Cannabis exceeds all other cash crops

[LaWood]

Pot is called biggest cash crop
The $35-billion market value of U.S.-grown cannabis tops that of such heartland staples as corn and hay, a marijuana activist says.
By Eric Bailey
Times Staff Writer

December 18, 2006

SACRAMENTO — For years, activists in the marijuana legalization movement have claimed that cannabis is America's biggest cash crop. Now they're citing government statistics to prove it.

A report released today by a marijuana public policy analyst contends that the market value of pot produced in the U.S. exceeds $35 billion — far more than the crop value of such heartland staples as corn, soybeans and hay, which are the top three legal cash crops.

California is responsible for more than a third of the cannabis harvest, with an estimated production of $13.8 billion that exceeds the value of the state's grapes, vegetables and hay combined — and marijuana is the top cash crop in a dozen states, the report states.
http://www.latimes.com/
Dec 18 '06

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

Ah yes, but would it be if marijuana wasn't illegal? Since the $35 billion is based on market value and the market value is "black market" driven (always an unpleasant multiplier of cost), my bet would be that same amount (mass or volume) of mj would come in at about $35 million if it were at least decriminalized (and legalized would be better, because it could be inspected, rated and sold - and taxed - through package stores). That's still a nice cash crop for local farmers - and better than grapes and vegetables environmentally speaking for CA, since it uses less pesticides and a whole lot less water (which is currently coming from the rapidly-receding glaciers of the western Rockies).

[LaWood]

Nice swing, let's connect the rest of the dots.
Estimates are always a fun game.

If MJ were decriminalized then production would soar until some form of
market saturation or consumer content occurs. At that hypothetical point
prices would stabilize over a longer span, and the cv of MJ production would be about half of its current status. This swing at the ball happens if the gubermint doesn't grant monopolies, but seeing the immense potential for mo money few giants are going to pass up the chance to get in the monopoly gravy train, just as they do with doctor dope and America's favorite drug, alcohol. Production of MJ increases 4x and prices drop then begin a long increase. Mexican growers would be rioting over import quotas. Advertising campaigns would be creative and Canadians, who are eons ahead of U.S. in MJ R&D, would deliver a restricted but potent product.
Opps. Time to wake up get back to work.

[Betsy]

I know a person in California who grows pot for the medical marijuana farms and says they'd rather it wasn't legalized for that very reason. They make more money this way...

[Dardedar]

...but seeing the immense potential for mo money few giants are going to pass up the chance to get in the monopoly gravy train, just as they do with doctor dope and America's favorite drug, alcohol.

DAR
I don't think there is a monopoly on alcohol. You are allowed to make your own up to about 200 gallons (wine or beer) per year (I think). Course you can makes lots more and no one cares unless you start selling it. So if people were allowed to grow their own POT there wouldn't be much of a monopoly of it either. Lots of people have land. Course lots of people would want to pay to get the really good stuff, just like they do now with their booze. It is tricky to make a very good consistent wine or beer.

D.

Here it is, I found the law:

***
President Jimmy Carter signed into law a bill explicitly allowing home beer and winemaking, which was at the time illegal as a holdover from the prohibition of alcoholic beverages (repealed in 1933).

26 USCS § 5051(a)(1) provides for the imposition and rate of federal taxation on beer in the United States.

(a) Rate of tax.

(1) In general. A tax is hereby imposed on all beer brewed or produced, and removed for consumption or sale, within the United States, or imported into the United States.

26 USCS § 5053(e) provides exemptions from federal taxation for beer brewed for personal use.

(e) Beer for personal or family use. Subject to regulation prescribed by the Secretary, any adult may, without payment of tax, produce beer for personal or family use and not for sale. The aggregate amount of beer exempt from tax under this subsection with respect to any household shall not exceed

(1) 200 gallons per calendar year if there are 2 or more adults in such household, or
(2) 100 gallons per calendar year if there is only 1 adult in such household.

link

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

Americans being trained into instant gratification over the last few generations are more likely to buy than grow their own pot. Some will, of course, just like the folks who make their own booze, but that won't be enough to effect market value any more than my SCA friends in Olathe, KS brewing beer bothers Coors. It will just go back to being the farmers' friend - the mortgage "buster" (that which pays the mortgage) - like it was in the "old days".

I'm not as "up" on pot as some of you guys. I know commercial hemp (which can't get you high) grows about 18 ft tall, needs less water than soybeans, little if any fertilizer and no pesticides, and can be used for all fiber/textile & paper needs and the seeds can be used to produce oil for fuel and plastic-production needs & then as animal feedstock once the oil is pressed. The seeds could also be used to make some of the "fake meat" items currently made with soy. Can the fiber and seeds of the pot plant be used the same way (as in, while the commercial plant is best suited for commercial uses, is the "medicinal" plant a multipurpose crop)?

[Dardedar]

DAR
I got involved with the Arkansas medical MJ group some years ago not because I used the stuff, but because I thought it was important for someone not using it to step forward in support of the right for people to use MJ as a medicine if they want to (many of the people using it are afraid). For a while I was almost going to be their hemp specialist/spokesperson. Just to say in response, you have to watch the claims about hemp. There are lots of zealots out there making extraordinary claims about hemp. I wish I could find the link of the extensive hemp article I finally found that examined many of the hemp claims indepth and debunked some of them.

I did find this. Also useful to read the wiki article but it doesn't have much examining the claims critically.

D.

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

Darrel - Your link to "Cecil" seems to be heavy on Hogeye-style dismissal and not a lot of real debunking (including the "I don't have to prove my claims, you have to prove yours" style of comeback). Much of what the major textile industries have against hemp is they don't have the equipment to handle the fibers - not that the fibers aren't good for practically anything of a textile nature. I started doubting Cecil when he commented that "hemp is coarse" & "OK for jeans" - hemp fiber is like flax fiber, also known as linen. Depending on the length of the fiber you can make anything from very soft sheets and hankies (long fibers) to fire hoses (very short fibers). You can also make paper from the fibers of any plant. Again, industry has the equipment for making tree pulp fiber - and subsidies to use our national forests for the wood - so they won't have any real incentive to change until the subsidies (& use of national forests) stop and maybe some tax breaks for changing equipment are set up.

The other issue Cecil didn't address is the hemp seed oil. It absolutely can be used in a diesel engine, whether or not (as the hemp activists claim) the diesel engine was designed to use it, and is a useful replacement for any of the lighter density petroleum products (OK, you can't tar a roof with it). Cecil's bias was really shown with the hemp products he mentioned at the end of the thread - a cannabis leaf is a cannabis leaf - putting its outline on a hemp shoe is not evidence that the producer of said shoe is just using his shoe business to sneak in some pot. You can grow pot and commercial hemp together, but if the feds can't tell them apart then are you sure you can - you might give yourself a headache smoking the wrong leaves. And as to future production (seeds), when you grow them together what you get is more commercial hemp. It's like growing popcorn with field corn - you won't like the result if it was popcorn you were after.

Like Darrel, I am a non-user, and thats why I have been off and on involved with various legalizing cannabis for whatever reason organizations over the years. But I haven't able to get a good answer to my original question - is pot a multipurpose plant - like the old-fashioned breeds of chicken that were good for both eggs and meat, and although not as good for either as the specialty birds worked better for a small farmer than having to keep two sets of chickens. If the fibers on a pot plant are too long for the American textile (cotton-based) machinery, but too short for European flax/linen machinery - then it's useless textilely until somebody actually invents equipment to use it. If it's not too short for European machinery, pot is a multipurpose plant. Ditto, if the oil can be used to run a school bus, pot is a multipurpose plant - even through you'd probably better not feed the seed cake to your cows. If pot is "only" a medicinal and recreational crop, it has fewer "selling points" to get it legal (or at least decriminalized), while commercial hemp has stronger "selling points" since it takes someone who is really not paying attention to not know the difference and anybody trying to sell it to the "mob" is likely to end up wearing cement overshoes - and both the fiber and the oil of commercial hemp have very important commercial uses that would, if not save the planet, at least take some pressure off.

[Dardedar]

I started doubting Cecil when he commented that "hemp is coarse" & "OK for jeans" - hemp fiber is like flax fiber, also known as linen.

DAR
Cecil's right. I hate linen. It's too coarse for me, I can't wear it (as a shirt, but I'm fussy).
A couple points:

I am a big fan of hemp. I think anyone should be able to grow it anywhere, anytime. I think it can do a lot of good and has multiple uses. I am skeptical of it replacing fuels except for the hobbiests. We still have a lot of oil (and coal) left and nothing is going to compete with that until we have a lot less. But regarding hemp there is a lot of hype and exaggeration, and the loudest promoters are almost always the pot folks. It is a different sect of the same cannabis religion. A religion I have a lot of respect for and I wish them the best of luck.

D.

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

That's personal taste (linen) - and truthfully, it is very stiff/coarse when new. It takes a whole lot of washing to make it soft. It takes even longer with modern washing machines (one of the earlier methods of doing laundry was lay the clothing on a rock in a stream and then beat it with another rock until all the dirt was gone). I have some linen hankies & it's true I don't use them when I have a cold (nose too sore already).

You're right about the religious fervor of the pot smokers. I remember one claim that hemp doesn't need fertilizer. Well, that's true if you are throwing seeds along the road and harvesting whatever grows. However, if you are going to grow it in a field like a regular crop, it requires nutrients - whether you use composted manure or commercial fertilizer, it still needs nutrients. It's not a "heavy feeder" like corn or soy, but still...

I hope we get off that coal and oil soon - dumping the government subsidies would help along that line - not only because all along the line (extraction, use, cleanup) they are environmentally harmful and adding to the global warming problem, but also because they are the earth's energy capital. Ask your friendly neighborhood investment counselor about burning through capital - you'll get some varient of "it's the 1st of the 7 deadly sins". Hemp could be a big part of that changeover, but you are correct that it isn't the total solution. While it may be the best (more efficient) way to deal with that part of the solution, it isn't the only way by any stretch of the imagination.

[Dardedar]

According to US Government estimates domestic marijuana production has increased ten fold over the last 25 years from 1,000 metric tons (2.2 million pounds) in 1981 to 10,000 metric tons (22 million pounds) in 2006. The ongoing proliferation of marijuana cultivation places it beyond the scope of law enforcement capabilities to control and reduce the availability of marijuana to teenagers and young children under existing public policy.

Using conservative price estimates derived from federal surveys, domestic marijuana production has a value of $35.8 billion, more than corn and wheat combined, easily making it America’s largest and most lucrative cash crop.

Based on production estimates derived from marijuana eradication efforts from 2003 to 2005 marijuana is the top cash crop in 12 states, one of the top 3 cash crops in 30 states, and one of the top 5 cash crops in 39 states.

The domestic marijuana crop is larger than Cotton in Alabama, larger than Grapes, Vegetables and Hay combined in California, larger than Peanuts in Georgia, larger than Tobacco in both Carolinas, larger than Hay, Tobacco, Corn and Soybeans combined in Kentucky, and larger
than the top ten crops combined (Soybeans, Hay, Cotton, Corn, Tobacco, Vegetables, Wheat, Cottonseed, Sorghum and Apples) in Tennessee.

Illicit marijuana cultivation provides considerable unreported revenue for growers without corresponding tax obligations to compensate the public for the social and fiscal costs of pot use.

The rest...

AND

The price of pot is about 5 to 6 dollars per gram in Amsterdam where it is legal. See here.

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

Darrel - per your article, pot isn't exactly legal in the Netherlands, just decriminalized, and growing it is still a criminal offense. My bet is the price would drop if they decriminalized growing it. I doubt, even fully legal, it would ever be cheap, but it would be like booze and tobacco - something in every price range, not just the upper ranges (single malt scotch, for example can cost over $100 a bottle, just blended scotch is available for uner $10).