Hemp and the Global Economy : The Rise of Labor, Innovation, and Trade

This book examines the current development of high tech industrial hemp applications by investigating rich historical precedent. In antiquity, hemp production influenced economic growth and cultural norms, including the evolution and decline of feudalism and slavery. Today, hemp manufacturing shapes global labor, innovation, and trade practices.

Hemp helped not only to define economic development in southern and border-states, it also played a crucial role in agricultural production in the Mid-Atlantic, as well as industrial development in the North-east. From the founding of the nation, the manufacture of American hemp helped monetize the US economy. US hemp producers also established a range modern labor practices, including the identification and training of skilled labor, the use of seasonal workers, and ultimately, the creation of a sliding scale of wages. This book chronicles this history, as well as the contemporary controversy obstructing the production of both industrial hemp and medical marijuana. The analysis concludes with a survey of current industrial hemp projects, including several promising adaptations - as a potential medicine, a bio-fuel, and most promisingly, a reliable source of clean computing fabrication.