Resources on our planet are quickly being used up, and if something isn’t done to reverse this, it will be the end of life as we know it. When people hear the word hemp, their minds instantly jump to marijuana. Though marijuana and hemp are both derived from cannabis, they are very different. In fact, hemp comes from a plant that has no psychoactive qualities. Due to its strong fibers and cellulose-rich components, the hemp plant can create over 25,000 natural products. Legalizing hemp could be one of the key steps to restoring our planet.
Believe it or not, American industry was largely founded on hemp. In fact, farmers in Colonial Virgina were legally bound to grow it. It was used throughout the nineteenth century for ship sails, rope, clothing, and paper. According to Logan Yonavjak in his article “Industrial Hemp: A Win-Win for the Economy and the Environment,” hemp oil was once used to run a car that Henry Ford produced. The Declaration of Independence was even drafted on hemp paper.
Hemp paper is still used today in high-quality Bibles. Hemp’s fibers hold the paper together, making it last longer, and it doesn’t need to be bleached with chemicals to keep it white. Because it’s more durable than wood-based paper, hemp paper can be recycled many times, so it’s better for the environment too.
National Geographic reports that chunks of forests the size of Panama are being cut down for agriculture, wood products, paper, and housing each year. Trees take decades, if not centuries, to grow and be ready for manufacturing. But anywhere that a tree is being used, hemp could stand in its place. Hemp is a rapid-growing plant. It takes approximately four months to reach mature height, soaring 20 to 30 feet tall. In the time it takes a tree to grow to maturity, 90 crops of hemp could be harvested.
It can take over a dozen trees to build one house, and in America alone, almost three-quarters of a million houses were built in 2012. A house can be made almost 100 percent of hemp, and it only takes one acre of hemp to produce the same amount of material as four acres of trees. Hawaii, Idaho, Texas, and countries all over Europe have already started to build hemp homes.
Hemp can be made into a type of concrete as well as be used to create fiberboards to frame a house. Hemp is better at resisting mildew, mold, insects, and fire, and it naturally insulates the house; the best part is it is all natural and non-toxic. In addition to using hemp for the structure of a house, the insulation, carpet, counter tops, shelving, and anything cotton or plastic can be constructed with hemp-based products.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, the cotton industry accounts for one-third of insecticide and pesticide sales in the world. These poisons don’t just stay on top of the plant. They soak into the fibers and contaminate the soil, making their way into our water system. For what? A cheap T-shirt that gets ripped in two months, or jeans that are worn out in a year? Cotton is not a very sturdy material; in fact, hemp is far more durable. Along with clothing, curtains, linens, and even carpets can be made from this power plant. Not only will hemp clothing and textiles last longer, it isn’t necessary to spray hemp with hundreds of pesticides. On its own, the plant will return the nutrients and nitrogen to the soil and prepare the ground for the next harvest.
The seeds of a hemp plant can be turned into many things, including oil. Hemp oil is not only natural but 100 percent biodegradable. It can be made into plastic, which is used in almost everything and is piling up in our landfills, making its way to the ocean, and creating giant plastic islands the size of Texas. Hemp plastic can be fully recycled and will decompose. Plastics made from hemp are two and a half times stronger than crude oil plastic, which is why foreign car companies such as BMW use it. Chemicals are absent from hemp plastic, so it doesn’t pose as many health risks.
In fact, hemp has been found to improve humans’ health. From food to cosmetics, hemp oil does wonders for our bodies. Hemp is rich in Omega-3 and -6, fatty acids that help fight degenerative heart diseases, improve brain and eye function, and treat intestinal problems, according to Dr. Edward Group, who has studied natural healing methods for decades. It can replace the chemical-based formulas in many of the cosmetics and body care products that we use daily.
With so many wonderful applications, why is hemp illegal? The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 classified all forms of cannabis – including hemp – as a Schedule I drug, making it illegal to grow in the United States. Technically speaking, hemp and marijuana belong to the same plant species and have many similarities, including the same shaped leaves. However, there are some big differences.
Unsprouted, marijuana seeds and hemp seeds appear identical. However, once the plants grow, they are clearly different. Hemp has tall, thin, fibrous stalks, few branches, and most of the leaves at the top. Marijuana, on the other hand, grows more like a bush, branching out with many leaves and buds. Also, because the plants are cousins, it is possible to cross strain them and eventually turn the hemp into marijuana. This process would be worthless though, because the hemp would weaken the marijuana, and neither the hemp nor marijuana growers want their plants tainted. Hemp farmers, in fact, would be furious if marijuana was planted near their crops, potentially affecting how fibrous they become.
A major misconception that continues to give hemp a bad name is that hemp can get people high. The buds on marijuana is where most of the THC – the psychoactive component that gives people the “high” – is produced. Hemp doesn’t grow these buds. The THC levels of marijuana range from 3 percent to 20 percent; a hemp plant contains just 0.05 percent to 1 percent THC. Therefore, you cannot get high from smoking or ingesting hemp. If you attempted to, it would only result in a major migraine.
Hemp was grown in the United States until the 1950s and was considered a valuable crop. It doesn’t need a special climate or soil to grow, and yields three to eight tons of usable fiber per acre, which is four times an acre of trees can produce. When the prohibition of marijuana was passed, high taxes on hemp made it almost impossible for farmers to grow this crop. Yet, as more research is done, we are learning that there are many benefits to growing hemp today.
The greedy coal, oil, cotton, and wood companies have a big motivation for keeping hemp illegal. Hemp could be an alternative to the majority of their products, but it doesn’t need to absolutely take over. Due to the prohibition, most of the varieties of hemp that were grown in the U.S. have disappeared because the seed banks weren’t properly maintained. If something doesn’t change soon, we may see an extinction of the world’s most useful plant.