PLANT MEDICINE SECTION green living
HEMP GETS HOT
Better Products
Meet the Hardest Working Plant on the Planet by Julie Peterson
Hemp needs to be a part of every climate change conversation, not only because it sequesters huge amounts of carbon during cultivation, but also because construction products made out of hemp will continue to sequester carbon for up to 100 years. –Erica Stark
All parts of the hemp plant are useful in multiple ways, and hemp has applications in textiles, construction, bioremediation, technology, nutrition and health, including cannabidiol (CBD). The seeds are rich in protein, essential fatty acids and vitamins. They can be eaten, ground into flour or pressed for oil that is used for cooking or in body care products. The stems undergo decortication to separate the long outer fibers (bast) from the short inner fibers (hurd). Hemp hurd makes extremely durable hempcrete for construction, absorbent and dust-free animal bedding or pellets for heating stoves. An exponential rise in the use of hemp is expected because it can replace products made from paper, wood, plastic, cotton and fossil fuels.
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“Hemp fiber is going to dominate the market once we get to the full manufacturing potential,” s ay s Er i c a St a r k , e x e c u t i v e d i r e ctor of the National Hemp Association, in Washington, D.C.
A CROP THAT WAS ILLEGAL IN U.S. SOIL for more than half a century is now reaching for the sun. Industrial hemp, the low- or no-THC cousin to marijuana, has created high hopes among farmers, agricultural researchers, manufacturers and consumers. By 2019, America had become the world’s third-largest producer, behind Canada and China, where it’s been cultivated for 8,500 years. “It’s the fastest-growing ag industry that we’ve ever seen,” says Tara Valentine, hemp specialist at the Rodale Institute, in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. Since hemp’s inclusion in the 2018 Farm Bill, Rodale’s hemp web page hits have grown 10-fold. 30
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The first introducti o n s co n s u m e r s can expect include hemp paper products, such as plates and toilet paper, and biodegradable hemp bioplastics like cutlery and cups. Construction materials and other products are expected to quickly follow.
Environmentally Friendly
The Institute of Papermaking and Printing, at the Technical University of Lodz, Poland, did a 2015 study comparing making paper from
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