was connected to the alcohol prohibition campaign. He was out of a job (as were everyone else in that sector of the federal government) after the alcohol prohibition ended. To keep his family employed, Mellon created a new division of the federal government, the Bureau of Narcotics, and made Harry Anslinger the new head of that program.
The Misrepresentation of Hemp Hearst’s newspapers spread the slander and propagated stories about the ‘evil marijuana’ and of people committing rapes and murder while ‘under the influence’ of marijuana. This, of course, had the papers selling like wildfire, but they failed to mention the everyday uses of the hemp (rope, fuel, textiles, food). Harry Anslinger began looking into rumors of the Mexican population smoking the flowers of the hemp plant. Because racism was quite rampant at that time, Anslinger played on that and used the Mexican slang, marijuana, in place of the word ‘hemp’. He spread lies and rumors about blacks and Mexicans becoming violent while smoking it and also labeled it as a narcotic. After the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act was passed, Harry Anslinger ordered the hemp prohibition, using the excuse that his agents wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between hemp and marijuana, and that the farming of hemp made it too difficult to enforce the marijuana prohibition. Also during this time machinery was being developed to make hemp processing easier and more efficient. This was a threat to the paper, chemical, timber, and petroleum industries. Pharmaceutical companies were creating new medicines and drugs and were also threatened by the natural healing properties of the plant we know as hemp.
The Resurrection of Hemp An interesting situation arose during World War II as American Farmers were prohibited from producing hemp because of the 1937 law. However, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor halted the importation of Manila hemp from the Philippines, prompting the USDA to rethink their agenda and creating a call to action with the release of the film Hemp for Victory, motivating American Farmers to grow hemp for the war effort. The government formed a private company called War Hemp Industries to subsidize hemp cultivation. One million acres of hemp were grown across the Midwest as part of this program. As soon as the war ended, all of the hemp processing plants were shut down and the industry again disappeared. However, wild hemp may be found scattered across the country. Finally just recently hemp has been taken off the narcotics list and classified as an agricultural crop such as corn and soy. More people are learning about the vast benefits of hemp – for food, medicinal purposes, https://youtu.be/W0xHCkOnn-A textiles, fuel, and tens of thousands of other uses. It’s time to let nature’s perfect plant flourish again. No more dependence on foreign oil; a return to natural, plant-based remedies for illnesses and diseases; no more petroleum based plastics; less dependency on chemicals that are harming our environment and health.
Uses of Hemp OSR Green Operation Self-Reliance
Modern Uses of Industrial Hemp
Hemp Textiles
Hemp Building Supplies Blocks Insulation
Making Hempcreet
Working with Hempcreet
OSR ACADEMY Hands on course on how to make and use hempcreet in construction Where: 470 N 500 E, Pleasant Grove, UT When: TBA
Hemp Produces the Most Biomass of Any Plant on Earth Hemp is at least four times richer in biomass/cellulose potential than its nearest rivals: cornstalks, sugarcane, kenaf, trees, etc. Hemp produces the most biomass of any crop, which is why it is the natural choice for an energy crop. Hemp converts the sun’s energy into cellulose faster than any other plant, through photosynthesis. Hemp can produce 10 tons of biomass per acre every four months. Enough energy could be produced on 6% of the land in the U.S. to provide enough energy for our entire country (cars, heat homes, electricity, industry) — and we use 25% of the world’s energy. According to the Department of Energy, hemp as a biomass fuel producer requires the least specialized growing and processing procedures of all hemp products. The hydrocarbons in hemp can be processed into a wide range of biomass energy sources, from fuel pellets to liquid fuels and gas. Development of bio-fuels could significantly reduce our consumption of fossil fuels and nuclear power. With todays uncertainty it’s more important than ever to promote sustainable alternative fuels such as hemp ethanol or methanol. Hemp turns out to be the most cost-efficient and valuable of all the fuel crops we could grow on a scale that could fuel the world. Hemp as fuel for industrial use, electricity, and transportation -each acre is capable of yielding 1,000 gallons of methanol; that's ten tons per acre every four months. It's an annually renewable fuel source, that can be grown for this purpose , very cheap.
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