The tobacco industry in America is fading as the campaign against smoking continues to gain ground, lawsuits and higher taxes on tobacco products continues to result in lower sales. While many would applaud the decrease in tobacco useage in the United States because of the health side effects, the fact remains that many family farms and towns are suffering economically because of the decrease in tobacco sales.

Farmers are losing their farms and their land. And once farm land is lost, it is very difficult to ever get it back as new development quickly gobbles up the land. Families who have worked the land for generations are having to give up their way of life and sell the land they love.

It is not in our nation's best interest to simple watch these farmers give up their land and their way of life or to have it taken. It is time to legalize the farming of Industrial Hemp in the United States.

Legalizing Industrial Hemp would allow our farmers to hang onto their land and continue their love of working the land. It is not just tobacco farmers that desperately need us to legalize Industrial Hemp, farmers all across the nation are struggling and losing their farms. Industrial Hemp can be made into literally thousands of products, including food. It is legal to sell Hemp products in the U.S., it is just illegal to grow it. That makes no sense. We are the only nation that has such a ban. Technically, it is not exactly illegal to grow Hemp in the U.S., it is illegal to grow Hemp in the U.S. without a DEA permit. And since the DEA doesn't normally give out permits, we will use the term illegal.

The United States has a long history of growing quality hemp, but it was made illegal some time ago when people got the crop confused with Marijuana. Hemp is not the same as Marijuana. Americans buy billions of dollars a year in Hemp products that are mostly grown in Canada. You would be very surprised how many products you have already bought that contain foreign grown Hemp.

There is a bill currently in the U.S. House to legalize the farming of Industrial Hemp, but it appears that bill is not likely to pass.

It is time to legalize Industrial Hemp. It would allow many American farmers to keep their farms and their land. And it would be one more step toward a return to American self-reliance.


-michael
NAIP

Return to American Self-Reliance