Save Trees - Grow Pot!

There are people who are against growing hemp for paper. Their own reasoning is that hemp farming is very demanding on the environment and would negate any possible benefits ascribed to it. It would be cost prohibitive when compared to silvicultural (tree farming) production of fiber.

Any annual crop demands a period of establishment and reestablishment during which the site has to be intensely cultivated and treated for weeds and pests. This has to be repeated until the crop is properly established and done on an annual basis for crops like flax, wheat, cotton, or hemp.

Most tree species, even if grown on a fast rotation, would mean less site disturbance and have much less need for chemicals; Trees are more forgiving of site preparation, chemical support, and revisits after planting.

Large areas of cultivated fields would be necessary. This would, in itself, mean clearing land of trees and would comprise the best land in terms of fertility and topography. Irrigation would be come necessary in some areas for best production. Tending hemp would be expensive and would compete for land and other resources.

Dr. Patrick Moore writing on the subject on his web site Greenspirit indicates that "at least twice as much nutrient must be available in an easily assimilable form as will finally be removed from the soil by the leaf-free harvest". Hemp is a nutrient sponge. Crop rotation and the added expense of stripping leaves and flowers would be the desired method of nutrient replacement. All this adds to increased disturbance of the site, the addition of either manure crops or chemical nutrients, and an increase in per acre expense.

The last little kink in the use of hemp for fiber is a significant concern called cost. According to Heike Von Der Lancken, "hemp pulp costs $2,500 per ton as compared to $400 per ton for typical bleached wood pulp." This would create the need for another farm subsidy to make costs match.

Valerie Vantreese, University of Kentucky's Department of Agricultural Economics, has written a very concise abstract based on a paper called International Hemp: Global Markets and Prices. In the abstract she suggests that world hemp production is "dramatically" down from the early 1980's and is dominated by low-cost producers; China, India, and Russia produce 70% of the world supply.

Multinational fiber companies (Weyerhauser, Masonite, International Paper) interested in hemp as a source are well prepared to go to those locations to do business if there is a profit to be made. Market risk to the US farmer (if he were allowed to grow hemp) may be prohibitive because of these cheaper international growers.

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