The "Going Out On A Rope" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just dropped my grandson off at home after spending a morning taking photos with him of Lancaster County, PA scenes.  He lives in West Hempfield Township about 20 minutes from my house in Manheim Township.  On the way home I passed through some of the most beautiful farmland in what is known throughout the country as the "Garden Spot of America." And, many of the people who live on the farms in Lancaster County are pushing the Pennsylvania State legislature to allow them to begin raising hemp.  Between 1718 and 1870 there were more than 100 water-powered hemp mills in Lancaster and nearby York counties.  

Farmland in Hempfield, Lancaster County, PA

The farmland that supplied the mills were farmed by Scotch-Irish and German pioneers who settled in Lancaster County.  Shortly after 1870 hemp farming waned, but had a resurgence in the early 1900s as hundreds of farmers grew hemp for Hanover Cordage Company.  Hemp was used not only for cordage products such as rope and twine, but also for concrete, motor vehicle parts, food, clothing and environmentally friendly fuel.  Legalizing the growing of hemp would bring more jobs to Lancaster County creating economic growth and agricultural sustainability.  The area where my grandson lives used to be rich in hemp farms, thus the names of East and West Hempfield.  In nearby Columbia, PA, pretzel baker Shawn House runs Hempzels Pretzels.  He uses hemp seeds in his pretzels, but he must buy those seeds from Canada.  Hemp seeds provide omega-3 fatty acid, vitamin B and proteins.  The owner of the company said that he would love to buy his hemp products from nearby Lancaster.  But there are some roadblocks that will have to be resolved before farmers in Lancaster will be able to grow hemp once more.  Seems that hemp is a member of the cannabis species and contains extremely low levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive agent of the plant that gets users high.  While the THC of hemp is less than 1%, it still causes people to associate it with marijuana and it's 7% to 20% THC content.  For Lancaster County and all the different religions that dominate the population, getting hemp legalized will be a real task.  Doesn't matter that hemp growing dates back to colonial America when Presidents Washington and Jefferson grew hemp and the fields of Lancaster were ripe with the crop. Also doesn't matter that the crop could double the income per acre of the products that are now grown. The 1937 act that forbade growing of hemp in the country is the reason that so many are up in arms against reinstating the growing of the cash crop. Many are treating hemp as if it were a drug issue.   The United States is the world's largest hemp importer, so there's no reason why Lancaster County farmers shouldn't begin to grow it again and return the product to US soil.  Two state Senators, Mike Folmer and Judith Schwank have introduced legislation to permit the cultivation and processing of industrial hemp in Pennsylvania.  

Lancaster Newspaper photo of Shawn House selling his
hemp products at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg,PA.

Every year in January the state holds it's Farm Show in nearby Harrisburg, PA and Shawn House sells his hemp products at a stand in the show.  One of his most popular sellers, besides his pretzels, is a wild cherry cough syrup that contains hemp.  Popular Mechanics labeled hemp a "billion dollar crop" since fuel and some car parts are made with it.  Law makers may be more favorable to passing a law to allow hemp to be grown if they were made aware that the Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper.  I believe it is only a matter of time before hemp will once again fills the fields of East and West Hempfield and gives my grandson and me another crop to photograph as they harvest it.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.