HEMP AS A CROP FOR
MISSOURI FARMERS

MARKETS, ECONOMICS, CULTIVATION, LAW


Report to Agriculture Task Force
Missouri House of Representatives
Summer 1991


prepared by
Richard Lawrence Miller





SUMMARY OF THE REPORT

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this report is to demonstrate that hemp is a practical
crop for Missouri Farmers. The presentation is prepared by Richard
Lawrence Miller, a Missouri native whose book Truman: The Rise to Power
carefully documented Harry S Truman's years in state politics. Miller is
also a nationally recognized authority on drug control law.

Hemp was once an important Missouri textile fiber crop. Economic
factors have caused hemp's popularity to rise and decline several times
since the early 1800's. The last national production peak was in the
1940's. Demand for natural fibers and for alternative sources of food and
wood products may make hemp profitable in Missouri once again. Large crops
are profitably grown in France, a country with comparable labor and
transportation costs.

In order for Missouri farmers to produce commercial hemp, the state
government surely needs to establish a registration system similar to the
old federal one which assured that commercial production of hemp did not
result in diversion of plants for use as marijuana. When that system was
in effect, federal authorities in the executive and legislative branches
expressed satisfaction with it. French authorities today use a similar
system with success.

TRADITIONAL MARKETS

Fiber. Hemp produces some of the strongest natural fiber for cordage
and textiles. Cloth can be rough or fine grade, ranging from canvas to
linen. Fabric is "breathable," durable, and absorbs more moisture than
cotton. Hemp is commonly blended with cotton to produce garments with best
advantages of both fibers. Hemp fiber can be spun in flax mills. Hemp can
also be "cottonized," allowing it to be processed in cotton mills, or
spinning equipment can be adjusted specifically to accommodate hemp.
Today's retail price of hemp/cotton blend clothing is comparable to denim.
Hemp fiber is currently a specialty import item; commercial scale domestic
production could bring down retail clothing prices. The price factor,
combined with growing demand for "natural" clothing, could make production
of hemp fiber economically viable for Missouri farmers.

Paper. Hemp produces fiber and wood that can be pulped for paper
production. The wood (called "hurds") is left over from fiber production;
the same crop can yield fiber and wood. For paper purposes, hemp hurd
yields are about four times what can be harvested from the same acreage of
forest. Hemp crops could thereby reduce global deforestation. As with
textiles, paper can be produced in grades ranging from rough to fine. Hemp
paper is strong--sheets can be tissue thickness without tearing easily. It
also has a low acid content, meaning the sheets won't grow brittle with age
and disintegrate as do high acid papers. Strength and low acid content
make hemp especially appealing to book and journal publishers. In France
hemp paper is widely used for rolling cigarettes. Markets for hemp paper
exist today. If forest log prices increase, hemp markets could expand. An
editorial in the June 1991 trade journal Pulp and Paper asked governmental
authorities to expedite production of hemp paper.
Meal. Hemp seed can be process for food. Traditional markets are
birdseed, cattle feed, and huuman food. Hemp has not been widely used as
human food in the United States, although specialty items such as granola
bars are marketed, and hemp can be processed into breakfast cereal. Hemp
is a more common human food in Asia and eastern Europe.

Oil. Hemp has as many food applications as any other vegetable oil.

POTENTIAL MARKETS

Wood. Construction board pressed from hemp hurds is used in France.
Such sheeting can be used for walls, floors, roofs. An American market
likely exists.

Plastics. Assorted plastic products can be produced from hemp,
ranging from cellophane to plumbing pipe. Whether such production can be
done on a commercial scale, at prices competitive with petroleum plastics,
has not been demonstrated. But a potential plastics market exists.

Fuel. The same can be said of hemp as a source of motor fuel. It can
run diesel engines and can also yield high octane gasoline, but we do not
know whether such production can be done commercially at a price
competitive with petroleum. We do know that hemp wood and charcoal can be
burned in power plant and boiler room applications, and that emissions lack
sulfur and acids that pollute the atmosphere. The high yield of hemp wood
per acre, compared to forest wood, may make hemp wood an attractive fuel.

Oil. Paint and varnish manufacturers formerly used large quantities
of hemp to obtain quick drying oils. Rising petroleum prices could help
reestablish this traditional use of hemp.

DEMAND FOR HEMP TODAY

The last peak of U.S. production was in the 1940's, mainly to
substitute for other fiber that could no longer be imported due to hazards
of World War II. When those imports became available after the war,
American production plummeted. On a world basis, however, hemp production
has continued to thrive. Large crops are grown and marketed in Europe.
With current interest in natural fiber clothing, hemp's advantages of
strength and absorbency suggest it could establish a viable place in
American textile markets. Human and animal food uses are another
traditional market for exploration. Missouri farmers could gain an early
advantage in such markets.

CULTIVATION

Historical experience and agricultural research show that Missouri's
climate and soils are ideal for hemp. It will grow almost anywhere,
although fiber crops require different production agriculture techniques
than seed crops require. Crops need little attention and are subject to
few diseases or pests.

LAW

In the past fifty years commercial production of hemp in the United
States and Europe has been closely monitored by the government agencies
because the plant that produces hemp also produces marijuana. Experience
demonstrates that commercial scale production of hemp does not add to
illicit marijuana supplies. Industrial hemp plants contain such small
amounts of the marijuana drug that the fields are left alone by persons who
seek marijuana. This was observed in the United States in the 1940's and
is observed in France today.

After concern about marijuana increased in the 1930's, government
agencies in the United States and Europe established a registration system
for hemp producers. Basically, a farmer of good character and who has a
purchase contract for the crop can register as a commercial hemp producer.
Registered persons are left alone by law enforcement authorities. Such a
registration system does not legalize marijuana. Indeed, it expedites
marijuana prosecutions because authorities never have to deal with a
defense that an unregistered hemp crop is intended for legitimate
purposes--if purposes are legitimate, the producer is registered.

When federal drug laws were rewritten in the 1970's the hemp industry
no longer existed in the United States, and the registration system was
abandoned by the federal government. This abandonment means that
individual states can now choose whether to encourage hemp production,
using the old safeguards against marijuana production. If Missouri
establishes a registration system, hemp farmers who register in this state
will have a monopoly on American hemp production for the time being.
Missouri farmers would thereby have the ground floor advantage in
exploiting markets.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF THE REPORT

Richard Lawrence Miller graduated from William Jewell College in 1971
(BA history) and was trained as a radio broadcaster at Northwest Missouri
State University (BA 1973). The Missouri Broadcasters Association cited
his public affairs work as outstanding. In 1975 the Missouri House of
Representatives passed a resolution honoring Miller's work in presenting
the workings of the legislature to radio listeners.

Miller did public affairs broadcasting at Northwest Missouri State,
Kirkwood Community College (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) and University of
Missouri--Kansas City. He has also worked at the Herbert Hoover
Presidential Library, preserving and organizing its photograph collection..
And Miller supervised the College of Pharmacy library at the University of
Iowa.

In 1982 he converted his long-standing part-time interest in
historical research into full time endeavor. His first history book,
published by McGraw-Hill in 1985, was Truman: The Rise to Power. The
Washington Post called it "a classic contribution to our understanding of
a great man and the lost time that molded him and gave him to the nation."
The Post also said, "In lush and loving detail, Miller presents a
magisterial study of the texture of local politics in early 20th century
mid-America. Miller boasts--it is an unusual and refreshing boast for a
political biographer today--that he is 'the son of a county patronage
politician,' and that his family's livelihood 'depended on courthouse
intrigue and electioneering.' What is often evaded, in the sterile world
of the new media politics, as something declasse and vaguely shameful,
Miller celebrates; and this background has served his well indeed."

Miller's second book, published by Walker and Company in 1988, was
Heritage of Fear: Illusion and Reality in the Cold War. Contrary to
perceptions promoted by senior federal officials, in this book Miller
argued that world communism was weak rather than strong, indeed that the
so-called "communist empire" was on the verge of collapse. His thesis met
harsh skepticism, but events soon demonstrated the correctness of his
analysis.

Miller's latest book is published by Praeger, one of the nation's most
distinguished publishers of scholarly research. In The Case for Legalizing
Drugs Miller argues that most problems associated with illicit drugs are
caused by their illegality, not their chemistry, and that reforming such
laws would not be a surrender to drugs, but a liberation from them.
Federal judge Robert W. Sweet said, "This volume abounds in facts relating
to drug use. Didactic and jarring in certain of its theses, but a
necessary study for those concerned about drug use in America."

Miller's work is cited as authoritative by other scholars such as
William E. Pemberton (Harry S Truman: Fair Dealer and Cold Warrior),
Richard Rhodes (The Making of the Atomic Bomb), Hugh Thomas (Armed Truce:
The Beginnings of the Cold War 1945-1946), Stephan Fox (Blood and Power:
Organized Crime in Twentieth-Century America), and William Wilbanks (The
Myth of a Racist Criminal Justice System).

In addition to scholarly books, Miller's writings have appeared in
publications such as Army, a professional military journal published by the
Association of the U.S. Army. He has presented results of his research to
professional meetings hosted by history departments at Northeast Missouri
State University and University of Missouri--Kansas City, and at law
conferences held at the University of Missouri law schools at Columbia and
Kansas City. He is scheduled as a featured-speaker at an upcoming meeting
of the Missouri Association of Drug and Alcohol Counselors, and is
tentatively scheduled to appear with Nobel laureate Milton Friedman and
other drug policy experts at the International Conference on Drug Policy
Reform to be held in Washington, DC, in November 1991. The Drug Policy
Foundation of Washington, DC, plans to publish Miller's analysis of ethics
in medical research involving adolescent marijuana smokers. His analysis
of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration laboratory system, an examination
commissioned by FDA scientists, helped convince Senator Robert Dole to
abandon his support for consolidating FDA laboratories around the country,
and instead Senator Dole successfully worked to retain the current system.

While studying drug control law, Miller noticed that Cannabis sativa
L., the plant that yields marijuana, seemed unique among drug producing
plants because it had many non-drug commercial uses. Those non-drug uses
have long been protected by law; in the 1940's U.S. farmers raised many
thousands of acres of cannabis while strict anti-marijuana laws remained in
effect. Miller concluded that the hemp growing system used throughout the
country in the 1940's could be reinstated in Missouri without boosting
illicit marijuana supplies, providing Missouri farmers with an alternative
crop and a virtual market monopoly on U.S. Hemp production.

The following report explains how Miller reached this conclusion.

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