All right Suzy you say you wouldn't trade your cotton for hemp clothing, but do you own any hemp clothing?  Have you done the comparison?

I'm rather fanatical about the clothes I put next to my skin, cotton being my preference, I pretty much refuse to buy anything that isn't 100% cotton, unless it's outerwear like jackets or winter clothing, something that I can put a layer of cotton beneath, so it's not easy to sell me on a cotton replacement either.  Though I admit since I've moved to a more northerly location I'm beginning to wear wool, specifically Smart Wool, which I find very comfortable in the summer as well as the winner given its ability to wick moisture away from skin.  I've observed that my wool socks do a much better job of keeping my feet dry and comfortable in hot weather than cotton.  I haven't tried hemp socks yet, but I think I'll give them a shot.

Hemp fiber is superior to cotton in many ways, it has significantly higher tensile strength making it much stronger, and its natural resistance to ultraviolet light is much better producing materials that hold up much longer in outdoor applications.  Recently I noticed that the cotton pants and shirts that were produced in China that I've purchased and used over the last few years, don't hold up well at all.  They like many of the other things made in China these days fail after just a few months of use. Disposable clothing and electronics don't really appeal to me, especially when the prices really don't reflect such an undesirable quality.

As you mentioned cotton requires enormous resources to produce, and huge amounts of pesticides and herbicides are needed to protect the crop.  Hemp on the other hand requires no pesticide or herbicides to produce and the leaves that are shed help replenish and improve the soil. Hemp also thrives in climate conditions and on ground that produces high yield corn crops. This would allow farmers in the Midwest who are mostly dependent on corn and soybeans to rotate in another crop that would produce high yields and be beneficial for society and the environment. My friends at greater St. Louis chapter of NORML are pushing for industrial hemp usage, and are very adamant about its superiority as a cash crop, believing that Hemp farming would be a big win for everyone.

Hemp fibers are now being used in the production of high-quality composite materials these days my forward thinking manufacturers. This month Lotus is unveiling their Eco Elise with hemp body panels that are stronger and lighter than steel, and will never rust.

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Lotus Eco Elise Concept with Hemp Body Panels!

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By the way, I want to complement TNR for hiring Suzy Khimm, I think she is a fine addition to your staff.

www.suzykhimm.com/about

I'd like to see Miss Khimm pursue more issues which specifically pertain to women and children, issues that are rather underrepresented at this publication and many others, not to mention society in general.

First cotton got itself all knotted up in slavery and the Civil War, and now this.  Damn that Eli Whitney and his cotton gin.

I'm not disputing the basic premises that cotton requires large inputs for production and that production is distorted by subsidies.  There may be possibilites for reducing the pesticide requirements for cotton production.  2007 estimates show that 43% of the world's cotton production was genetically modifed, and by 2005 Bt cotton had reduced insecticide use on cotton by about 5%.  So, further reductions in insecticide use may be possible with greater adoption of GM cotton or the development of newer GM varieties.  My perception is that cotton demand is driven by the demand for the fiber.  Seed oil and protein are by-products which must be disposed of as cottonseed oil or animal feed.  Due to the higher saturated fat content of cottonseed oil compared to soybean or canola oil, I doubt demand for these products is driving the production of cotton.

For AaronBBrown All crops could be grown without herbicides.  However, because weeds still need to be controlled, production without herbicides means increased cultivation.  Increased tillage increases the potential for soil erosion.  It also speeds up the breakdown of soil organic matter thus decreasing the C sequestration in the soil.  So to me the tradeoff choices are reduced pesticide use vs. the negative effects of tillage.  I'm skeptical of all miracle crops touted as providing maximal production without inputs.  I bet if hemp was grown on a large scale, those farmers who grew hemp with inputs would achieve greater production than hemp grown without inputs.  

tpfeiffe

Hemp is a weed that grows wild all over the Midwest, dating back to World War II when it was grown commercially up and down the Mississippi for rope and harness production.  When I was a teenager working on my father's farm the stuff was growing everywhere, along the highways and along the Mississippi River banks.  The Highway and Parks Departments of Illinois and Missouri spend millions removing wild hemp.

It most often grows in clumps, clumps which crowd out everything else.  Even individual plants growing by themselves among other plants have no problem competing with the most aggressive fastest-growing horse weeds.  When it grows near a water source like a drainage ditch, it's almost unstoppable turning into the equivalent of a small trees, 2 inches or more in diameter at the base and reaching 12 to 18 feet tall, but it really doesn't require much water to thrive.

It also seems to have a natural resistance to insects here in the states, perhaps because these strains were not native to the United States.  While most weeds and crops come under heavy attack from grasshoppers and various other herbivorous creatures like rabbits, deer cattle etc. wild hemp often goes completely untouched.  I know pigs will eat the stuff, but it seems most everything else tends to reject it as a food source if they have other options, to much fiber making it too hard to digest apparently. So under most conditions there would be no need at all for herbicides.

Industrial cannabis would certainly be one of the best crops for no-till farming, it wouldn't need any kind of intensive tilling, or any tilling at all for that matter.  All you'd need to do is disk the ground once, maybe, and plant as early in the spring as possible.  Hemp would be the ultimate set and forget crop that would leave the soil improved for the next year's rotation of soybeans or corn, which would undoubtedly have improved yields as a result of the hemp cultivation from the previous year.  The most likely problem farmers would face is the incidental hemp seeding spread from the previous year's crop, which would try to compete on that ground with the planted corn or soybeans.  Such residual growth would probably require herbicides to destroy.

I have no doubt that farmers would apply fertilizer to field scheduled for hemp seeding, perhaps anhydrous ammonia which makes corn leap out of the ground, but they would only need to apply such fertilizers sparingly to create a significantly improved crop, as opposed to feed corn which really requires a heavy investment in fertilizer to get the maximum yield in most soil.  On those years when fertilizer is expensive -- such as when the price of oil is up, fertilizer being dependent upon petrochemicals -- farmers could skip soil applications altogether and still have a profitable crop, with only a marginal falloff in yield.

There's no such thing as a miracle crop, but hearty weeds like industrial hemp strains can pretty much thrive independently without any assistance, the type of crop that farmers love because it makes their job easier.