The Hemp Industry in Illinois-- Part 3: "Hemp for Victory"

The U.S. government even produced a film "Hemp for Victory."  The plant was needed to make "shoes for millions of American soldiers,"  "parachute webbing for our paratroopers," fire hoses and millions of feet of rope for our battleships.

There are farmers who claim hemp still grows along railroad tracks where it fell off cars during World War II.

From Hempology

The pilot hemp plant was built in Polo, Illinois.

The need for hemp came about when U.S. supplies of it from Asia were cut off during the war.

The first harvest was in 1943.  Camp Grant had many German POWs captured in North Africa.  They were  brought in by the busload to harvest.

On January 6, 1944, 52 truckloads of hemp was harvested.  As the war wound down, the government began closing plants because of the availability of supplies of hemp from Central America.

--GreGen