HEMP FARM WOULDN'T HAVE WORKED IN HAWAII

The Hawaii experimental hemp farm has been shut down, according to Rep.
Cynthia Thielen, "because investors declined to continue funding the
project" ("End federal hysteria about growing hemp," Editorial, Oct. 3).
They apparently know something Thielen doesn't: Hemp is not an economically
viable crop.

Thielen asserted that now "Canada and France and other countries will be
making the (hemp) money." What money? Valarie Vantreese, economist at the
University of Kentucky, notes that "none of these (European Union) countries
have a thriving hemp industry." Worldwide hemp acreage amounted to only a
quarter-million acres in 2002.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture study said that U.S. imports of hemp fiber,
yarn, fabric and seed in 1999, could have been produced on fewer than 5,000
acres. This amounts to only about 10 average-sized farms in the United
States.

Public funding was never available for the hemp project because Hawaii's
farmers opposed the 1999 hemp bill if it drained precious research dollars
- -- thus the project's need for "private funding." According to a Hawaii Farm
Bureau spokesman, large, labor-intensive plantation farming -- as hemp
farming is -- in Hawaii is a thing of the past. Hawaii's farms now grow
high-value, specialty crops on an average acreage of 10 to 12 acres.

In short, hemp is not the magic solution for Hawaii farmers.

Jeanette McDougal

Chairwoman, Hemp Committee

Drug Watch International

Jacksonville, Fla.