AMERICAN farmers are promised a new cash crop with an annual value of several hundred million dollars, all because a machine has been invented which solves a problem more than 6,000 years old. It is hemp, a crop that will not compete with other American products.
Instead, it will displace imports of raw material and manufactured products produced by underpaid coolie and peasant labor and it will provide thousands of jobs for American workers throughout the land. -- Popular Mechanics, Feb. 1938
A mighty crop, banned from being grown in the United States for over 75 years, is making a comeback thanks to momentum in the cannabis law reform movement. Recent political advances in Colorado and Washington have led to attempts at industrial hemp legislation in several states; in fact, legislation was recently successful in the state of Kentucky.
Despite being banned, a large and growing hemp industry exists in the U.S. This is because hemp is legal to import from other countries; countries smarter than us when it comes to letting their farmers cultivate hemp. So, American companies are forced to pay other countries for their hemp, while U.S. farmers are cut out of the market.
One of those American companies is Forbidden Leaf Hemp Seed Oil, based in California. "If hemp were legal to grow in the U.S. -- we would be creating more jobs here in the U.S. and generating more money for our own country instead of giving our money to other countries," Dana Dwight, of Forbidden Leaf, told The 420 Times. "The high cost of shipping would be cut out of the equation and I could lower the prices of my products for my customers. In 1619 there were 'must grow' laws passed in America; if you were a farmer back then and you didn't grow hemp you would have been jailed or kicked out of the country as a non-patriot. Our government has been so hypocritical over hemp. It just doesn't make sense."
It doesn't make sense. Billions of dollars flowing out of the U.S. when it could be going to American farmers and creating more jobs in this country. A burgeoning industry lays in wait, ready for the day that is it unleashed.
Despite the handicaps, Dana has seen growth in the industry. "Since I started Forbidden Leaf I've seen tremendous growth," she said, "more and more people are coming out of the so called 'cannabis closet' and banding together, the more people that come out to stand up for hemp the stronger our voice will be to be heard -- strength in numbers -- it's only going to get stronger as more people come out."
The prospect of legalization in the future means the hemp industry has unlimited potential. "If the federal government were to legalize hemp in the future the growth for employment would rise in so many different ways," Dana told us, "it would be such a great economic advantage for our own country. As of now the U.S. is the biggest importer of hemp products in the world! Why not help our own country and grow it here and become more self-sufficient? It would benefit all of us in more ways than one!!"
But the companies that would face direct competition from legalized hemp have spent several decades and billions of dollars making sure that industrial hemp legalization doesn't happen. But in this area, as it has been in many others, the Internet is a game-changer.
Brainwashing was easy when there were only a few TV networks and very little information on the radio. Now billions of people share information instantly and continuously around the world.
Convincing the masses that hemp is evil and harmful is quite impossible going forward.
Because of that, the future is bright for the industrial hemp industry in the U.S., since hemp law reform has great momentum and, most importantly, truth on its side.