ALTERNATIVE CROPS: LOOKING FOR WINNERS

By George Sollenberger

Industrial hemp is another fiber crop that's just getting off the
ground in North America. It has been grown here before, and production
was encouraged during World War II because of shortages of fiber for
making cordage, parachute webbing, and other badly needed items.
However, production was then banned for some 50 years because of hemp's
illicit cousin, marijuana.

In 1994, Canadian farmers were permitted to begin making trial plantings
of hemp varieties with low levels of THC, the primary intoxicating
compound in marijuana. Last year, Canada set up a system for regulating
hemp farming and made it legal to raise the lowTHC types.

It's still not legal in the U.S., but interest in the crop is growing,
and thereís a push on to gain approval for at least trial plantings.
Several U.S. farm groups have expressed support for setting up a simple
regulatory system that would allow U.S. farmers to raise industrial
hemp.

Good potential? Farmers hope hemp can be restored to its former place as
an important source of fiber for producing paper, textiles, rope, and
other products. Some are especially excited about hemp's potential as a
replacement for wood pulp in papermaking. According to one study done in
Wisconsin, paper manufacturers in that state alone could use about half
a million acres of hemp a year.