Put that in your pipe and smoke it - Fords made of hemp?
by Dan Roth on Jul 17th 2007 at 9:04PM 
a 1941 Ford with organic plastic body panels
Okay, let's get the spliff jokes out of the way - there's lots of stuff made from hemp, and it won't get you high. It would be nice to swap plastic off-gassing for an entirely more pleasant type of new car smell, though. Don't get your hopes up for a Ford you can smoke, however. What's really going on is research into building cars from renewable organic materials that are also more easily recycled than the metal and petrochemical parts from which that cars are currently constructed.
The effort has Ford teaming with the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and hemp fiber supplier Hemcore. The DEFRA is throwing about £500,000 (roughly $1 million) at the effort, and Ford already has experience using plant matter to build auto bodies. There was a prototype in 1941 with a plastic body fashioned from plant material. We wonder what a rush to plant matter body materials will do to the price of crops; much the same way the E85 push has caused the price of corn to increase. It would be nice, however, to have plastics that can be more easily reused, and may biodegrade instead of plugging up landfills for millennia.
[Source: Winding Road]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Vexorg 9:07PM (7/17/2007)
Cheech and Chong could not be reached for comment.
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Hamud 9:24PM (7/17/2007)
Holu fu... dude, you made me laugh really hard, ahaahahhahhahhahah.
Nero was found and he's looking forward to burn these cars, ehehehehehe.
Stephen 9:51PM (7/17/2007)
I'm not sure how cost effective it is, but I have heard that hemp can be used for anything petroleum is used for.
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DeadConcious 10:29PM (7/17/2007)
Maybe this will help push for legalization of industrial hemp in America. It's really stupid that it is illegal to grow industrial hemp when it has very low cannabinoid content, is renewable, provides other uses(in addition to hemp fiber, hemp oil can also be produced, which can be used for making many things, including biodiesel) and could help alleviate some of the cost of petroleum.
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Vectortrance 11:58PM (7/17/2007)
Sounds like a good idea to me.
Hemp is supposed to be lighter and more durable, not to mention cheaper than steel and aluminum.
If its even half as durable as the polymer side pannels on my Saturn SC2, then its worth it in my mind.
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phil 12:04AM (7/18/2007)
Hemp was pushed out by the cotton lobbyists back when slavery was still legal. Why did it never make a comeback? Probably the stigma. Oh well.
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CheezeDog 12:52AM (7/18/2007)
By my Stars and gauntlets... 6 comments in, and no one has anything negative to say...
Yet.
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Tagg 2:12AM (7/18/2007)
Does anyone else remember that butt-ugy "Model-E" concept from about 2000-2001? It was made of all organic materials, mostly soy which comprised the plastic shell and other parts as well as the seat foam which is now being used in some Ford vehicles like the Mustang.
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CH 8:22AM (7/18/2007)
"It would be nice, however, to have plastics that can be more easily reused, and may biodegrade instead of plugging up landfills for millennia."
Well, as long as it does not biodegrade during the warranty period of the car...
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Dave 9:00AM (7/18/2007)
Ford already produced a hemp car back in the 1930's so this reporter is obviously clueless when it comes to history. Except for the engine and glass?, the whole car can be produced by hemp.
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Dan Roth 9:02AM (7/18/2007)
Dave, did you even _read_ the post? How about the part where I mention the prototype in the 1940s and LINK TO AN ARTICLE ABOUT IT! How about the picture that heads the post, of a 1940s Ford with plastic trunklid? Why would I have chosen that picture if I was so obviously clueless?
ClutchCargo 8:40AM (7/18/2007)
So why did Ford not go ahead with that car in 1941. It acutally looked better than the Fords of that day. I liked the large glass area.
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Dave 9:16AM (7/18/2007)
This story is not news to me. As mentioned Ford already did this back in the 1930's, early 40's, so this story is not ground breaking news like its portrayed.
The drug content of hemp is less than the trace alcohal content in most juice on the store shelves, and alcohal is a harder drug on the body than marijuana. It's all politics my friends as to why its still illegal to grow. Too many companies-pharmaceutical, paper, patroleam, police, would lose business if hemp was a common in use.
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Onefastgta 7:59PM (7/18/2007)
Funny how smart the general population is getting now because of the internet. I cat believe the government is still getting away with making it illegal. One of the main reasons its illegal is because of a man named Hearst who owned a giant paper company in the 1920s and was having trouble competing with hemp paper. This large paper company also happened to own a bunch of newspapers across the country and used them to make everybody think that this drug "marijuana" was making drug crazed minoritieys murder and rape white people. Funny part is nobody even realized that marijuana is the same thing until it was illegal. So instead of it being a profitable venture for the US it is now costing us billions upon billions of dollars trying to keep it out.
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