HEMP-ORARY DISCONNECT A look at the material landscape and territorial shifts of hemp in regards to policy, culture, manufacturing and architecture. By Adam Mahardy
HEMP-ORARY DISCONNECT A LOOK AT THE MATERIAL LANDSCAPE AND TERRITORIAL SHIFTS OF HEMP IN REGARDS TO POLICY, CULTURE, MANUFACTURING AND ARCHITECTURE.
Adam Mahardy (96630752) ARC515: Sustainable Systems I GSI: Sarah Munchow November 9, 2016
1
The uses of Cannabis sativa, or hemp, are more prolific than any other natural resource of known modern knowledge, producing useful products for food, medicine, fiber, fuel and shelter (to name just a few) without a costly or overly complex manufacturing process while possessing the key organic components and abilities to combat global warming. Yet, Hemp remains one of the most underutilized, and over regulated plants due to interference from the sectors of policy, culture, and manufacturing. This paper attempts to unravel and organize the causes of this gross underutilization by studying the territorial boundary shifts of the hemp plant throughout history, with focuses on ancient/historic civilization use, industry competition, 20th century American policy, and the realization of a modern hemp movement caused by the rise of sustainable architecture practices in response to the negative effects of climate change.
WHAT IS HEMP? To avoid any further confusion for those that have been introduced to hemp prior to today, and in hopes to offer a correct, untarnished understanding to those who have not encountered it at all, we should start with the simple question of what is hemp and its parts and how is it different from its cousin, marijuana?
2 Hemp Vs Marijuana Hemp is a variety of the Cannibus Sativa genus, and unlike marijuana, hemp is nonpsychoactive—containing less than 1% of Tetrahydrocannibol, or THC1, the cannabinoid responsible for the euphoric feelings achieved through consumption. Although, both varieties are similar in appearance, they have completely different purposes and when viewed under a microscope, at a molecular scale, hemp and marijuana have unique genetic identities. A comparable example would be the difference between lemons and oranges—both varieties of the citrus genus. The differential gap between hemp and marijuana thickens when we view both varieties from a manufacturing standpoint. The production capabilities of the marijuana plant pale in comparison to the hemp plant regarding clothing, paper, building materials, and fuel—everything with the exception of marijuana’s a minute lead in medicinal/nutritional benefits, which is only scientifically substantiated via cannabinoid count and typology at a microscopic scale. However, the holistic effects, detectable by our human senses of both marijuana and hemp are indistinguishable. For these exact reasons, historically speaking, hemp has been utilized by multiple civilizations to produce major industry products.
1
Shannon L. Datwyler, Ph.D. and George D. Weiblen, Ph.D., Journal of Forensic Sciences: Genetic Variation in Hemp and Marijuana (Cannabis Sativa L.) According to Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphisms, 2nd ed., vol. 51, Pgs 371-375 (Saint Paul, MN: University of Minnesota, 2006), 372.
3 In short, hemp is not marijuana! The reasons for my over-clarification of this point will become devastatingly evident later when we explore why the rigid manufacturing boundary exists between hemp production and America, ironically the import king of hemp.
Hemp Taxonomy Hemp consists of three major parts, the shiv, the fibers and the foliage. The shiv is the hard-woody stalk that holds that plant upright and steady at 4 meters tall. The fibers tightly surround the shiv, forming a sort of husk.2
HEMP THOUGHOUT HISTORY. The relevance of the usefulness of hemp production and processing, as well as the massive extents of its material landscape, can be explored through a look at the plants historical usage. Cultures with varying levels of industrialized expertise all share the common understanding and utilization of the hemp plant as relic of manufacturing and productization.
2
BoĚ csa, IvaĚ n, and Michael Karus, The Cultivation of Hemp: Botany, Varieties, Cultivation and Harvesting. (Sebastapol, CA: Hemptech, 1998), 26.
4 Egypt - Hemp Production as Medicine (1,500 BC) The Ebers Papyrus is one of the oldest known medical records of cannabis as a practiced medicinal treatment, specifically for gonorrhea and nail ailments. The hieroglyphics suggest that the ‘tonic’ was delivered using honey as a vessel to keep the cannabis on the afflicted area.3
China - Hemp Production as a Fiber (700 BC) Some of the fist hemp textiles where unearthed from a tomb in Guixi of the Jiangxi province (modern day China) and were carbon dated from between 700-300 BC.4
Europe - Hemp Production as Food (600 AD) A less explored signifier of historic hemp usage can be found within the lines of dark age paintings. The images depict cannabis being used as an alternate grain for brewing in place of barley and as a spice to season different meats.5 This may lead us to the inference that cannabis was ceremonially used in the production of food and drink.
3
Godwin, H. The Ancient Cultivation of Hemp. 161st ed. Vol. 41. Antiquity. Antiquity Publications, 1967, 46. 4
Grotenhermen, Franjo, and Ethan Russo. Cannabis and Cannabinoids: Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Therapeutic Potential. (New York: Haworth Integrative Healing Press, 2002), 37. 5
Godwin, H. The Ancient Cultivation of Hemp. 48
5 Italy - Hemp Production as a Fiber (1000 AD) The sails of Christopher Columbus’ ship were woven from the hemp fibers processed from the hemp plant. A variety of different quality textiles also circulated Italy’s towns and rural areas.6
North America - Hemp Production of Paper (1600 AD) Another sign of the expansive utilization of hemp can be found in North American. Hemp paper was considered inferior to traditional parchment, therefore, many of the less important documents surrounding the Declaration of Independence were made on hemp paper. It is likely that a draft of the historic document was also recorded on hemp paper.7 The territorial existence of hemp production saturated most of the inhabited lands of the planet, and throughout history, if hemp was a readily available resource it was utilized to create products and tools. The territories listed above all still produce hemp to this day, except for one, The United States.
6
Zohary, Daniel, and Maria Hopf. Domestication of Plants in the Old World: The Origin and Spread of Cultivated Plants in West Asia, Europe, and the Nile Valley. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993, 107. 7
Deitch, Robert. Hemp: American History Revisited: The Plant With a Divided History. Algora Publishing, 2003, 35.
6 ONE NATION UNDER HEMP. During the late 1800’s hemp was a just becoming a successful industry for young America, even so much as to influence the names of two rural towns ‘Hempfield’ and ‘Hempstead’, who as their names suggested, dedicated their soil space to the sowing of hemp seeds.8 George Washington and other members of the ‘sophisticated’ class, including some framers of the constitution used clothing and housewares manufactured from hemp, suggesting that hemp was not considered a means for producing lower quality goods. Washington had personal plots of land within Mt. Vernon set aside solely for the sowing of hemp seeds.9 He was recorded speaking to William Pearce, the farm manager during February of 1794, “I am very glad to hear that the Gardener has saved so much of the St. foin seed, and that of the India Hemp. Make the most you can of both, by sowing them again in drills. . . Let the ground be well prepared, and the Seed (St. loin) be sown in April. The Hemp may be sown anywhere.” Washington portrays his understanding of the hemp plant and its associated hardiness, when providing Pearce with sowing instructions, or a lack there of. Although, scientifically considered a vegetable, because of its nutritional value, hemp grows and simulates the tenacity of a weed. Equally as important to note as the existence of an
8
John McCabe, Marijuana & Hemp: History, Uses, Laws and Controversy (Santa Monica, CA: Carmania Books, 2011), 196. 9
Deitch, Robert. Hemp: American History Revisited: The Plant With a Divided History, 30.
7 arising hemp market within the United States, is why these individuals, some founding members of American democracy, embraced the agricultural stimulation of hemp and its associated manufacturing over other crops like tobacco a well-established contributor to early American gross domestic product. Washington viewed hemp as an ‘independence industry’10-- an opportunity to lighten the reliance of importation from foreign countries to fulfill the nations material needs and an escape from the perfunctory progression of a unidimensional agricultural industry that’s solely dependent upon a single agricultural outlet.
THE BATTLE OF THE FIBERS. Cotton fibers, around the early 19th century, were considered a viable alternative to hemp fibers and the industry’s number one competitor. Manufacturing focus was placed primarily on the production of cloth, and due to its success, the multifaceted production possibilities of hemp were never comprehensively explored. This was in part due to the influence of regulatory policy and industry manipulation that both aimed to slander the image of hemp as a less viable alternative to cotton and as a substance with the potential to cause public health concerns.
10
An industry that would help promote manufacturing independence.
8 The Abolition of Slavery and the Cotton Gin. Hemp had to be processed manually though a rigorous process that resembled ‘whipping a rug’, which was usually fulfilled by slave labor. Through this ceremonial labor, the fibers are eventually separated from the shiv through the process of striking the plant against a row of wooden posts and quickly pulling it back, leaving some of the fibers behind—like a comb grooming hair.11 After the abolition of slavery, and human labor became costly, the tedious manufacturing time involved with the production of hemp, in contrast to that of cotton, made it an unlikely source of profit. This was especially true after the introduction of the cotton gin in 1807, which removed human labor as a factor completely. The cotton gin allowed for quick and bulky manufacturing of unprocessed cotton, making it the popular choice for companies manufacturing fibrous materials like those required to make rope and cloth. The hemp industry responded with immediate decline and manufacturing efforts were refocused to cotton and its productization.
The Decorticator. Right before the complete submission of the hemp industry to cotton and nearly 50 years after the invention of the cotton gin, the Decorticator or ‘Scavessatrice’, hemps
11
Hopkins, James F. A History of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky. University of Kentucky Press, 1951, 61.
9 equivalent to the gin, was invented by a German farmer named Bernagozzi in Bologna, Germany in 1861.12 This suggests that the understanding of hemp as a potentially superior manufacturing resource to cotton was much farther along in western society— far enough along to spur invention and legitimize spending in order to advance the hemp manufacturing industry. Although, the Decorticator did equalize the primary advantage the Cotton Gin had provided the cotton industry, cotton retained its position as the dominant industry in America. A major cause of this was that the manufacturing infrastructure was already in place and a shift from processing goods from cotton instead of hemp would mean 50 years of regression for a newly industrialized industry.
THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF HEMP
Marijuana and Marihauna. The disconnect between scientific fact and knowledge and the paralleled incrimination of the hemp plant manifested in the early 1900’s with an influx of migrant workers from Mexico, attracted to new industries forming in the southwest United States. In Mexico, the medicinal practice of utilizing the cannabis sativa variety of marijuana for its
12
Ranalli, P. & Venturi, G. Euphytica. Hemp as a Raw Material for Industrial Applications. Vol. 140. Euphytica. Springer Link, 2004.
10 narcotic purposes (THC), was culturally accepted and had been considered as early as 1847 when the Mexican Academy of Pharmacy published a national pharmacopeia that acknowledged and differentiated between the two types of cannabis. Rosa Maria, which later adopted the slang term marihuana, and sativa, commonly known as hemp.13 Marihuana quickly became associated with abuseable products of addiction, like alcohol, and was most commonly found in hostile environments like jails (prisoners) and army barracks (soldiers). Between the years of 1910-1920, due to The Mexican Revolution, war refugees (soldiers) and political exiles (prisoners) joined the already 20,000 migrant workers per year in 1910 increasing the flow to over 100,000 migrants per year by 1920.14 These extra citizens dislocated by war and crime, were perceived by the American public as perfect candidates for marijuana abuse, creating a fear driven epistemology of cannabis and its associated products. This can be compared to a modern-day example of Europe’s refusal to adopt the American ideologies of GMO’s, used by Sheila Jasanoff in her work ‘A New Climate for Society’, “the European refusal to accept American-backed guarantees of the safety of genetically modified crops, exemplify the fact that informed citizens in one democratic society may reject as insupportable risks that are deemed entirely
13
Chasteen, John Charles. Getting High: Marijuana through the Ages. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), 54. 14
Chasteen, John Charles. Getting High: Marijuana through the Ages. 20.
11 acceptable in another” The marihuana plant, acceptable in Mexican culture was rejected by the American population, as the European population rejected the advance of GMO’s.
The Rise of Fossil Fuels. The first oil drilling operations are noted to have begun in Pennsylvania around the 1850’s and by the end of the mid 1930’s, America had become a prominent figure within the petroleum industry, a pioneer of the historic transition from coal to oil.15 Research into petroleum based products accelerated exponentially and by the 1930’s petroleum was responsible for 100’s of new products from clothing to medication and led both the cotton and hemp industries in growth. Cotton was considered the only immediate threat to the petroleum industry, but couldn’t produce enough products to actual prove competitive. Hemp, in contrast, turned out to be one of the few materials versatile enough to threaten the newly formed fossil fuel industry. Although, there is no direct evidence that the fossil fuel industry, primarily the Du Pont family, directly sabotaged the scientific and social understanding of the hemp plant in pursuit of personal gains, but the series of events that followed soon after directly resulted in the prohibition of hemp and the cannabis genus, creating an intense shift in manufacturing landscape
15
Bridge, Gavin. "The Hole World: Scales and Spaces of Extraction." New Geographies 2 (2009): 44. Accessed November 12, 2016. The Hole World: scales and spaces of extraction.
12 boundaries as America switched from a hemp exporter to a hemp importer. Gavin Bridge in his paper titled, ‘The Hole World’ provides insight regarding why fossil fuel companies could have stooped to using immoral measures to retain the grip of their monopolized energy resources. “In landscapes of energy, one finds expressed the logics and spirit of capitalist modernity. Although energy landscapes are not reducible to the space of the hole, the practices that characterize the point of fossil energy extraction vividly illustrate how wealth and power can be derived from the control and appropriation of natural resources.” In 1937 Harry Anslinger drafted the ‘Marihuana Tax Act of 1937’, placing a tax on the sale of cannabis while simultaneously failing to include legislation that would differentiate between different cannabis varieties.16 This in turn placed an unfair financial burden on the production of all cannabis genus varieties, including nonpsychoactive variants like hemp. This shift in policy induced the abandonment of the hemp industry entirely and stifled any remaining institutions who would have been brave enough to manufacture hemp, a crop which now carried the taboo stigma of a prohibited product. The final blow to the hemp industry occurred with the introduction of the “Controlled Substances Act of 1970” which categorized cannabis as a Schedule I
16
Deitch, Robert. Hemp: American History Revisited: The Plant With a Divided History. 150.
13 Drug, “with no currently accepted medical use and high potential for abuse.”17 The hemp plant was swept into a regulatory jail cell, locked away, framed due to its loose association with marijuana and a victim to the overgeneralization of a political policy that seemed to have been influenced by special interests from the threatened fossil fuel industry.
THE REVIVAL OF HEMP THROUGH ARCHITECTURE Within just a decade (1870-1970), which is a rather small window when compared to the complete lineage of hemp. It has been transformed from a mysteriously useful material of production used for 1000’s of years, advantageously situated within the manufacturing ethos to apply healthy competitive pressure amongst its sister and brother industries, to a misunderstood, innate material of waste, frozen in its current state of industrialized infancy. The quick decline of a single industry market carries much more weight when we realize the knowledge revealed about the hemp plant in the past 10 years regarding sustainability and the extent of the repercussions that overpolarized, generic, policy making has on a global scale.
17
Deitch, Robert. Hemp: American History Revisited: The Plant With a Divided History. 178.
14 Climate Change and Hemp One of the major issue that could affect territory bounds and material landscape through the disruption of entire industries, is climate change, which is directly linked to our dependency upon non-renewable resources like fossil fuels, and exploitation of material goods through a culture of practiced over-consumption and waste. The hemp plant, when explored fully, in regards to fuel, fiber, and construction, begins to dismantle our reliance on fossil fuels and in some cases, starts to reverse climate damage that is happening daily at an increasing rate. As a fuel, hemp can produce methanol and ethanol through fermentation of the shiv, and biodiesel, a clean, biodegradable alternative to gasoline, via the consumption of hemp oil, as derived from pressing the seeds18—lowering the carbon monoxide released into the atmosphere from vehicular exhaust drastically. As a paper, hemp’s relatively low lignin content makes it a better candidate to extract pulp from over its conventional counterpart, the tree. The pulp is naturally white so the bleaching step in the conventional paper manufacturing process would no longer be necessary, enabling the use of natural binders that do not release formaldehyde during curing. While the physical footprint of a hemp plant is substantially lower than the average tree, a single hemp plant can be recycled for paper
18
Kreuger, Emma, Bálint Sipos, Guido Zacchi, Sven-Erik Svensson, and Lovisa Björnsson. "Bioconversion of Industrial Hemp to Ethanol and Methane: The Benefits of Steam Pretreatment and Coproduction." Bioresource Technology 102, no. 3 (February 2011).
15 pulp twice as many times19 and can process four times as much carbon. Deforestation would drastically be reduced by switching to hemp paper and new hemp forests would act as natural filters, fixated on the consumption of carbon from the atmosphere.
Hempcrete In modernity, buildings are made from materials that are usually non-compostable, as the associated strength and structural integrity with biodegradable materials is conventionally far less. Hempcrete or Hemplime is a compostable, all natural mix of hemp shive pieces, lime, and water. The mix is tamped into framed wall cavities, without insulation or drywall and temporary panels act as a form work to keep the hempcrete from spilling out of the wall until the mixture surrounds the wall studs and initial hardening (full curing take up to one month) is complete after 24 hours. The panels are then removed revealing a dense, continuous wall that consists of a treatable surface like drywall and the natural insulating properties of traditional fiber glass insulation with an R-value of around .50 W/mK.20, in which paint or stucco may be directly applied. The process is reminiscent of spraying foam insulation into wall
19
Bouloc, Pierre, Serge Allegret, and Laurent Arnaud. Hemp: Industrial Production and Uses. (Wallingford, Oxfordshire, UK: CABI, 2013), 198. 20
Elfordy, S., F. Lucas, F. Tancret, Y. Scudeller, and L. Goudet. "Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Lime and Hemp Concrete (“hempcrete�) Manufactured by a Projection Process." Construction and Building Materials 22, no. 10 (2008): 2116-123. doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2007.07.016.
16 cavities. By using this method drywall and insulation are no longer needed, and two full construction steps are removed causing a lowered manufacturing demand for fiber glass and gypsum, both non-renewable resources that cause environmental distress when manufactured. No matter how you treat or cover the hempcrete, the hempcrete mix would act as a carbon sequester21-- continuously absorbing carbon and removing it from the atmosphere long after its organic life has ended. Hemp’s recent breach of industry boundaries into the manufacturing realms of building materials, construction and architecture has exposed the plant to an inherently innovative and progressive set of processes that would rapidly excel its position as a globally recognized resource, shifting the manufacturing landscape of hemp back to United States, forcing a withdrawal of the absurd regulatory policies the plant currently faces classified as a schedule I drug.
21
Rhydwen, Ranyl. "Building With Hemp and Lime." (Harvard Lecture Notes, 2009), 9.
Bibliography
Bócsa, Iván, and Michael Karus. The Cultivation of Hemp: Botany, Varieties, Cultivation and Harvesting. Sebastapol, CA: Hemptech, 1998.
Bouloc, Pierre, Serge Allegret, and Laurent Arnaud. Hemp: Industrial Production and Uses. Wallingford, Oxfordshire, UK: CABI, 2013.
Bridge, Gavin. "The Hole World: Scales and Spaces of Extraction." New Geographies 2 (2009): 43-48. Accessed November 12, 2016. The Hole World: scales and spaces of extraction.
Chasteen, John Charles. Getting High: Marijuana through the Ages. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.
Datwyler, Shannon L., Ph.D., and George D. Weiblen, Ph.D. Journal of Forensic Sciences: Genetic Variation in Hemp and Marijuana (Cannabis Sativa L.) According to Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphisms. 2nd ed. Vol. 51. Pgs 371-375. Saint Paul, MN: University of Minnesota, 2006.
Deitch, Robert. Hemp: American History Revisited: The Plant With a Divided History. Algora Publishing, 2003.
Elfordy, S., F. Lucas, F. Tancret, Y. Scudeller, and L. Goudet. "Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Lime and Hemp Concrete (“hempcrete”) Manufactured by a Projection Process." Construction and Building Materials 22, no. 10 (2008): 2116-123. doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2007.07.016.
Godwin, H. The Ancient Cultivation of Hemp. 161st ed. Vol. 41. Antiquity. Antiquity Publications, 1967.
Grotenhermen, Franjo, and Ethan Russo. Cannabis and Cannabinoids: Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Therapeutic Potential. New York: Haworth Integrative Healing Press, 2002.
Hopkins, James F. A History of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky. University of Kentucky Press, 1951.
Jasanoff, S. "A New Climate for Society." Theory, Culture & Society 27, no. 2-3 (2010): 233-53. doi:10.1177/0263276409361497.
Kreuger, Emma, Bรกlint Sipos, Guido Zacchi, Sven-Erik Svensson, and Lovisa Bjรถrnsson. "Bioconversion of Industrial Hemp to Ethanol and Methane: The Benefits of Steam Pretreatment and Co-production." Bioresource Technology 102, no. 3 (February 2011): 3457-465. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2010.10.126.
McCabe, John. Marijuana & Hemp: History, Uses, Laws and Controversy. Santa Monica, CA: Carmania Books, 2011.
Ranalli, P. & Venturi, G. Euphytica. Hemp as a Raw Material for Industrial Applications. Vol. 140. Euphytica. Springer Link, 2004.
Rhydwen, Ranyl. "Building With Hemp and Lime." Harvard Lecture Notes, 2009, 1-11.
Zohary, Daniel, and Maria Hopf. Domestication of Plants in the Old World: The Origin and Spread of Cultivated Plants in West Asia, Europe, and the Nile Valley. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.