We’re not f**ked.
Fragments of a manual they never wanted you to read.
Author: Eric Stevens
This isn’t a lifestyle blog. It’s not hemp hype. These are decoded fragments of a bigger system.
How petrochemicals captured our wallets, how hemp and bamboo were buried, women marginalized, and how we claw the future back with the power of purchase.
Protest makes noise. Consumer activism breaks empires. Welcome to the manual that creates the post-petro world.
1970–72: The Regulatory Mirage… EPA for You, China for Them
Nixon’s EPA and OSHA looked like protection. In reality, they gave corporations the excuse to offshore dirty industry. America didn’t clean up , it outsourced.
đźš« 1937: The Marihuana Tax Act. How Hemp Was Executed
In 1937, the U.S. outlawed hemp under the Marihuana Tax Act; the same year DuPont patented nylon. It wasn’t about drugs. It was about protecting timber, petrochemicals, and monopoly.
Bamboo Could Have Replaced Lumber, But They Shut It Down
In 1910, USDA scientists confirmed bamboo could replace America’s pine industry. Edward Avery McIlhenny proved it in Louisiana. By 1912, the Plant Quarantine Act locked bamboo out; protecting timber and petro profits.
đźš« 1962: Bamboo Defunded - Research Stopped Before It Scaled.
In 1962, USDA pulled funding from bamboo research. Bamboo wasn’t banned — it was starved. Timber, cotton, and petro kept their monopoly.
Act 1: Foundations Buried. Hemp Wins the Revolution (1770s–1780s)
Hemp wasn’t fringe — it was freedom. The sails, ropes, and paper that won American independence came from hemp. Colonists even traded hemp bales for muskets and powder. Without hemp, there’s no navy, no supply chain, no Revolution.
1971: Hemp Dragged Into CSA
In 1971, hemp was swept into the Controlled Substances Act. A natural crop was treated like a poison; locking it out of research and industry while petrochemicals exploded worldwide.
Bamboo & Hemp: Two Grasses Built to Heal What Petrochemicals Broke
Bamboo and hemp are the twin antidotes to the petrochemical era.
Quarantined in 1918, defunded in 1962, and criminalized in 1971, these two climate-positive crops were sidelined just as oil, plastics and slow-growth timber took the throne. Today both can be grown right here in the U.S., locking away carbon, cleaning soil, and feeding the next generation of bioplastics, bio-silicates, batteries and solar technology.
Bamboo can replace coal. Hemp can replace oil. Together they can replace timber—and help heal the planet.
The Anatomy of the Hemp Scam: How Congress Set Hemp Up to Fail
Only in America do we spend millions on seeds and science, then pass laws to burn the harvest. In 2018, Congress legalized hemp, and farmers invested in barns, seed, and labs. USDA funded research, universities ran trials, and taxpayers bankrolled it all. Now lawmakers move to redefine hemp out of existence, while USDA undervalues floral hemp by more than 20x. This isn’t oversight. It’s sabotage and the blueprint is hiding in plain sight.