The Hemp Industry Herer Predicted: What Arrived

“The 2018 Farm Bill created the hemp industry Herer argued for since 1985. The industry is real, worth approximately $5 billion, and substantially different from what he envisioned.”

The 2018 Agricultural Improvement Act removed hemp (cannabis with less than 0.3 percent THC) from the Controlled Substances Act. By 2023, the US hemp industry was valued at approximately $4.9 billion. Primary market segments: CBD products, hemp fiber textiles, hempcrete construction materials, hemp food products, and industrial hemp fiber for technical applications.

This is substantially what Herer described as possible. The paper and fuel applications he emphasized most have not yet scaled significantly, hemp paper economics remain challenging compared to established wood pulp supply chains, and hemp biofuel has not displaced fossil fuels at meaningful scale. But fiber, food, and construction materials are commercial realities.

The industry's corporate character diverges from Herer's vision. He imagined hemp as a crop empowering small farmers. The actual hemp industry consolidated rapidly: the CBD extraction market overproduced massively in 2019-2020, driving prices down and eliminating most small operators. What remains is dominated by larger operators.

Herer's political economy argument, that hemp prohibition served specific corporate interests, has been partially vindicated by legalization's consequences: the corporations benefiting most from the legal hemp market are not the family farms and local cooperatives of his imagination. The emperor's new clothes are branded and investor-backed.

Sources

• Herer The Emperor Wears No Clothes (1985)
• USDA Economic Research Service Hemp (2023)
• Cannabis market research firm US Hemp Industry Report (2023)
• 2018 Agricultural Improvement Act