Minnesota Grown Opportunities

Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) was widely cultivated in Europe in the mid-16th Century for food (porridge), and for fiber. Hemp was brought to South America from Spain in 1545. The original use of hemp in North America is attributed to Puritans in New England who applied the fiber to the production of cloth and household fabric. However, hemp was secondary in production and use to flax for cloth. Strong demand for cordage and sailcloth in North America during the mid-19th century peaked U.S. hemp production at about 7,000 tons (largely produced in Kentucky, Missouri, and Illinois). The importation of less expensive manila hemp from tropical regions in the Pacific, the introduction of the cotton gin, and steam vessels resulted in a dramatic decline in the U.S. hemp industry. Total U.S. production declined to about 3,500 tons in 1919 and 600 tons in 1929. Hemp processing was very labor intensive and although labor saving equipment was being developed, the declining industry, centered in Kentucky, was not competitive with tobacco and cotton production. The loss of access to tropical fiber sources during World War II prompted a USDA Commodity Credit Corporation emergency program (1943 and 1944) to finance the production of hemp for seed and fiber. Under this program, hemp was grown in Blue Earth, Dodge, Faribault, Freeborn, Jackson, Kandiyohi, Le Sueur, Martin, McLeod, Meeker, Mower, Nobles, Renville, Steele, Waseca, and Yellow Medicine counties in Minnesota. Eleven government-owned processing centers (Hemp Mills), each with the capacity to process about 4,000 acres of hemp, at a throughput of about 1000 pounds of fiber per hour, were constructed. Minnesota produced 76 tons of processed hemp fiber on about 400 acres in 1942. Production increased to 12,450 tons of processed fiber off about 30,000 acres in 1943 and then declined to 4,950 tons off about 11,000 acres in 1944. Access to tropical fiber sources, following the war, brought an end to the hemp production in the U.S. Regulation of Cannabis was transferred to the Drug Enforcement Agency and the cultivation of industrial hemp remains illegal in the U.S. today. Canada has recently (1998) allowed farmers to grow industrial hemp commercially. Canadian agriculture officials estimate that about 25,000 acres of hemp were grown across the nation in 1999.