In 1941, Henry Ford built a car out of plastic made from hemp, flax, wheat, and spruce pulp. material. It ran on ethanol made from hemp and other agricultural waste. Ford's bioplastic Model T was was lighter than fiberglass and ten times stronger than steel.
Popular Mechanics, in its December 1941 issue, reported that "Ford's experimental model was a step toward the realization of his dream to grow automobiles from soil and reduce greenhouse gases."
When Ford was building his bio car, greenhouse gasses were already in the public eye and the car started a renewed public conversation on the merits of biomass versus fossil fuel.
Curbing greenhouse gases and how to shift from a hydrocarbon economy to a carbohydrate economy lies in the use of crops like hemp. In 1992, Irshad Ahmed and David J. Morris wrote The Carbohydrate Economy: Making Chemicals and Industrial Materials with Plant Materials that looked at the potential for biomaterial replacement over the monopoly of petrochemicals.
Industrializing societies were carbohydrate economies 200 years ago. In 1820, Americans used two tons of vegetables for every one ton of minerals. Plants were the primary raw materials in the production of dyes, chemicals, paints, inks, solvents, construction materials and energy.
Because of historical and regulatory factors starting in the 1930s, hemp was sidelined. The Hearst Corporation with investments in the forest products industry opposed hemp paper to protect its tree-based paper production. John D. Rockefeller, an investor in petroleum-based pharmaceuticals and the DuPont family, which introduced nylon, actively campaigned against hemp.
TO READ THE ARTICLE: Forbes
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