Hemp in France

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Hemp field at Toulouse

Hemp (French: chanvre) has been grown continuously in France for hundreds of years or longer for use as a textile, paper, animal bedding, and for nautical applications.

History[edit]

Hemp rope-making machine at Arsenal de Rochefort

There is archaeological evidence that Neolithic Europeans used hemp cloth in what is now Southern France 4,000 years BP.[1][2] Hemp was introduced as a crop from Central and East Asia to Europe by the Scythians during the Bronze Age, and it was cultivated in France by 1000 CE and used for a number of purposes including canvas for sails and sacks, rope, and as a textile.[3][4] William Shakespeare wrote of the quality of hemp cloth from Locronan in the tragedy Coriolanus.[5][a] The Corderie Royale was built at Arsenal de Rochefort in 1666 for hemp rope needed by the Royal (French) Navy's rigging.[7] In the 19th century, hemp production reached 200,000 hectares (490,000 acres).[8] Breton hemp (from Brittany) was considered some of the finest in the world.[9] The French Navy "always"[clarification needed] used national hemp sources for oakum necessary to seal wooden boats and ships.[10]

Decline[edit]

Production declined and nearly went extinct[b] with the introduction of other fibers, especially cotton,[12] until its reintroduction in the 1960s.[13][14] France is the only Western European country that never prohibited hemp cultivation in the 20th century.[15][16][17]

Modern hemp[edit]

France produced more than half of the hemp in Europe most years between 1993 and 2015.[c] Most modern hemp seed cultivars originate from France and a handful of other European countries, or China.[19] Hemp fiber from France is used to make hemp paper and the hurds are used to make bedding for horses and other domesticated animals.[3][d] As of 1994, most of the crop was used to make high quality paper for Bibles, currency and rolling paper.[11][20]

Coopérative Centrale Des Producteurs De Semences De Chanvre is the main supplier of hempseed in the European Union.[21]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Act II, scene I refer to the fabric lockram, derived from Locronan[6]
  2. ^ 700 hectares planted in 1960 was France's minimum recorded crop[11]
  3. ^ According to European Industrial Hemp Association, only Spain produced more than France, in 1998[18]
  4. ^ Horse bedding consumed 45% of the hurds in 2010 and 2013[20]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Barber 1991, p. 17.
  2. ^ Clarke & Merlin 2013, pp. 104.
  3. ^ a b Carus & Sarmento 2016, p. 1.
  4. ^ Clarke & Merlin 2013, pp. 101, 103.
  5. ^ Hemp in France, Hash, Marihuana & Hemp Museum, Amsterdam, retrieved 2018-02-17
  6. ^ Williams 1905, p. 540.
  7. ^ Bouloc 2013, p. 16.
  8. ^ Legros 2013, p. 72.
  9. ^ Encyclopedia Americana 1919, p. 91.
  10. ^ Vesey 1854, p. 43.
  11. ^ a b Girouard 1994.
  12. ^ Mokyr 2003, p. 303.
  13. ^ Bouloc 2013, p. 72.
  14. ^ Bouloc 2013, p. 98.
  15. ^ EU hemp: history of deregulation, Hokkaido Industrial Hemp Association, accessed 2019-02-17
  16. ^ Merfield 1999, p. 8.
  17. ^ Smith-Heisters 2008, p. 4.
  18. ^ Carus & Sarmento 2016, p. 2.
  19. ^ CRS 2017, p. 6.
  20. ^ a b Carus & Sarmento 2016, p. 5.
  21. ^ Legros 2013, p. 101.

Sources[edit]

  • Barber, E.J.W. (1991). Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with Special Reference to the Aegean. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-00224-8.
  • Bouloc, Pierre, ed. (2013), "The history of hemp", Hemp: Industrial Production and Uses, CAB books, ISBN 9781845937935
  • Carus, Michael; Sarmento, Luis (May 2016), The European Hemp Industry: Cultivation, processing and applications for fibres, shivs, seeds and flowers (PDF), European Industrial Hemp Association
  • Clarke, Robert; Merlin, Mark (1 September 2013), "Diffusion into Europe and the Mediterranean", Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany, University of California Press, pp. 103–123, ISBN 978-0-520-95457-1, OCLC 92796711
  • Dodge, Charles Richard (1919). "Hemp". Encyclopedia Americana. Vol. 14. Encyclopedia Americana Corporation. pp. 90–92. OCLC 836110293.
  • Girouard, Patrick (1994), Insights of the French Hemp Program, REAP Canada – via Ecological Agriculture Projects website, McGill University
  • Johnson, Renée (March 10, 2017). "Hemp as an Agricultural Commodity" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. CRS report RL32725. Retrieved 2019-02-16. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  • Legros, Sandrine (2013), "Factors affecting the industrial production of hemp – experimental results from France", in Bouloc, Pierre (ed.), Hemp: Industrial Production and Uses, CAB books, pp. 72–99, ISBN 9781845937935
  • Vesey, W.N. (March 6, 1854). "French dominions: Ship building". In Flagg, Edmund (ed.). Commercial Relations of the United States with Foreign Countries. United States. Dept. of State / U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 41–45.
  • Merfield, Charles N. (November 1999), Industrial hemp and its potential for New Zealand, The Biological Husbandry Unit (BHU) Future Farming Centre, Lincoln University
  • Mokyr, Joel (2003), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-510507-0
  • Smith-Heisters, Skaidra (2008), Illegally green: environmental costs of hemp prohibition, Reason Foundation, Policy study 367
  • Williams, William Henry (1905), Specimens of the Elizabethan Drama from Lyly to Shirley, A.D. 1580-A.D. 1642, Clarendon Press


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