HEMP SUPPORTERS WANT TO CLEAN UP THE ENVIRONMENT by MIKE BAILEY ;
Columbian staff writer Copyright (c) 1997, The Columbian Publishing Co.

The shelves at Cascade Hemp Supply in Vancouver Mall are
loaded with books detailing the use of the commercial crop
throughout history and its many uses today.

But those references pall when it comes to knowledge
stored inside the heads of owners Rob and Gretchen Harris,
who are walking encyclopedias on hemp. Their research into
the multiuse hemp fiber began after the death of
Gretchen's mother.

She died of lung cancer at the age of 42, one of five
members in Gretchen's family to contract the disease. None
of the members who died of lung cancer ever smoked.

Gretchen's family lived in a town where cotton was king.
With the industry came the use of 50 millions tons of
pesticides each year.

The Harrises believe the pesticides led to the large
number of cancer victims in Gretchen's family and the
unusually high number of preschoolers in the town who were
stricken with leukemia.

As they explored the effects of the pesticides, they
came across information about hemp, a crop that needs
little or no pesticides and could be a viable replacement
for many plants, including cotton.

Here are a few facts and figures they discovered about
hemp:

. It takes 4.1 times the acres of trees to produce the
same amount of paper as hemp. . Paper made from wood pulp
has a "life" of 25 years. Paper made from hemp will last
from 400 to 1,500 years. Gutenberg printed his Bibles on
hemp paper.

. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin
Franklin raised hemp as a crop. The famous string on
Franklin's kite was made of hemp.

. Many art masterpieces created centuries ago were
painted on canvas made from hemp and with oils made from
hemp seed.

. The favorite seed of many songbirds is hemp. When
the United States made hemp illegal, the loss of that crop
altered the migratory paths of many species. A bag of
quality bird seed likely contains sterilized hemp seeds.

. Germany is allowing the production of containers made
from hemp for fastfood restaurants to replace Styrofoam.
After the burger has been finished, patrons can eat the
hemp containers.

. Henry Ford made the exterior of a car from hemp and
powered it on fuel made from hemp.

. The magazine "Popular Mechanic" has reported that
25,000 environmentally friendly products can be made from
hemp. . Hemp production in the United States was
eliminated in 1937 when Congress passed the Marijuana Tax
Act. Hemp production resumed during World War II because
the armed forces needed the oil made from hemp seeds for
use in fighter jets. After the war, hemp was again an
illegal crop.

. The push to introduce hemp products to the United
States is strongest in Washington. In addition to the
Harrises' store in Vancouver, there are five hemp stores
in Seattle. A few stores have cropped up in California.

. France harvests an average of 10,000 tons of
industrial hemp each year. However, the best hemp fiber
is grown in eastern European countries, where it has been a
staple for centuries and many factories still exist to
handle this tough substance.

. Designers have latched on to the hemp craze. Calvin
Klein and Georgio Armani are among the clothing designers
using material made from hemp.