SEED MONEY: Entrepreneur says hemp deserves another look

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SEED MONEY: Entrepreneur says hemp deserves another look

By Phil Landesberg

Central Penn Business Journal

January 19, 2007


Julius Sturgis opened the first commercial pretzel bakery in 1861. William and Salie Utz started making potato chips in their summer kitchen in 1921. Their pioneering efforts helped make Central Pennsylvania a major snack-food producer by growing the market for their products. Other entrepreneurs followed, providing jobs and contributing to a sustainable economy.

Shawn Patrick House, a 43-year-old businessman from Columbia, Lancaster County, wants to have a similar effect by promoting the growth of the hemp-food industry in Pennsylvania.

He's starting small but hopes to have a big impact.

"I'd like to get to the point where I could operate a fleet of biofueled trucks distributing great tasting, highly nutritional snack foods made from hemp," House said.

"It's all about the seed" is the tagline for Lancaster Trading House Inc., the business House incorporated in May 2005 to develop, manufacture and distribute hemp-food products. It may be more common to think of the hemp plant as the source of fiber used for ropes. But hemp seeds, hemp flour and hemp oil are being used in an increasing number of foods.

Hemp and marijuana are different varieties of the same plant, cannibis. House explained that industrial hemp (a common name given to the variety of the plant used for food, fiber and oil) contains only trace amounts of THC, which stands for tetrahydrocannabinol. THC is the primary psychoactive chemical substance in marijuana that was isolated and identified in 1964.

"You can't get high from eating my hemp-food products," he said.

He adheres to industry standards for THC levels in hemp foods, ensuring that you won't fail a drug test by eating his products.

Hemp seeds contain a high level of protein and an ideal ratio of the essential fatty acids omega 3 and omega 6 that nutritionists find are often deficient in our diets.

"I've been more sensitive to children's health and nutrition issues since the birth of my daughter earlier this year and my first wife's battle with cancer from 1993 to 2004," House said.

His first product was Hempzels, his trademarked crunchy, hard pretzels made from hemp seed and flour blended with natural ingredients. Hempzels, introduced in 1999, are handmade by the Revonah Pretzel bakery in Hanover. Through trial and error, he developed and introduced new food products, all processed in Pennsylvania. Those snacks include peanut-filled pretzel nuggets; organic, whole, toasted hemp seeds; honey mustard and baklava.

House lacks a background in food preparation but has skills in working with people, acquired from jobs in marketing and sales. These skills have enabled him to build personal and contractual relationships with farmers, processors and manufacturers. He wants to do more than just help his own business.

"I want to provide for the sustainable growth of the regional economy," he said.

House became interested in

industrial-hemp products after reading "The Emperor Wears No Clothes," by Jack Herer. The book tells the history of hemp, which includes a rich Colonial heritage. Former Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp, and Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper.

As a native of Chester County and a history buff, House was excited to learn that hemp was once grown and milled in Pennsylvania.

"One of the things that caught my interest about hemp was learning that Henry Ford was looking into developing synthetic products and fuel from hemp and other farm crops versus coal and petroleum," House said.

House is conscious of ecological and health issues, and wants manufacturers to reduce their reliance on petroleum-based products.

The Web site for Hempline Inc., a Canadian producer of hemp fibers, notes that hemp is increasingly used as a reinforcement material in the automobile industry, especially among European car makers. House is aware of the trend.

"I'm not trying to do anything new, just return to older and healthier products," he said. "Almost anything made from petroleum can be made from hemp."

He has worked for years to promote and demonstrate the benefits of hemp products. House was a sponsor of the "Hemp Car" that completed a 13,000-mile trip through he U.S. in 2001, fueled by hemp biofuel.

He likes to educate people about hemp's historical contributions as well as its potential, pointing out that hemp ropes and rigging were used on Naval ships through World War II.

Adam Eidinger, a spokesman for the nonprofit hemp-advocacy organization Vote Hemp, called House a pioneer in the hemp-food industry. House was recently elected to the board of directors of the Hemp Industries Association, Eidinger said.

House has worked to educate the local farming community about the benefits of growing hemp. It's a good rotation crop that grows quickly and requires little or no pesticide treatment. He imports hemp seed from Canada, but he would prefer to buy from local farmers. He's unable to do that now.

Hemp can't be grown domestically because of a succession of federal laws and regulations, dating back to the 1930s (see "Hemp and the law," this page).

In the meantime, House plans to introduce new products and expand his distribution network. He will roll out a substitute for peanut butter that will be an alternative for people with allergies to peanuts.

House sells directly to the public through his Web site (www.hempzels.com). The Web site lists out-of-state store locations and provides a timeline of hemp's history.
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AT A GLANCE: Lancaster Trading House Inc.

Location: Columbia

What it does: Makes and distributes a variety of snack foods made from hemp

President and chief executive officer: Shawn Patrick House

Employees: 1

2006 revenue: Did not disclose

Where to find its products: At health stores, including Avatar's Natural Grocery in New Cumberland and Genesee Natural Foods Inc. in Lower Paxton Township. This year, House added Karns Foods in Derry Township and started selling at the Columbia Central Market (open every Thursday). House hopes Giant Food Stores and Wegmans Food Markets Inc. will stock his products.

On the Web: www.hempzels.com

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Hemp and the law

According to Shawn Patrick House, owner of Lancaster Trading House Inc., ignorance and the self-interest of paper and petroleum industries halted the domestic farming of hemp, with passage of the "Marihuana (sic) Tax Act in 1937." While the intent was to prohibit the use of marijuana, in accordance to the anti-drug sentiments of the times, the act imposed a tax on growing hemp that effectively ended the domestic hemp industry.

After the 1937 law was found unconstitutional in 1969, Congress quickly passed the 1970 Controlled Substance Act, which treats hemp and marijuana the same and outlaws them both. More than 30 countries distinguish between these two plant varieties and permit the farming of hemp. Canadian farmers are already benefiting from increased demand for hemp for food, fuel and fiber.

As more hemp food, fiber and oil products have been successful in the marketplace, several states have introduced bills that would permit the regulated growth of hemp. California's legislature passed such a bill this fall, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it.

House believes that a better approach than new state laws, which would likely be challenged by the federal government, is passage of H.R. 3037, "The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2005." Introduced by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), H.R. 3037 would amend the Controlled Substance Act by asserting that "marihuana" does not include industrial hemp and by allowing states to regulate the growing of industrial hemp under state law.

According to Adam Eidinger, a spokesman for the nonprofit hemp-advocacy organization Vote Hemp, the hemp industry may focus in 2007 on adding favorable language to the congressional farm bill, thereby removing the threat of federal action against farmers who decide to grow hemp. Fears that hemp fields could hide marijuana plants are unfounded, Eidinger said, because cross-pollination would effectively ruin the potency of the marijuana.


Copyright (c) 2007 Central Penn Business Journal