Two German mills have begun to produce hemp paper, and Kimberly-Clark, a US Fortune 500 company, operates a mill in France to produce hemp paper for Bibles and cigarettes. Although the vast fields of fiber hemp grown all over the world have never been used for drug trafficking, hemp has been afflicted by a counterculture image for the past few decades. Hemp grown for fiber, whether by George Washington in 1790, by Kentucky growers in 1935, or by British farmers in 1997, has no psychoactive qualities whatsoever. Today, the plant is being reevaluated as a vital agricultural crop on the order of corn, wheat, or cotton. This reassessment is taking place among a strong new coalition whose participants range from multinational corporations to farmers, entrepreneurs, and government officials.
Industrial hemp is a valuable, low-cost biological resource.
It is a hardy plant that grows in most climates up to 16 feet in 70 days, shading out weeds and eliminating the need for costly herbicides or pesticides. After hemp is harvested, the field is often left virtually weed-free for the next crop. Half of the pesticides used in the nation are sprayed on cotton. In California alone 6,000 tons of pesticides and defoliants are used on cotton each year. Hemp can play an important role in rural economic development.