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Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy. We need your help. More Info ### I would like to contribute One Time Monthly Yearly Join Now ![](\\" TOM_2_copy/5899312af159216d7d604ba40ae12c18.jpeg\\") ![](\\" TOM_2_copy/e6a1c85e6ad06170d53757f8635c9975.jpeg\\") Nikki Fried stated on October 12, 2019 in a speech to the Florida Democratic Party: \"Hemp has 25,000-35,000 known usages. That means it is going to be something that will replace plastics, and styrofoam and concrete.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" mostly-false/6a6ef6075c162fdccf5eb960e683dcd1.jpg.\\") ![\\"barely- true\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") * Florida * Marijuana * Nikki Fried ![\\"Amy](\\" By Amy Sherman October 22, 2019 # 25,000 uses for hemp, including a replacement for concrete and plastic? Not so fast Hemp has been used inside a BMW electric car, as fiber in jeans and in the walls of a Tarpon Springs, home. Now Florida’s lone statewide elected Democrat, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, will oversee a new state industrial hemp program. Fried, a former lobbyist for the marijuana industry, says that hemp has a massive number of uses and will replace some common materials. \"What most people don’t understand is that hemp has 25,000-35,000 known usages,\" she said at a Florida Democratic Party conference in Orlando. \"That means it is going to be something that is going to replace plastics, and styrofoam and concrete.\" That’s a giant heap of hemp. But is Fried’s claim accurate? While hemp and marijuana are from the same species of plant, hemp is nonpsychoactive and is used for a variety of products. Industry-friendly legislation has helped to grow the hemp market in recent years. But don’t expect it to replace plastics or concrete anytime soon. Vast research and development — and money — is needed before widespread utilization. \"Industrial hemp products offer an alternative to materials like plastic and concrete in certain applications, but will never be able to fully replace them due to differences in the physical and chemical characteristics of the materials,\" said Tai Olson, who works for US Heritage Group, which works with suppliers for hempcrete projects. Claim about 25,000 uses from 1938 Fried’s claim about the number of uses for hemp comes from a magazine story published 80 years ago. In 1938, Popular Mechanics magazine declared hemp the new \"billion dollar crop.\" \"Hemp is the standard fiber of the world. It has great tensile strength and durability. It is used to produce more than 5,000 textile products, ranging from rope to fine laces, and the wood ‘hurdes’ remaining after the fiber has been removed contains more than 77% cellulose, and can be used to produce more than 25,000 products, ranging from dynamite to cellophane.\" The magazine story, however, did not account for government regulation that stymied hemp development. In 1937, Congress passed a law, which required hemp farmers to register and pay a tax. But the 25,000-uses statistic lived on, even earning a mention in a 2018 Congressional Research Service report. Fried’s spokesman noted that report as well as other citations by news outlets including the Tampa Bay Times, Florida government and academic works. (PolitiFact Missouri also cited the figure, we found.) We sent Fried’s citations to four academic experts on hemp, and none was swayed. \"Just because a number is repeated over and over does not make it true,\" agriculture scientist Jennifer Gilbert Jenkins told us. Gilbert Jenkins is a professor at the State University of New York at Morrisville. Hemp has multiple uses within agriculture, textiles, recycling, automotive, furniture, food and beverages, paper, construction materials, and personal care. A few experts in hemp told us the math behind 25,000 uses (and especially 35,000) is empty. #### Featured Fact-check ![](\\" ![](\\" Ron DeSantis stated on August 28, 2024 in a press conference The proposal to put golf courses, hotels in Florida state parks “was something that was leaked. … a lot of that stuff was half-baked and was not ready for prime time.” ![\\"true\\"](\\" mostly-false/6a6ef6075c162fdccf5eb960e683dcd1.jpg.\\") ![\\"barely- true\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • August 29, 2024 \"Of course it’s misleading, since defining what a ‘use’ is is arbitrary, and most uses would be economically insignificant,\" said Ernest Small, a research scientist in Canada. \"But the same could be said about numerous things, so it’s not exactly untruthful. With some imagination, I think you could find 25,000 uses for a car, or for many common things.\" Back to the source, Popular Mechanics. Jared W. Nelson, a mechanical engineer at SUNY New Paltz, told us he thinks the reported number of uses does not specifically refer to hemp, but instead refers to cellulose. Dynamite and cellophane are derived from cellulose. While hemp could provide sugars through the enzymatic breakdown of cellulose, it’s a lot easier and cheaper to get those sugars from corn starch or sugar cane, said Cornell professor Lawrence B. Smart. \"The 25,000 products is a great number, but please put it in context,\" Smart said. \"Since we get most of our paper products from eucalyptus and lumber products from pine, how many products can you make from eucalyptus and pine?\" Hemp’s on the rise, but future hard to predict What matters most, said Gilbert Jenkins, is \"for the first time in a generation we are able to innovate around this versatile crop.\" The 2018 farm bill legalized industrial use of hemp and removed it from the federal list of controlled substances, opening up the market to new products. According to Vote Hemp, the number of acres of grown hemp tripled between 2017 and 2018, and hemp-based product sales have also climbed. Fried’s spokesman Franco Ripple pointed to examples of hemp being used in hempcrete to build homes, composites to build products like cars, and hemp- based packaging and plastic alternatives. Hemp-based products should increasingly replace specific uses of Styrofoam, plastic, and concrete, he added. \"Her forward-looking statements on the future of hemp and potential uses are intended to inspire the industry’s development,\" he said, citing predictions about the future growth of hemp. But there are challenges to using hemp in the United States. For example, Gilbert Jenkins is partnering with the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York to make hemp jeans. \"We are in the process of sending a bale of hemp fiber to Poland to be processed into yarn because that capability does not exist in the United States currently,\" she said. \"Our textile industry is set up to work with cotton short fibers, not long hemp fibers.\" As for Ripple’s examples, they don’t represent the majority of current hemp use. About 80 percent of hemp grown in the United States is for hemp extracts including cannabidiol, or CBD, said Eric Steenstra, Vote Hemp’s president. Experts also told us that hempcrete is intended to replace other components within a wall, such as sheetrock, and not the concrete itself. Also, hemp won’t replace plastics. Hemp fibers can be used to strengthen plastics and other composite materials. Hemp oil can replace the petroleum oil raw material for the plastic, which \"is still plastic with all of its downsides,\" said Gilbert Jenkins. Hemp has scarcely penetrated the building and plastic replacement markets, Small said. \"The future seems limited, albeit not impossible.\" Our ruling Fried said, \"Hemp has 25,000-35,000 known usages. That means it is going to be something that is going to replace plastics, and styrofoam and concrete.\" The number comes from a Popular Mechanics article in 1938 about the number of potential products that creates an overly optimistic picture of the number of uses. Just because a use exists does not mean that it is commonly available. Most hemp grown now is for CBD. Fried said that hemp products will \"replace\" such common materials as plastics and concrete, but we found no evidence that hemp has the physical properties to truly replace these materials. The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate this statement Mostly False. #### Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter ### Our Sources Florida Democratic Party, Nikki Fried speech, Oct. 12, 2019 Florida Senate, CS/CS/SB 1020: State Hemp Program, July 1, 2019 Popular Mechanics Magazine, New billion dollar crop, February 1938 Congressional Research Service, Hemp as an Agricultural Commodity, June 22, 2018 Congressional Research Service, Defining Hemp: A fact sheet, March 22, 2019 Vote Hemp, US Hemp crop report, 2019 Vote Hemp, Hemp legislation FAQ, Accessed Oct. 18, 2019 Hemp Business Journal, US-Hemp based product sales 2012-2022 BMW, Old plastic for new BMWs, Accessed Oct. 18, 2019 New York Times, There’s no place like home, especially if it’s made of hemp, Jan. 29, 2019 Politico, Hemp lobbying surges on the heels of legalization, Oct. 17, 2019 Politico, Mitch McConnell’s love affair with hemp, March 2, 2015 Forbes, Levi\'s And Outerknown Figure Out How To Use Hemp In Denim, March 8, 2019 ABC News, Florida readies for hemp industry as lawmaker support grows, March 29, 2019 Green Entrepreneur, The Next Big Thing in \'Green\' Packaging Is Hemp Bioplastic, Nov. 29, 2018 Michigan State University, Frequently asked questions, 2019 Journal of Food Law and Policy, The Fate of Industrial Hemp in the 2018 Farm Bill – Will Our Collective Ambivalence Finally Be Resolved? 2018 PBS, 8 things you didn’t know about hemp, Oct. 17, 2015 Driving, This race-spec Porsche boasts 425 hp—and a body made of hemp, Jan. 5, 2019 The Packer, Owyhee plans to grow hemp, use it for packaging, Oct. 10, 2019 Hemp Plastic Company, Website, Accessed Oct. 17, 2019 Tampa Bay Times, Hemp helps build a house in Tarpon Springs, likely first in Florida, 2014 Tampa Bay Times, Meet Nicole \"Nikki\" Fried, the marijuana lobbyist and Fort Lauderdale attorney running for agriculture commissioner, Sept. 24, 2018 Tampa Bay Times, Florida’s first hemp program passed by Legislature, heads to governor for signature, May 3, 2019 Missourian, FACT CHECK: Missouri once was a large producer of industrial hemp, May 16, 2017 Email interview, Janna L. Beckerman, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Purdue University, Oct. 16-21, 2019 Email interview, Franco Ripple, spokesman for Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, Oct. 17-18, 2019 Email and telephone interview, Eric Steenstra, Vote Hemp President, Oct. 17, 2019 Email interview, Ernest Small, research scientist, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Oct. 16, 2019 Email interview, Tai Olson, US Heritage Group director of operations, Oct. 17, 2019 Email interview, Jared W. Nelson, mechanical engineer at SUNY New Paltz, Oct. 17, 2019 Email interview, Lawrence B. Smart, Professor, Horticulture Section School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University, Oct. 16-21, 2019 Email interview, Jennifer Gilbert Jenkins, assistant professor of agriculture sciences SUNY Morrisville, Oct. 17-21, 2019 Telephone interview, Kristen Nichols, a writer for Marijuana Business Daily, Oct. 17, 2019 ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by Amy Sherman ![](\\" ![](\\" JD Vance stated on August 25, 2024 in an interview on NBC\'s \"Meet the Press\": A zero-tolerance policy during the Trump administration \"led to less family separation than under Kamala Harris\' border policies.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • September 4, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 26, 2024 in an interview with a podcaster: Vice President Kamala Harris “is a communist. … She is really a Marxist.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • September 4, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Rick Scott stated on August 28, 2024 in a post on X: “This month alone, more than 16,000 non-citizens have been removed from the voter rolls in 3 states.” ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • August 29, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 23, 2024 in a speech in Las Vegas: “Kamala cast the tiebreaking vote to hire 87,000 new IRS agents to go after your tip income.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • August 28, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Tim Walz stated on August 14, 2024 in a speech in California: Former President Donald Trump “cut overtime benefits for millions of workers.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • August 20, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Pete Buttigieg stated on August 11, 2024 in an interview on CNN State of the Union: Gov. Tim Walz delivered paid family leave in Minnesota but “Republicans are blocking” a Biden-Harris proposal. ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • August 16, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 8, 2024 in a press conference: Says his Jan. 6, 2021, speech on the White House Ellipse drew the “same number of people,” as the 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Louis Jacobson • August 9, 2024 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on August 2, 2024 in a video: In Pompano Beach, Florida, Somali immigrants illegally in the U.S. were in line to get driver’s licenses and “all you need to vote is a driver\'s license.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu • August 7, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on July 27, 2024 in a rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota: During the 2020 Minnesota riots after George Floyd’s murder, Gov. Tim Walz didn’t call in the National Guard, “so, I sent in the National Guard to save Minneapolis.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • August 7, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 3, 2024 in a rally in Atlanta: Kamala Harris “supports mandatory gun confiscation.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • August 7, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on July 24, 2024 in a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina: Kamala Harris “wants to defund the police.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • July 30, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on July 24, 2024 in a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina: Kamala Harris “supported abolishing ICE.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • July 29, 2024 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on July 22, 2024 in an Instagram post: There are nine states “where Biden’s name can’t be removed and no one can be added. That’s over 130 electoral votes in the toilet.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ranjan Jindal • July 23, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on July 17, 2024 in a campaign video: \"Unlike Mike Pence, (JD) Vance said he would have carried out Trump\'s plan to overturn the 2020 election.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • July 18, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kari Lake stated on July 16, 2024 in in a speech at RNC in Milwaukee: “Just last week, Ruben Gallego voted to let the millions of people who poured into our country illegally cast a ballot in this upcoming election.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • July 17, 2024 ### 25,000 uses for hemp, including a replacement for concrete and plastic? 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Hemp has 2500035000 known usages That means it is going to be something that will replace plastics and styrofoam and concrete