Hemp is a miracle plant – cultivated by humans for over 10,000 years to make into a wide variety of useful products, including food, medicine, paper, textiles, clothing, shoes, biodegradable plastics, rope, insulation, building material, biofuel, and animal feed and bedding, to name a few. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp, colonial ships used hemp sails, and Betsy Ross made the first US flag from hemp.

Hemp is a fast-growing plant, resistance to pests, disease and weeds and has a very high tolerance to drought. It is remarkable in carbon sequestration, and remediation and restoration of soil. It can be used to clear impurities out of wastewater, even to clean contaminants at the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site. Yet with all these uses and benefits, hemp was illegal in the US for 50 years, and in many states for 80 or more years, with the roots of prohibition back as far as 1906. It's relative, marijuana has a psychoactive component (THC). Though the THC content of hemp is miniscule and not enough to be psychoactive, it has been outlawed along with its relative. Many are suspicious that competing economic interests led to prohibition, such as in the timber, cotton and polyester businesses, which feared competition in the paper, building material and textile/clothing industries.

In 2018, the US Farm Bill removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act and deemed hemp an agricultural commodity, no longer mistaken as a controlled substance. At this point, the world-leading producer of hemp is China, which produces more than 70% of the world output. Because of prohibition, there is little foundation for the hemp industry in the US to build on, including access to seeds, processing equipment and know-how. However, it does now provide the opportunity to build a just, sustainable and locally based hemp industry from scratch.