GROWN IN THE USA?

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"You can make lip balm all you want but that's not gonna change the world," says Stahl, characterizing most hemp trade in the U.S. as "all nickel and dime, little fanny packs .. . .Once we start making paper out of hemp it will put everything else in the shade."

HempWorld's Kane echoes his sentiment: "Hemp commerce can move forward without growing it ...the clothing, the fashion, the novelty items those will definitely continue, and those companies will never get rich, but it will continue definitely."

FARMERS GROWING ......hemp instead of corn will not only be increasing the fertility and condition of their soil, but may well find themselves earning several hundred dollars more per acre.

Fortune 500 companies don't come blazing down the hillside trumpeting for all the world to know they have become advocates of social change. But International Paper's membership in the North American Industrial Hemp Council places it among those who are working to legalize the growing of psychoactively inert cannabis. In response to economic and environmental concerns, the company is evaluating the potential of hemp and other natural fibers for making paper. (The company already operates a mill in Colombia using begasse, a fibrous South American plant.) Hemp stocks would never supplant wood pulp al together, points out International Paper spokesperson Neal Lincoln. But it won't supplant anything if it can't be grown legally. Does the world's largest paper manufacturer intend to shape policy? "Our involvement in the North American Industrial Hemp Council is right now the way we're attempting to influence policy on the issue. That's a group that's interested in legalizing the growing of industrial hemp. To the extent we can help in that, we will," says Lincoln. International Paper uses 50 million tons of wood fiber a year and employs more than 50,000 people just in the U.S. If the company finds that hemp is where it's at, access to a domestically-grown supply is "important," says Lincoln.

In its information-gathering efforts, International Paper wants to learn, "What does it take to grow and harvest and use hemp? We know how to do that with wood; we have to learn with hemp," says Lincoln.

"All paper companies in North America are looking for fibers other than wood," says Patrick Girouard, economic analyst with Resource Efficient Agricultural Production (REAP)-Canada. Though agricultural subsidies of other fiber crops like cotton economically militate against hemp for certain applications, it can find a niche in the short term replacing soft woods for paper pulp. "Over the next 20 years the world demand for paper products will double, especially in Asia," says Girouard. He too sees cultural factors drawing attention to hemp. "When you talk about hemp it's catchy. Just because it's illegal, people show more interest in the beginning." This, coupled with a global movement to remove price supports from agricultural commodities should augur well for hemp's prospects. Within a few years programs in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Ontario will begin to yield the data to run bona fide economic analyses, he says.

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