Bamboo Could Have Replaced Lumber, But They Shut It Down
Bamboo was added to the Plant Import Quarantine Act
In 1910, the U.S. had a choice: build a sustainable lumber industry out of bamboo, or keep clear-cutting forests. The Department of Agriculture already had the receipts — bamboo grew faster, stronger, and more versatile than pine. The evidence was so clear that one man, Edward Avery McIlhenny, the Tabasco sauce heir from Louisiana, literally brought bamboo from Asia to prove it.
The results? Bamboo thrived on U.S. soil. It grew like wildfire in the South. It produced timber, pulp, and fiber at a fraction of the time it took pine or oak. The USDA acknowledged in its own internal reports that bamboo could replace the entire southern pine industry.¹
So why didn’t America pivot?
McIlhenny’s Bamboo Crusade
Edward Avery McIlhenny wasn’t just a pepper king. By the early 1900s, he was an explorer, conservationist, and visionary. He imported giant timber bamboo from Asia in 1902, planting groves on Avery Island, Louisiana. The groves thrived. Roosevelt himself showed interest, sending forestry officials to inspect the plantings.²
McIlhenny published reports showing that bamboo could replace lumber for paper, building materials, even furniture. By 1910, USDA records stated bamboo was a viable alternative to southern pine.³
And yet — nothing.
The Quarantine Trap
By 1912, the Plant Quarantine Act was passed. Bamboo was lumped in with “dangerous foreign plants,” allegedly because of pest risk. In reality, it was a convenient way to keep bamboo locked down, centralized in USDA’s Beltsville station — never to become an open industry.⁴
While Asia built bamboo economies, the U.S. doubled down on timber monopolies and petrochemical plastics. Bamboo infrastructure never came online here — not because it couldn’t, but because it was caged.
Receipts They Don’t Teach in School
USDA Bulletin 1910: Bamboo can replace southern pine in pulp & paper.³
Edward Avery McIlhenny’s bamboo groves on Avery Island: still growing today, 120 years later.²
Roosevelt’s forestry team reviewed the groves, but USDA never funded commercial rollout.²
Plant Quarantine Act (1912) centralized imports and locked bamboo away under government control.⁴
Money influenced the Timber Industry decision.
Why Bury This Truth?
Because if bamboo had been allowed to replace lumber, America wouldn’t have needed to strip its forests bare. Timber profits would have collapsed. Petrochemical plastics wouldn’t have had an open runway.
This wasn’t a scientific decision. It was an economic one.
Consumer Takeaway
Every “sustainable” paper towel, every “green” lumber label in Home Depot today is built on a century-old lie. Bamboo could have replaced pine before the Titanic even sailed. Instead, it was quarantined, defunded, and erased.
Bamboo didn’t fail. It was executed.
Sources / Receipts
USDA Bulletin, 1910 – Bamboo as a Substitute for Southern Pine in Pulp & Paper.
Edward Avery McIlhenny’s bamboo groves – Avery Island History.
USDA records – National Agricultural Library archives.
Plant Quarantine Act, 1912 – USDA APHIS History.
Read the full story in the book.
Evolution Mine: The Industrial Evolution—the blueprint for breaking the petrochemical playbook and building a regenerative economy.
👉 Buy on Amazon
Read the full story in the book.
Evolution Mine: The Industrial Evolution—the blueprint for breaking the petrochemical playbook and building a regenerative economy.
👉 Buy on Amazon
