Industrial hemp is non-psychoactive varieties of the Cannabisplant grown for fiber and seed. Hemp has a remarkable number ofbeneficial uses, and we support its use in agriculture, manufacturingand trade. Hemp oil improves our soaps because it contains such a highproportion of poly-unsaturated fatty acids which make our soap milderand less drying.

TheBronner family is committed to helping transition our major industriesaway from polluting, unsustainable materials and methods to cleaner,sustainable ones. Hemp’s excellent fiber can replace virgin timber pulpin paper, glass fibers in construction and automotive composites, andpesticide-intensive cotton in textiles. Because of its huge marketpotential and high biomass/cellulose content, hemp is an ideal futurecrop for producing bio-ethanol and bio-plastics. However, the U.S.government, alone among the major industrialized nations, effectivelyprohibits domestic hemp cultivation — due primarily to the “reefermadness” and confusion regarding hemp’s psychoactive cousin,“marijuana.”

In2001, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), under the Bushadministration, attempted to destroy the U.S. hemp industry, issuingregulations purporting to interpret existing law to declare hempillegal and seizing shipments of hemp seed and oil at the Canadianborder. Dr. Bronner’s funded and coordinated the hemp industry’sprotracted and ultimately successful litigation with the DEA,culminating in a clear victory on February 6, 2004 in the federal NinthCircuit Court of Appeals. David Bronner serves on the Vote Hemp boardand is currently President of the Hemp Industries Association (HIA).

TheBronner family is supporting Vote Hemp and the HIA’s legal, media,grassroots and lobbying efforts to recommercialize industrial hemp inthe U.S. We teamed up with Gertrude Spindler to market her vegan,organic, gluten-free hemp snack bars (ALPSNACK), from which all profits are donated to hemp advocacy.