Hemp, which grows wild in Central Asia and the Himalayas, has probably been cultivated in Finland longer than flax. In the past, most farms had their own corner of the field reserved for hemp: in the golden lands of cultivation in Häme and Savo, as much as a third of the arable land. Hemp fiber is very strong and long-lasting, so it found its place in fabrics and ropes. At least in the Eastern Finland region, the seeds were also used. They were ground into oil, porridge was cooked, and roasted seeds were made into a tahini-like paste, often mixed with roasted buckwheat or rye flour. Hemp is an inseparable part of world history. Hemp fabric provided a ride for the sails of the ships of "discoverers", a surface for the brushstrokes of painters, and clothed all people. Although hemp was vital to the USA, providing material for Bibles, flags and banknotes, in the late 1930s the country passed a law prohibiting all varieties of hemp, including marijuana. This was despite the fact that cannabis processed for intoxicating purposes is clearly a different strain from actual hemp. The law was lobbied by the oil and forestry industries in particular, as it was in their interest to concentrate production and prosperity in their own industries. From then on, the plant's many uses began to be forgotten. In Finland, synthetic fibers replaced hemp in factory use between the world wars. After this, hemp was only cultivated on a small scale for domestic needs.

It is only in the last decade that hemp has made a real comeback as a clothing, food, cosmetic and fiber crop in Western countries. The medicinal use of intoxicating varieties, i.e. THC-containing varieties, is permitted in some places, and in the Netherlands, even intoxicating. In the United States, the cultivation of all hemp varieties is still prohibited, although it can be imported for food, to the delight of the country's natural food industry. In our eastern neighbor, Russia, the centuries-old continuity of cultivation of hemp varieties has never been interrupted. The Siberian Institute's seed bank is to be thanked for the edible hemp variety Finola currently grown in Finland.