Hemp: The Truth About the Earth's Greatest Plant In a perfect world there would be a product that could serve as a fuel source, a food source, a paper source, a textile source, and this product would be easy to produce in any of its forms. Believe it or not such a product does exist; it is the plant known as hemp. No tree or plant species on earth has the commercial, economic, and environmental potential of hemp. Over 30,000 known products can be manufactured from hemp. Hemp was a common crop grown in the U.S. until 1937 when it was unjustly banned. A common misconception about hemp is that it was banned because it was a widely a