Hemp as an Industrial Crop — 10,000 Years of History

## The Oldest Cultivated Plant in the World

Archaeological evidence suggests that humans have been cultivating hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) for at least 10,000 years. This makes hemp one of the oldest cultivated plants of all – it may even have been deliberately grown before cereal crops. The earliest evidence comes from the territory of present-day China and Taiwan, where hemp fibres were used to produce textiles and cords. Impressions of hemp cords on pottery shards date to approximately 8,000 BCE.

Unlike the psychoactive use of the flowers, industrial hemp focuses on the utilisation of stalk fibres, seeds (hemp nuts) and the woody core (hurds). Industrial hemp varieties typically contain less than 0.3 per cent THC and are cultivated exclusively for industrial and nutritional purposes.

## Textiles: The First Fibre of Civilisation

Hemp fibres are among the strongest natural fibres in existence. They are more tear-resistant than cotton, naturally resistant to mould and UV radiation, and become softer with every wash without losing stability. In China, common people wore hemp fabrics for millennia, while silk was reserved for the upper classes. The Chinese character for hemp (麻) is one of the oldest and appears in numerous compound characters.

In Europe, hemp was one of the most important textile fibres from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. Peasant clothing, bed linen, sacks and sailcloth were frequently made from hemp. The English word canvas derives directly from the Latin cannabis. The legendary Levi's jeans were originally made from a hemp-cotton blend fabric.

## Paper: A Chinese Innovation

The invention of paper is traditionally attributed to the Chinese court official Cai Lun, who developed a process for making paper from plant fibres around 105 CE. The oldest surviving paper fragments consist of hemp fibres and date to approximately 100 BCE. For centuries, hemp was the most important raw material for paper production in China and later in the Arab world and Europe.

Even the Gutenberg Bible of 1455 was printed on hemp paper. The American Declaration of Independence of 1776 was drafted on hemp paper. It was only in the 19th century that industrial wood pulp production displaced hemp as a paper raw material – a development that was ecologically questionable, since hemp yields significantly more pulp per hectare than forest and can be processed into paper without aggressive chemicals.

## Ropes and Rigging: The Strategic Resource

For centuries, hemp was indispensable for seafaring. Ropes, cables, nets and sailcloth made from hemp fibres formed the basis of every fleet. A single warship of the British Royal Navy required up to 80 tonnes of hemp rope and 6,000 square metres of hemp sailcloth. Hemp cultivation was therefore legally mandated in many European countries and strategically as important as ore production.

In North America, hemp cultivation was at times compulsory in the colonies of Virginia, Massachusetts and Connecticut. George Washington recorded in detail in his diary the cultivation of hemp on his Mount Vernon estate.

## Building Materials: From Antiquity to Today

Hemp hurds – the woody core of the stalk – were traditionally used as bedding and insulation material. In recent decades, the construction industry has rediscovered hemp as a sustainable building material. Hempcrete, a mixture of hemp hurds, lime and water, offers excellent insulation properties, regulates humidity and binds atmospheric CO₂ during curing. Buildings made from hempcrete have a negative carbon footprint – they store more CO₂ than is released during their production.

In France, thousands of housing units are already being built with hempcrete. In Germany too, the building material is gaining importance, particularly in ecological house construction and the energy-efficient renovation of historic buildings.

## The Renaissance of Industrial Hemp

After decades of marginalisation through prohibition, industrial hemp has been experiencing a worldwide renaissance since the 1990s. The EU permitted the cultivation of industrial hemp again from 1996, and Germany followed in the same year. The area under industrial hemp cultivation in the EU has multiplied since then and stood at over 60,000 hectares in 2024.

Modern applications go far beyond traditional uses: hemp fibres are processed into composite materials for the automotive industry, hemp seeds provide high-quality cooking oil and protein, hemp bioplastics replace petroleum-based materials, and hemp textiles are experiencing a comeback as a sustainable alternative to cotton. The plant requires little water, no pesticides and improves soil structure – properties that make it a key crop for sustainable agriculture.