HEMP AND HOW IT CAN BENEFIT OUR ENVIRONMENT

One already knows how today’s environment is …thousand of trees are being eradicated and the ozone is slowly disappearing. Up to this century our economy had been carbohydrate-based (farm grown) meaning our plant matter was used to make materials.

Now in this 20^th century we have transformed into a hydrocarbon-based economy where petrochemicals are being used to make our materials and are the cause of most of our problems we face today including the disappearance of our rainforest, global warming and our massive chemical wastelands.  Eco-friendly hemp can replace most toxic petrochemical products.   With the help of hemp our economy can be Carbohydrate- based again... 

In 1938 it was reported that industrial hemp would become the first billion dollar product.   As of 1997 the hemp market generated about seventy-five million in revenues and it’s estimated by 200l that figure could rise another 1.5 million. Hemp is known to be the oldest industry in the world. Hemp goes back more than ten thousand years. This industry now has over ten thousand products that are being used, such as cigarette paper, bank notes, clothing,(our levis jeans), automobile parts, furniture, personal care, construction materials and much, much more.

 There are three main ways eco-friendly hemp is able to utilize today’s environment. 

-          it can be used to minimize deforestation;

-          to produce paper and home building supplies;

      -          it can reduce global warming by substituting  for both diesel and petroleum fuel;

 Hemp and the Environment Use for Paper

            Trees have been used to make paper since the mid 1800s, and before that paper was made from cloth rags and annual crops like papyrus and hemp. As Robinson (1996) states deforestation is perhaps the most severe threat to the long term health of the plant.    It has been noted that twenty-seven hundred species of life go extinct every year due largely to 296 million acres of forest we have destroyed in the past twenty years.( pg 23). Roulac 1997 argues hemp fiber’s low lignin content accommodates environmentally benign bleaching, without the use of chlorine compounds, harmful glues and bleaching agents which harms rivers near paper mills.(119-120).  When growing crops they need little attention and are subject to few diseases and pests.  Hemp crops could thereby reduce global deforestation.    

Restorative agriculture –  not only farmers are able to maintain their crops without further harm to the environment or loss of topsoil ,  but they do it in a way that actually increases the amount of topsoil, and  the value of the land, and also restores the health and vitality of the land as they are producing the goods for society.

When soil needs more humus the hemp most definitely would be a good crop to grow because when you have soil that is acidified by the acid rain there does seem to be evidence that growing industrial hemp it restores PH balance which then would enable other crops to grow on that soil again.

It’s just common sense to use something that builds soil while giving us an annual crop where there are so many other various products that can be made.

Did you know a hemp crop produces four times the amount of pulp for paper than trees and a hemp crop can be grown in ninety days, twice a year, with trees taking around twenty- five years?  Roulac (1997) states that hemps long and tough bats fibers while requiring cutting prior to paper making can produce high quality papers for books, magazines and stationary.  The shorter core fibers, blended with another long fibered pulp can be used to make newspaper, tissue and packaging materials (pg. 119-120). Hemp paper is strong and has low acid content therefore will last longer which is especially appealing to book and journal publishers. 

An example in using hemp as the raw material instead of timber if trees are not being cut down this allows the forest to clean the air. At the same time hemp crops will take carbon dioxide out of the air which also keeps the air clean.  Simultaneously, it produces the fiber (four times as much pulp as per acre as does forest land) for making building materials and paper for which the trees would have been used.  By using hemp instead of timber to make paper than manufacturers will be able to use cleaner technologies; making paper from trees is known to cause pollution and yet the manufacturing of hemp paper does not use chlorine bleaches that would produce dioxins. When growing crops they need little attention and are subject to few diseases and pests.  Hemp crops could thereby reduce global deforestation. It would make sense that people would rather have cleaner technologies for other resources too.                                                                     

Hemp and the Environment Housing and Industrial Products

One of the fastest and largest growing markets for industrial hemp is wood products.  Composites include paneling, medium-density fiberboard, plywood trusses, and support beams.  According to Roulac, current timber-harvesting levels some composite mills   will need to find an alternative fiber source in order to stay in business.  These factories can substitute hemp for wood with our changing existing production equipment.  Washington State University preeminent Wood Composite Laboratory has tested hemp for use in medium density fiberboard, and the results show that hemp is twice as strong as wood.   According to the lab director Tom Maloney, “the use of hemp fiber in multi-density fiberboard and other composites look very promising”.

 Hemp and the Environment Fuel

One of today’s biggest problems is the use of many various types of transportation that is overused causing too much pollution. Yes, some measures have been taken to fix this problem as people try to car pool as well as take public transportation, but what about millions of people that do not.   Well here is a solution.   By using hemp as a fuel source it would most definitely reduce the amount of petro fuel rising into the air as well as causing our ozone layer to disappear.   The stalks of hemp can produce charcoal, gasoline, ethanol, non-condensable gases, acetic acid, acetone, methane, and methanol.  Methane and methanol fuels that are made from hemp actually emit 50% less air pollution than its fossil fuel competitors. Roulac (1997) states hemp makes an excellent fuel source.  Its short fiber can be burned and converted in methanol fuel for vehicles (pg 119).  Biomass conversion to fuel has proven economically feasible in laboratory tests and continuous operation of hemp (pilot) plants.    It has a heating value of 5,000-8,000 BTU/lb, with virtually no ash or sulfur produced by combustion (internet source).We must all take an effort to reduce automobile emissions that damage our ozone layer.  Using hemp to create ethanol is one way of addressing the issue of air pollution because by burning ethanol it is less reactive with sunlight then burning gasoline, resulting in a lower potential for forming the damaging ozone. 

In conclusion, on a world basis, however hemp production continues to thrive. Large crops are grown and marketed in Europe.  The continuing recognition of the need for a healthy planet is changing whereby society values a lot of other things.  We all seem to value things that are more convenient to us rather than what is valuable to our health.

Ultimately, mutual interests in the survival of this planet and the health and well being of our economy and our ecology will prevail and hopefully the old system will slip aside. We must change the lack of political will, which would make this world a better place.