Hemp in France

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There is archaeological evidence that Neolithic Europeans used hemp cloth in what is now Southern France 4,000 years BP.{{sfn | Barber | 1991 | p=17}}{{sfn|Clarke|Merlin|2013|pp=104}} Hemp was introduced as a crop from Central and East Asia to Europe by the Scythians during the Bronze Age, and it was cultivated in France by 1000 CE and used for a number of purposes including canvas for sails and sacks, rope, and as a textile.{{sfn|Carus|Sarmento|2016|p=1}}{{sfn|Clarke|Merlin|2013|pp=101,103}}

William Shakespeare wrote of the quality of hemp cloth from Locronan in the tragedy Coriolanus.[https://hashmuseum.com/en/collection/hemp-in-france Hemp in France], Hash, Marihuana & Hemp Museum, Amsterdam, retrieved 2018-02-17{{efn|Act II, scene I refer to the fabric lockram, derived from Locronan{{sfn|Williams|1905|p=540}}}} The Corderie Royale was built at Arsenal de Rochefort in 1666 for hemp rope needed by the Royal (French) Navy's rigging.{{sfn|Bouloc|2013|p=16}} In the 19th century, hemp production reached {{convert|200000|ha}}.{{sfn|Legros|2013|p=72}} Breton hemp (from Brittany) was considered some of the finest in the world.{{sfn | Encyclopedia Americana| 1919 | p=91}}

The French Navy "always"{{clarify|date=October 2022}} used national hemp sources for oakum necessary to seal wooden boats and ships.{{sfn | Vesey | 1854 | p=43}}

Production declined and nearly went extinct{{efn|700 hectares planted in 1960 was France's minimum recorded crop{{sfn|Girouard|1994}}}} with the introduction of other fibers, especially cotton,{{sfn|Mokyr|2003|p=303}} until its reintroduction in the 1960s.{{sfn|Bouloc|2013|p=72}}{{sfn|Bouloc|2013|p=98}} France is the only Western European country that never prohibited hemp cultivation in the 20th century.[http://hokkaido-hemp.net/en-foreign.html EU hemp: history of deregulation], Hokkaido Industrial Hemp Association, accessed 2019-02-17{{sfn|Merfield| 1999|p=8}}{{sfn|Smith-Heisters | 2008|p=4}}

France produced more than half of the hemp in Europe most years between 1993 and 2015.{{efn|According to European Industrial Hemp Association, only Spain produced more than France, in 1998{{sfn|Carus|Sarmento|2016|p=2}}}} Most modern hemp seed cultivars originate from France and a handful of other European countries, or China.{{sfn|CRS|2017|p=6}} Hemp fiber from France is used to make hemp paper and the hurds are used to make bedding for horses and other domesticated animals.{{sfn|Carus|Sarmento|2016|p=1}}{{efn|Horse bedding consumed 45% of the hurds in 2010 and 2013{{sfn|Carus|Sarmento|2016|p=5}}}} As of 1994, most of the crop was used to make high quality paper for Bibles, currency and rolling paper.{{sfn|Girouard|1994}}{{sfn|Carus|Sarmento|2016|p=5}}

Coopérative Centrale Des Producteurs De Semences De Chanvre is the main supplier of hempseed in the European Union.{{sfn|Legros|2013|p=101}}

• Cannabis in France

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{{reflist}}

• {{cite book | last=Barber | first=E.J.W. | title=Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with Special Reference to the Aegean | publisher=Princeton University Press | year=1991 | isbn=978-0-691-00224-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HnSlynSfeEIC }}
• {{citation|title=Hemp: Industrial Production and Uses|contribution=The history of hemp|publisher=CAB books|editor-first=Pierre|editor-last=Bouloc|year=2013|isbn=9781845937935}}
• {{citation|title=The European Hemp Industry: Cultivation, processing and applications for fibres, shivs, seeds and flowers|author1-first=Michael |author1-last=Carus|author2-first=Luis|author2-last=Sarmento|date=May 2016|publisher=European Industrial Hemp Association|url=http://eiha.org/media/2016/05/16-05-17-european-hemp-industry-2013.pdf}}
• {{citation|author1-first=Robert |author1-last=Clarke|author2-first=Mark |author2-last=Merlin|title=Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany|chapter=Diffusion into Europe and the Mediterranean

|pages=103–123|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=poenY6QMq8UC|date=1 September 2013|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-95457-1|oclc=92796711}}

• {{cite encyclopedia |last=Dodge |first=Charles Richard |author-link= |editor-last=|editor-first= |editor-link= |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Americana |title=Hemp |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pGMMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA91 |edition= |year=1919 |publisher=Encyclopedia Americana Corporation |series= |volume=14 |id= |isbn= |oclc=836110293 |doi= |pages=90–92 |quote= |ref={{harvid| Encyclopedia Americana | 1919}}}}
• {{citation|title=Insights of the French Hemp Program|first=Patrick |last=Girouard|year=1994|publisher=REAP Canada|via=Ecological Agriculture Projects website, McGill University|url=https://eap.mcgill.ca/MagRack/SF/Fall%2094%20K.htm}}
• {{Cite journal| last=Johnson|first=Renée|date=March 10, 2017|id=CRS report RL32725|title=Hemp as an Agricultural Commodity| url=http://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32725.pdf|publisher=Congressional Research Service| ref={{harvid|CRS|2017}}|access-date=2019-02-16}}
• {{citation|title=Hemp: Industrial Production and Uses|contribution=Factors affecting the industrial production of hemp – experimental results from France|publisher=CAB books|author-first=Sandrine|author-last=Legros|pages=72–99|editor-first=Pierre|editor-last=Bouloc|year=2013|isbn=9781845937935}}
• {{cite book | first= W.N. | last= Vesey |date=March 6, 1854

|contribution=French dominions: Ship building| pages=41–45 | title=Commercial Relations of the United States with Foreign Countries | publisher=United States. Dept. of State / U.S. Government Printing Office | editor-first=Edmund | editor-last=Flagg | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4BlJAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA43 }}

• {{citation|title=Industrial hemp and its potential for New Zealand | last=Merfield|first=Charles N.|date=November 1999|publisher=The Biological Husbandry Unit (BHU) Future Farming Centre, Lincoln University|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277111429}}
• {{citation| last=Mokyr | first=Joel | title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History | publisher=Oxford University Press | issue=v. 3 | year=2003 | isbn=978-0-19-510507-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ssNMAgAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA303 }}
• {{citation| last= Smith-Heisters | first=Skaidra | title=Illegally green: environmental costs of hemp prohibition | publisher=Reason Foundation|year=2008|id=Policy study 367|url=https://reason.org/policy-study/illegally-green-environmental/}}
• {{citation|title=Specimens of the Elizabethan Drama from Lyly to Shirley, A.D. 1580-A.D. 1642|first=William Henry |last=Williams|publisher=Clarendon Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aUorAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA540|author-link=William Henry Williams|year=1905}}

Category:Agriculture in France

France

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