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What if I told you there was a miracle plant, one that has over 25,000 uses from rope to clothes, to concrete, to medicine?
如果我告诉你世界上有一种神奇的植物，它有25000多种用途，从制作绳子、衣服、混凝土，到药物都可以用得到？
A plant that grew quick and tall, that dug its roots deep into the dirt and sequestered tons of carbon back into the soil while sucking up polluting metals back out of it.
这种植物长得又快又高，它的根深深地扎进泥土里，把成吨的碳封存回土壤，同时把污染的金属吸出土壤。
Could you guess what it is?
你能猜到它是什么吗？
I'll give you a hint, it's been demonized for its association with its cousin, weed.
一个提示是，它被妖魔化了，因为与它的表亲杂草有关。
That's right, this miracle plant is hemp.
没错，这种神奇的植物就是大麻。
But in the U.S. it's barely grown.
但在美国，人们几乎不种植它。
So why, if hemp can do such good, has it been so villainized in the eyes of Americans.
那么，如果大麻有这么多作用，为什么在美国人的眼中它被视为毒恶。
This is the story of how the United States almost had a sustainable, hemp-based society, and then threw it all away.
这个故事是，美国拥有一个可持续的、以大麻为基础产物的社会，但是却把它全部抛弃了。
Hemp, a non psychoactive strain of the cannabis plant, seems like it can do everything.
它是一种非精神活性的大麻植物，似乎可以做任何事情。
It's one of the fastest growing plants on the planet, it's able to sequester 15 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the soil per hectare, and crowds out weeds to such an extent that very little herbicide is needed to grow it successfully.
它是地球上生长最快的植物之一，每公顷能将15吨二氧化碳封存到土壤中，并能将杂草挤掉，以至于只需要很少的除草剂就能成功种植。
When implemented in a crop rotation, hemp can be a boon to farmers.
如果在轮作中实施，大麻可以成为农民的福音。
Indeed, the Rodale Institute found in their hemp cover crop trials that yields of soybean and wheat increased in the next year while weed pressure dwindled.
事实上，罗代尔研究所在他们的麻类覆盖作物试验中发现，大豆和小麦的产量在第二年增加，杂草生长的压力却减少了。
This might be in part due to the plant's ability to pull heavy metals like cadmium and lead out of the soil while aerating the subsoil with its root system, ultimately leaving a healthier soil for the next plant.
这可能部分是由于该植物有能力将重金属（如镉和铅）从土壤中拉出来，同时用它的根系使下层土壤通气，最终为下一株植物留下更健康的土壤。
In short, hemp's impact on the soil is minimal while also sequestering a massive amount of carbon in a very short period of time.
简而言之，大麻对土壤的影响是最小的，同时也在很短的时间内封存了大量的碳。
But hemp's benefits don't end on the farm.
但大麻的好处并不局限于农场。
As I mentioned earlier, according to the USDA it has over 25,000 uses.
正如我前面提到的，根据美国农业部的数据，它有超过25,000种用途。
Its seeds are nutrient dense and can be eaten raw or made into milk or oils.
它的种子营养丰富，可以生吃或制成牛奶或油。
Its stalks can be used to make fiber that's stronger, more absorbent, more durable, and better insulating than cotton, and if clothing isn't what you need then you can make hemp paper, or even hemp concrete.
它的茎秆可以用来制作纤维，比棉花更强，更容易吸收，更耐用，绝缘性能更好，如果你不需要做衣服，那么你可以制作麻纸，甚至是麻混凝土。
That's right, concrete.
对的，混凝土。
When you mix the wooden refuse from the hemp fiber-making process with a lime-based binder and water you get a hardened substance similar to traditional concrete.
当你把纤维制造过程中的木质垃圾与石灰基粘合剂和水混合在一起时，你会得到一种类似于传统混凝土的硬化物质。
As a result, a meter squared area of hempcrete can sequester up to 16 kg of CO2 equivalent over its lifecycle.
因此，一米见方的大麻混凝土在其生命周期内可以封存多达16公斤的二氧化碳。
And all this is just the tip of the iceberg, there are many more applications like insulation that can be made from hemp.
而这一切只是冰山一角，它还有更多的应用，如绝缘材料可以用大麻制成。
So, if hemp can fulfill so many needs, then why isn't it all over the place now?
那么，如果大麻可以满足这么多的需求，那么为什么现在还没有广泛使用呢？
Back in 8,000 B.C.E Mesopotamians were weaving hemp cord into pottery.
早在公元前8000年，美索不达米亚人就把麻绳编织成陶器。
That's right, hemp was getting used as far back as 10,000 years ago.
对的，人们早在一万年前就开始使用大麻了。
In fact, the plant is one of the first cultivated crops.
事实上，这种植物是最早的栽培作物之一。
In China, hemp has been continuously cultivated for over 6,000 years, with farmers first converting the crop into textiles and then later in 150 B.C.E into some of the first paper.
在中国，大麻种植已有6000多年的历史，农民们首先将这种作物转化为纺织品，后来在公元前150年又转化为一些最早的纸张。
And from the paper of the Magna Carta to the very sails that brought the violence of colonialism to the shores of North America, hemp has been a part of history.
从《大宪章》的纸张到将殖民主义的暴力带到北美海岸的船帆，大麻一直是历史的一部分。
In fact, the early days of the United States were marked by an intensive hemp economy.
事实上，美国早期是以密集的大麻经济为标志的。
In 1535, King Henry VIII of England required farmers to sow at least a quarter acre of their land with hemp, because, at the time, 80% of clothing was made from hemp.
1535年，英国国王亨利八世要求农民在他们的土地上至少播种四分之一英亩的大麻，因为在当时，80%的衣服是由大麻制成的。
As a result the American colonial project partly developed on the back of hemp.
因此，美国的殖民项目部分是在大麻的基础上发展起来的。
The first American colony in Jamestown, Virginia mandated farmers grow hemp in 1619, and soon after Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Chesapeake Bay Colonies all enacted similar laws.
1619年，弗吉尼亚州詹姆斯敦的第一个美国殖民地规定农民种植大麻，不久之后，马萨诸塞州、康涅狄格州和切萨皮克湾殖民地都制定了类似的法律。
Hemp was even used as a form of currency in some colonies.
大麻甚至被用作殖民地的一种货币形式。
George Washington farmed hemp, and so did Thomas Jefferson.
乔治-华盛顿耕种大麻，托马斯-杰斐逊也是如此。
In short, hemp was a cash crop in the American colonies.
简而言之，大麻是美国殖民地的一种经济作物。
But there was a problem: hemp required a significant amount of labor to harvest and process.
但有一个问题：大麻需要大量的劳动力来收获和加工。
This was solved at first by the violent use of forced labor of enslaved people, but as the cotton industry soon took off and the cotton gin made cotton that much quicker to process, hemp products slid into a decline.
起初，这个问题通过暴力使用被奴役者的强迫劳动得到了解决，但随着棉花工业的迅速发展和轧棉机使棉花的加工速度大大加快，大麻产品滑向了衰退。
But the story doesn't end there.
但这个故事并没有结束。
Hemp farms in Missouri and Kentucky continued to pump out fibers for sails and textiles throughout the 19th century and into the early 20th century.
在整个19世纪和20世纪初，密苏里州和肯塔基州的大麻农场继续为船帆和纺织品提供纤维。
But it's here, in the early years of the 20th century, that we begin to see the last threads of the American hemp industry wither away.
但是，正是在这里，在20世纪初，我们开始看到美国大麻产业的最后一丝枯萎。
