Hemping the Environment
I’ll start out with a blunt claim most Americans might find hard to process: Hemp may be the environment’s best friend — man’s most versatile, symbiotic and beneficial plant.
The first keyword in that opening salvo is Americans. Because, as long as we’ve had written records of civilization, most citizens of the world have fruitfully employed Hemp in their everyday lives. For over 10,000 years Hemp has made life on Earth warmer, safer, healthier, happier. So, if you are American, welcome to the party!
The second keyword in that claim is environment, which will continue to evolve both by natural and man-made causes. But, “Saving the Planet” is not the same as “Saving the Environment”, because Earth has shown consistently to outlive its cohabitants and will surely outlive us. So, for this piece, let’s recognize human nature and selfishly frame our subject by defining THE Environment as the one that provides for OUR security — the Human Environment.
Hemp being environmentally “friendly” misses the point — it’s far more fundamental than friendly. Hemp is a global champion of the rapidly growing “Regenerative Agriculture” movement, described as farming and grazing practices that reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity.
Luckily, by harnessing the power of technology and the ever-growing knowledge of nature also driven by technology (like the internet we’re using to read this very article) humans can now actively contribute to rapidly re-shaping the health, well-being, and quality of life for individuals, communities, and our environment. And Hemp, it appears, may very well be the most accessible and productive place to start.
Hemp is perhaps the greenest crop on God’s green earth, so, whether you’re a farmer, fashionista, logger, lobbyist, sailor, scientist, baker, banker, dandy or doula, let’s unravel what you can do with Hemp, and what Hemp does for us all. Let’s Hemp It!
Versatility
Helping restore soil balance, prevent erosion and improve nutrient uptake for other crops, just growing Hemp is smart business. But with more urban dwellers than rural, downstream products are where most will see the magic of replacing environmentally-damaging materials with healthy ones made from Hemp. Fortunately, Hemp can be used to make a variety of products including food, textiles, building materials, and high-tech components, all of which can help reduce the demand for environmentally harmful products made from non-renewable resources such as the pervasive and proven-toxic byproducts of fossil fuels.
Let’s start with Health & Wellness (even if you’re just a Foodie): Hemp seeds are packed with protein and amino acids for sound nutrition. You may have already seen Hemp Hearts for salads, Hemp Flour for gluten sensitivity or Hemp Milk for the lactose intolerant, but there are numerous startups already making world class cuisine with Hemp — better ingredients, healthy living.
Advantages for people in the construction trade are many, including that Hemp-made materials are breathable, fire-resistant, and naturally insulating, meaning homes made with Hemp are safer and consume far less energy to construct and maintain — cleaner air, safer surroundings.
Toxic microplastics are found on the highest mountains, at the bottom of the ocean, even in blood of the unborn. Replacing these toxic materials with Hemp-made high-tech byproducts like Bioplastics, Composites and Biofuels is paramount. Hemp’s first use was likely for fuel, and car makers continue to use Hemp to craft interiors and deaden sound — In 1941, Henry Ford built a car using plastic made with hemp and that ran on hemp fuel. Research is moving quickly to create recyclable, even compostable components for electronic devices for everything from circuit boards to batteries — smarter technology, fewer landfills.
Hemp had a long history in paper, including the first bible ever printed, until the petrochemical and logging industries perversely conflated it with marijuana, and made it illegal. With more and more products being shipped further distances in cardboard boxes, more sustainable sources are needed now. Replacing paper made from our diminishing forests that take decades to grow, where Hemp takes only months, will yield tremendous benefits for the environment — less CO2, cooler climate.
Hemp is the strongest natural fiber on Earth, and most every rope, sail and uniform used to explore and conquer the world was made from it. Compared to cotton, Hemp is more durable, grows faster, requires 4x less water and half the acreage, is naturally pest-resistant, requires fewer, if any, herbicides, enriches the soil, is carbon-negative, biodegradable, hypoallergenic, antibacterial, breathable, moisture-wicking, doesn’t shrink, and becomes more comfortable over time — ‘nuff said.
Symbiotic
Climate & Capital: Hemp farming offsets greenhouse gasses that contribute to heating the atmosphere and oceans. Hemp is carbon-negative, meaning that it can remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than the business of cultivating it produces, and products made with Hemp then actually store the carbon removed from the air. This is a popular subject in high finance as credits for producing less and storing more carbon are sanctioned by governments and traded like stock in commodities markets. Climate and capital markets working together is a virtuous cycle and helps slow down the march toward extinction.
People & Animals: The human Endocannabinoid system (ECS), whether you’re interested in physiology or not, regulates many body functions we take for granted. Here’s how: the sympathetic nervous system manages the fight-or-flight response, but the ECS is critical for almost every aspect of our moment-to-moment activity, from learning and memory to processing emotions, sleep, temperature, pain, inflammatory and immune responses, and even our appetite. ECS response to Hemp is currently at the center of renewed international research and drug development, spawned largely because of the recent deregulation of cannabis sativa, Hemp’s scientific name. And beyond the legendary relationship between bees and Hemp, there have also been promising results from adding Hemp’s most popular molecule, CBD, to animal feed.
While exploring my fascination with Hemp over the years, it occurred to me that many, if not all the people cultivating it, processing it, or fabricating products from it, shared a common characteristic — health & happiness — and not just from working with a plant that mitigates heavy metals, repels pests and restores their soil, or from the profits they earned selling their crops, or even from using it themselves, but from simply working with it…with their hands. When I recalled that skin is the largest human organ, it all made perfect sense that anyone working with Hemp, whether in field or factory, will absorb nutrients that trigger our bodies’ built-in ECS response. We are literally made to use Hemp.
Beneficial
We’ve already discovered that Hemp grows quickly in almost any climate and requires few, if any, pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers, and that it uses far less water or land than almost all its less environmentally-friendly competitors. Therefore, a simple assessment for producers and retailers is that their cost of goods will be lower and their products safer for customers…and in the case of organic farming, much higher profits, too.
Profit at all cost, costs us all: Beyond just profit motive, however, businesses across the globe are beginning to recognize the windfall benefits from a new economic philosophy known by many names, the most boring of which is “Triple Bottom Line Accounting”. Also referred to as “Stakeholder Capitalism”, recognizing that people and planet have a stake in corporate behavior, not just shareholders, this movement promotes accounting for a company’s balance sheet by adding two new metrics ahead of the single bottom line of profit, hence the friendlier term, “People, Planet, Profit” or “People, Planet, Prosperity”. Evidence shows many companies adopting these principles, aka “Benefit Corporations”, also deliver stronger profits to their shareholders as a result. These accounting disciplines are part and parcel with the United Nations’ “Sustainable Development Goals” in that they allow transparent recognition of efforts by companies and nations alike to better care for the planet and its cohabitants.
Now
Anyone can share purpose, wellness, health and wealth by committing to restoring previously flourishing communities and their natural environments left to decay from outsourcing, offshoring and all the extractive practices of the last century, by simply showing up and playing a part in the new Industrial Hemp movement. In my experience, 90% of success is just showing up.
Whether you call it global warming or climate change is irrelevant, the fact remains that storms are bigger, droughts longer, soils more depleted, people less healthy. And whether these disasters are man-made, industry-influenced or just natural cycles, I hope we can all agree on the fact that they are happening with more severity and frequency.
But the good news is that we don’t have to look far or even work that hard to start turning back the clock that seems to be ticking faster every time we peek. We can usher in this age of prosperity by simply planting more of the most versatile, symbiotic and beneficial plant in human history. Once we have supply, products will follow.
These are just some of the myriad reasons Hemp can put this next industrial revolution in balance with nature…respecting the needs of both the environment and the people who live here.
So, please join us in this revolution and take back your Earth and lay claim to a more prosperous future.
