What are your thoughts on hemp?
Industrial hemp has many uses. Tiffany Paige of Green With Tiffany talks to John Trudell who was on a panel on the Green Festival’s main stage speaking about the many benefits of hemp and his organization Heampstead Project Heart. Heart being an acronym for Hemp Energy Alternative Resource Technologies. A disruption in our society has to do with the environment or economics. Hemp is a practical plant that would help us address the environmental reality that we’re in as well as generate a new alternative economic reality to the oil, chemical based industry economics.
The Hempstead project is to raise awareness and get people thinking about hemp. There is a misconception about what hemp really is. If you bring it up people automatically think of recreational or medicinal marijuana. The goal is for people to start thinking about the practical uses of what is called “industrial hemp”. It’s environmentally friendly to the earth, it generates oxygen, grows abundantly, very little to no pesticides needed and very little water.
It’s economic growth is endless because it has so many uses. It can feed us, shelter us, clothe us, give us fuel, etc. It serves every industrial need that we have in these contemporary times.
Hemp & marijuana are both part of the cannabis plant family. The difference is that the marijuana cannabis plant carries the THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical responsible for most of marijuana’s psychological effects). Hemp has very low levels of THC.
It’s time we introduce hemp back into our living.
For more info: Hempstead Project Heart http://hempsteadprojectheart.org
To find a Green Festival in your area: http://www.greenfestivals.org
Many years ago hemp/marijuana was unjustly banned. However, hemp has recently been rediscoverd as a plant that has enormous environmental, economic, and commercial potential. What follows are some fascinating facts about hemp/marijuana – facts that will shock most people:
FACT: NO TREE OR PLANT SPECIES ON EARTH HAS THE COMMERCIAL, ECONOMIC, AND ENVIRONMENTAL POTENTIAL OF HEMP. OVER 30,000 KNOWN PRODUCTS CAN BE PRODUCED FROM HEMP!
The potential of hemp for paper production is enormous. According to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, one acre of hemp can produce 4 times more paper than one acre of trees! All types of paper products can be produced from hemp: newsprint, computer paper, stationary, cardboard, envelopes, toilet paper, even tampons.
Unlike many crops, hemp puts little strain on the soil and requires only moderate amounts of fertilizer. Less fertilizer use results in less runoff into waterways and groundwater; therefore, less water pollution.
Hemp produces more biomass than any plant that can be grown in the U.S. This biomass can be converted to fuel in the form of clean-burning alcohol, or no-sulphur man-made coal. Hemp has more potential as a clean and renewable energy source than any crop on earth! It is estimated that if hemp was widely grown in the U.S. for fuel/energy, it could supply 100% of all U.S. energy needs!
Hemp was NOT banned because it was a harmful drug. Hemp was banned because it was a competitive threat to the wood products industry and newly developed synthetic fibers that were patentable, and therefore more profitable than hemp. Corporations that profited from the demise of hemp propagated a smear campaign against hemp by claiming that marijuana use was a major drug problem (it was not) and that marijuana use caused people to become extremely violent – another falsehood. Unfortunately, these false claims went unchallenged and Congress outlawed hemp in 1937. Unfortunately, millions of Americans still believe the lies spread about marijuana/hemp.
Here is a great link to the environmental & economic benefits of hemp
http://www.nemeton.com/static/nemeton/axis-mutatis/hemp.html