As a cannabis activist for 50 years and an industrial hemp activist for 25, Dave Seber truly believes hemp is the 800-pound gorilla sitting at the back of the room.

“It has 25,000 to 50,000 different uses, and we’re hardly exploiting any of them,” Seber said. “If we don’t develop this crop, I don’t see a future for the human species. It is the only thing that might help mediate a bunch of damage we’ve done in other areas.”

Seber is owner of Hemp Shield in Eugene, which produces a hemp seed oil wood finisher and sealant. The oil is smaller than other coatings and can permeate the wood better for that reason; not to mention that it is one of the greenest options in the marketplace, he said.

Hemp has a variety of uses. Its stock is used for clothing or rope fiber, as well as paper. The oilseed can be used in industrial products as well as medical products; Cannabidiol (CBD) for example has grown in popularity as an anti-inflammatory alternative. Consumers can even buy hemp milk made from the seed.

Hemp and marijuana are the same species, but hemp is generally described as non-intoxicating cannabis.

Although hemp’s popularity is nothing new, its potential as an agricultural commodity has blossomed since the 2018 Farm Bill, which classified industrial hemp as a commodity and removed it from the list of controlled substances. Even when Oregon had a hemp program, which was established in 2015 after the 2014 Farm Bill passed, the industry was heavily regulated, allowing only institutions of higher education and state agriculture departments to grow hemp under a pilot program, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Now, the Oregon Department of Agriculture has recorded 1,342 growers and 46,219 acres of hemp; a large step from 2015 when there were only 13 growers and 105 acres. The Bend Bulletin reported that Oregon ranks third nationally behind Montana and Colorado in industrial hemp acreage, and it also is expected to become the state’s second biggest agricultural commodity.

Before the 2018 Farm Bill, Oregon farmers faced even more barriers to grow hemp due to federal prohibition. Farmers had restricted access to banking, water rights and crop insurance, ODA Communications Director Andrea Cantu-Schomus said. Also, due to its misclassification as a controlled substance before the Farm Bill, ODA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture were not tracking hemp’s production or value.

Dean Foor, co-founder of Entangled Biome in Eugene that produces CBD products, said despite hemp being criminalized for around 100 years, humans have had a relationship with the plant for centuries, and the opportunities are re-emerging.

“To say that we’re doing something brand new is accurate on one hand and not on the other,” Foor said. “We’ve known as a society and (individually as) humans that it’s a powerful plant that offers opportunity to us.”

CBD is used as an alternative to other anti-inflammatory medication, and has been shown to help people with anxiety and seizures, according to Harvard Medical School. Foor said he started Entangled Biome with co-founder Jeff Ballard because he wanted to find an alternative anti-inflammatory that was safe for him and also for his dog.

“To know that three years have gone by that I haven’t had to take an anti-inflammatory, and I’ve not only seen my dog but also other pets benefit from it, it’s further testimony,” he said. “We get to be a part of helping people find a better way of living.”

Foor added that the plant is extremely versatile and the potential is diverse. Already, hemp is being seen as an alternative to some medication, construction products, milk and cotton.

Mira Fannen, who has owned Sweet Skins Hemp in Eugene for 15 years, said when she decided to start a clothing company with natural fibers that she leaned toward hemp over anything else, even though she also uses organic cotton.

“I loved it when I found it. It has a unique texture, earthiness and durability,” she said. “Hemp is the most sustainable; it doesn’t require pesticides to grow and it’s a strong fiber. Pure hemp on its own is like linen.”

The biggest challenge facing Fannen is that hemp fabric is being grown and processed in China instead of the U.S., which is due to the U.S. not producing textiles in general. However, EnviroTextiles in Colorado, one of the first producers of hemp fabric, is leading the charge to make the process more available in the U.S., and Fannen said she is expecting hemp fabric to become more accessible in the future.

“It would be amazing to have hemp fabric grown in the U.S.,” she said, adding that manufacturing it in the region would make the business' carbon footprint smaller.

There are endless challenges still facing industrial hemp, Seber said, particularly because the industry is “rife with ignorance.” People think that hemp is a different plant than cannabis, even though it’s the same species, and hemp’s association with low THC has “no basis in reality,” he said.

“This distinction that’s being made from the very beginning is wrong,” he said. “I’m afraid it’s going to lead us down the same old rabbit holes that we’re in now: The trouble with classification and use.”

Ballard of Entangled Biome added that with CBD especially, some companies are misleading and putting out information that’s confusing.

“There’s so many companies out there, and there’s not a definitive way to tell what is better than the other,” he said.

Going forward, the future of hemp seems bright. Foor mentions a headline from the 1930s that said, “Hemp: the new billion dollar industry.”

“In 1934 there were big plans,” he said. “Where’s the future? I think in a way I’d like to believe it would be everywhere.”