A textile generally viewed as more at home at a Phish or Grateful Dead concert will get a prestigious perch on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday to honor veterans and promote the industrial hemp industry in America.
The American flag that tops the Capitol on Veterans Day is the product of a year and a half of work by dozens of veterans involved in every aspect of planting and harvesting the hemp, spinning and dying the yarn, and embroidering the stars on the hand-woven 3-foot-by-5-foot flag.
Lawmakers say flying the flag is a way to both recognize the veterans and demonstrate the importance of supporting American-grown hemp, a cause that advocates say is gaining momentum on Capitol Hill.
“The flag is a great way to highlight the potential of hemp as a new crop and source for products that are American made, but more importantly it is a perfect way to honor the work of our veterans and the Growing Warriors Project,” said Rep. John Yarmuth, R-Ky.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2575923
Michael Lewis, founder of the Growing Warriors Project, never imagined his goal of feeding vets who were receiving food stamps would lead to a hemp flag above D.C.
His little brother had gotten out of the military after a tour in Afghanistan, during which he had been shot in the back of the head. Though he suffered from a traumatic brain injury, Lewis said he started seeing a “pretty big improvement” in his brother once he began working around their farm.
About that same time, Lewis, himself a former member of Arlington Cemetery’s Old Guard, discovered a shocking statistic that more than 1 million veterans were receiving food stamps. Growing Warriors was born.
“It literally started in a garden at a church,” he said. “We got some seeds and hand tools, brought in 20 vets and their families, and taught them to grow and preserve their own food.”
While Lewis still works from his kitchen table, the program has grown. Growing Warriors now offers more formal training on the business side of farming, from marketing to food safety to bookkeeping, for veterans who want to run their own farms. Last year, the program grew 45,000 pounds of organic food across four states.
The idea for the flag grew out of opposition to industrial hemp, which often carries a stigma since it’s in the same class as marijuana and is regulated by the Drug Enforcement Agency under the Controlled Substances Act.
But Lewis said you can’t get high from industrial hemp. While marijuana is usually about 15 to 30 percent tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical responsible for someone getting high, this chemical only makes up .3 percent of industrial hemp.
Lewis said his farm was getting “buzzed” multiple times a day by Black Hawk helicopters flying at “pretty threatening” low levels, an act he saw as government disapproval of his growing industrial hemp even with the proper permits. In response, Lewis and his brother planted half an acre of industrial hemp in the shape of an American flag with stripes and stars.
“We just got frustrated,” Lewis said. “My brother said, ‘We’re growing stuff to make a flag that you guys make in China now for God sakes.’ We said, that’s what we’re doing. Come a year and a half later, we did it.”
Dozens of veterans assisted with the project to make a flag as Betsy Ross would have in the 1800s, Lewis said. The flag is 50 percent organic biodymanic cotton and 50 percent industrial hemp grown by veterans in Kentucky. All the yarn was hand-spun and hand-dyed using organic materials from North Carolina and Missouri. Lewis said the process was very time consuming, dying the yarn alone took four months, and he “gets goose bumps” now looking at the finished project.
“Everything we have textile-wise is smooth and satiny. It seems ironic that our flags are made of nylon, it’s smooth, nothing like we are as a people,” he said. “We’re all different, we all have our bumps and ridges. It’s amazing how it shows depth and texture.”
Members of Congress commended the flag project for both helping veterans transition to civilian life and raising awareness about the benefits of industrial hemp
“This gesture serves to remind Americans of the historical significance of industrial hemp and of our commitment to offering veterans more opportunities succeed after serving our country,” said Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.
Massie is one of the lead sponsors of the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015, which would define industrial hemp as a cannabis plant with a THC level of .3 percent of below and exclude industrial hemp from the Controlled Substances Act.
The act would build upon an amendment to the fiscal 2014 Farm Bill that allowed states to set up research and pilot programs with industrial hemp. Six states have pilot programs that are compliant with the bill, said Eric Steenstra, president of Vote Hemp.
More states are adding to that for 2016. North Dakota, which had previously allowed hemp growth only for research, is licensing farmers to grow it next year, Steenstra said. Several universities in Virginia are also launching programs in 2016, he said.
Pointing to the bipartisan votes it took to enact those programs, Steenstra said opposition to industrial hemp is “pretty limited.”
“That demonstrates a lot of what I believe support for hemp is all about,” he said. “It’s not a partisan issue, it’s something that has the potential to create economic benefits for American farmers and manufacturing.”
Legal restrictions prevent American farmers from taking part in the booming hemp retail market, Steenstra said. The retail market for foods and body care products alone grew more than 20 percent in fiscal 2014 to $620 million, according to a Hemp Industries Association press release, which does not even take into account textiles, paper or rope.
