Hemp is one of the most useful plants on Earth.
For thousands of years, humans have used parts of the hemp plant for
food, textiles, paper, fabric, and fuel. Today, processing technologies
have allowed us to “reformat” hemp and we are now able to create
alternatives to gasoline, plastics and other petroleum products, and as
hemp is a plant that can be grown and harvested in under 10 weeks, it is
truly the god of renewable fuels.
The hemp plant is a renewable resource that can be produced
domestically. It grows quickly, naturally resists plant diseases and
requires little weeding, thrives in most climates, and enriches the soil
it grows in.
Here are some of its most important applications:
Food and Nutrition
Hempseeds and hemp oil are packed full of nutrients. Hempseeds are an
excellent source of protein, minerals, and dietary fibre. Hemp is the
only plant that contains all of the essential fatty acids and amino
acids required by the human body. These nutrients affect a variety of
body functions, including metabolism, the skin, mood, behaviour, the
brain, and the heart.
Lots of people eat fish and take fish oil supplements (such as Cod
liver oil) to access these essential fats, and as a result of which,
many natural sources of fish have been depleted, leaving many of our
seas void of certain species of fish, also, when fishing a lot of
fishermen will drag nets across the sea floor destroying the local coral
which has taken decades to grow (the quickest coral grows at 4.5 cm a
year) These concerns have persuaded many people to switch to hemp as a
form of nutrient supplementation.
As well as being great for humans, Hemp is also a great source of
nutrients for animals, and some vets (probably not the ones looking to
make big bucks off you, so not many ;) ) recommend using hemp seeds in
the diets of pets and live In Europe, fishermen sprinkle hempseed on the
water as an effective bait. When hempseed is included in bird seed,
birds will pick it out of the mix as they prefer it over other seeds.
Body Care
As it has a high concentration of beneficial oils and has natural
emollient properties, hemp is being seen more and more often in lotions,
shampoos and many other skin, hair and cosmetic products, it is a
superb alternative to the TOXIC chemicals that are found in many of the
high streets lotions and cosmetics.
Paper
Due to its cellular structure being very similar to trees (it is a
tree after all) Hemp is a perfect material to produce paper from, and
better than that, you can grow a full field of hemp (for paper use) in
about 3-4 months, as aposed to trees which can take 30 years or longer
before they are suitable to be chopped down and broken down into the
paper we right on, switching to hemp will SAVE the worlds’ forests from
deforestation .
Hemp has been used to make paper for thousands of years; in fact the
American declaration of independence was first drafted on hemp paper
before being transferred onto animal skin parchment. It makes a highly
fine quality paper that does not become yellow and brittle or
disintegrate over time like normal paper.
Fabric, Textiles, and Rope
Hemp can be used to make a variety of fabrics, with similar structure
and properties as cotton, with one difference; it is much more durable
and will last longer than a modern day pair of denim jeans, many army
uniforms were (and some still are) made from hemp due to their
breathability and their durability. Hemp is also excellent for making
rugs and other textiles. The word canvas comes from the Latin word for
hemp.
The oldest known woven fabric was made from hemp, as were Levi
Strauss' original denim jeans, and the first American flag. It was a
common material for clothing until the cotton industry gained strength
in America.
Hemp is the traditional rope making fibre due to its flexibility,
strength, and resistance to water damage. In past centuries, hemp was
extremely important to the Navy, the shipping trade, and fishing because
it was used to make ropes, riggings, nets, and sails.
Fuel
Hemp oil was used in lamps for centuries, and was only phased out in
the 1870s in America when the use of petroleum was introduced.
Today, hemp oil can be used to create biofuels to replace gasoline
for diesel engines. And as the combustion of hemp fuel would not produce
as many carbon monoxide molecules, and more CO2 molecules, which will
be released into the air and taken in by growing plants (such as hemp
for the next lot of fuel) it means the entire process of hemp as fuel is
a complete carbon cycle, meaning there is very little to NO effect on
the environment.
Plastic Alternatives
Modern plastics are made from fossil fuels (oils) using toxic
chemicals, and in the current day and age, almost everything we buy is
at least wrapped in plastic cellophane, even if manufacturers are moving
towards more cardboard packaging, unfortunately, this cellophane is not
recyclable, so where does it end up? In a land fill, many alternatives
to plastics can be made from hemp oils.
In 1941, Henry Ford held a media event where he swung an axe at a
prototype car body made of hemp and other plant material to prove its
strength. The technology was never put into mass production, cars
continued to be made of steel, and plastics made from petrochemicals
became the norm, and why? Because the taxes on fossil fuels can be
controlled easily, as not everyone can go out and grow their own petrol/
access their own metal, but anyone could grow a hemp field.
Fortunately, the number of available products made from hemp plastics
is on the increase as awareness of the importance of developing
sustainable alternatives grows.
Building Materials
Hemp based materials can replace wood and other materials used to
build homes and other structures including foundations, walls, shingles,
paneling, pipes, and paint.
The modern hemp building materials Hempcrete and Isochanvre are
lightweight, waterproof, fireproof, self-insulating, and resistant to
pests.
Hemp's Past and Future
So, if this wonderful plant is so useful and practical, why hasn’t
everyone heard about it? And why isn’t it used en mass for products and
energy? And that is because of 2 reasons, one, is a legitimate fear, but
not of the general population, of the government, and the other, is a
fear that’s been implanted so we stay away from this wonder plant.
Hemps latin name is “
Cannabaceae Cannabis” which means it is
the same plant as the cannabis plant that people world over smoke as
medicine and recreationally as a psychoactive “drug” however, hemp can
be grown in such a way that the THC (the psychoactive ingredient in
cannabis) content is very low, actually, smoking hemp will do nothing
for you but give you a bad headache!
So, to make it seem acceptable that hemp should be illegalized, a
smear campaign in the 1930s was run called “reefer madness” a film that
GROSSLY lies about the effects of Cannabis, it shows teenagers going
crazy off the drug, and results in a death. And the smear campaign is
STILL going, but with more “scientific” words thrown in to confused the
closed minded idiotic general population, here are some true FACTS about
psychoactive cannabis:
Smoking a “marijuana cigarette” (as they’re so lovingly called in the
news) does NOT have more tar in than your average cigarette, when
rolling a joint, LESS IS MORE on the tobacco, and many people (providing
they have enough bud) will roll a joint with NO tobacco in at all.
Cannabis does NOT cause schizophrenia, however, if you are already
genetically predisposed to have a mental issue such as schizophrenia, it
DOES have a risk of EXCENUATING this problem, it WILL NOT CAUSE you to
become schizophrenic.
YOU CANNOT DIE FROM CANNABIS – it is scientifically impossible to
smoke enough cannabis to die, you cannot overdose on cannabis, you could
sit and smoke it all day and still walk out the next day (you’d
probably have one hell of a nap afterwards though!) it takes something
like 37’000 times the amount of THC required to get someone high to be
classed as a lethal dose
YOU CANNOT BECOME PHYSICALLY ADDICTED TO CANNABIS – Your body never
REALLY builds up a physical tolerance to it, you CAN become
psychologically addicted to cannabis (because your brain enjoys feeling
high) but unlike tobacco, cocaine, meth, heroin etc. your body never
feels like it needs it to survive.
If Hemp WAS to be legalized, the only damage it would do, would be to
giant corporations such as oil companies, medicine companies, and paper
companies, these 3 industries are in the top ten grossing industries in
the world, if everyone started growing their own hemp and creating
paper, oil and medicines, these companies would suffer a SEVERE drop in
profits, and in turn, the government would not earn as much taxes from
the industries.
Hemp is only illegal because of ONE use of this plant, and it has
hundreds, if not THOUSANDS of other uses, if it turned out your
favourite chocolate bar could be ground up and smoked to get high would
you stop eating it?
For more info on the history of hemp:
http://thelostdiver.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/marijuana-is-dangerous.html
