Feel Good Facts – Hemp the Hero!

Feel Good Friday Facts

1. In 1533 King Henry VIII made hemp cultivation compulsory. For every 60 acres of land a farmer owned they had to set aside 1/4 acre for flax or hemp. If this was not met the farmer would be fined for breaking the law. To think in 1996 Woody Harrelson was put on trial for growing the very same plant!

______________________________________________________________________

2. Hemp was used for clothing, shoes, maps, books, ships, rigging, parachute webbing, baggage, sails, tents and was also considered a legal tender and could be used to pay taxes.

______________________________________________________________________

3. Benjamin Franklin started one of Americas first paper mills with Hemp.

______________________________________________________________________

4. Hemp paper is stronger than wood-based paper, and can withstand more folding. In general, hemp has strongest natural fibre of any source. Trees take 20-50 years to grow back, where as hemp grows back in 4 months. Why are we still cutting trees?

______________________________________________________________________

5. The North America Industrial hemp council states that the word “canvas” is derived from the word “cannabis”. Van Gogh’s Gainsborough and other early paintings were made on a hemp made canvas.

______________________________________________________________________

6. Unlike many plants grown in soil, hemp does not need the use of pesticides and herbicides as the weeds are almost eradicated due to the dense canopy of shade leaves.

______________________________________________________________________

7. The difference between the industrial hemp and Marijuana plant is that the hemp plant is grown more densely and grows taller than the marijuana plant to produce maximum stalk fibre lengths. This makes it hard to hide Marijuana plants that are grown along side hemp. Industrial hemp also contains little or no THC, the psychoactive chemical known for the high created by marijuana.

______________________________________________________________________

8. Gamma Linolenic acid (GLA) which is naturally found in breast milk can also be found in hemp seeds.

______________________________________________________________________

9. Hemp has such a high carbon-dioxide uptake that it creates a process called carbon sequestration, which captures emissions. This meaning it not only replaces some of the causes of carbon emissions, it can eliminate them.

______________________________________________________________________

10. Hemp can be used to produce fuel that actually works and not only to ignite lamps but also capable of running a diesel engine. Rudolf Diesel, when invented the diesel engine, he intended to use filtered hemp oil “hempoline” and other oils from vegetables and plants to power the Diesel engine.

______________________________________________________________________

11. Hemp seed oil was used to make quality paint up until 1937. Some rare companies still use hemp for production of paint.

______________________________________________________________________

12. Levi jeans were originally made from hemp sailcloth (and rivets), for gold miners in California, who would fill their pockets with gold.

______________________________________________________________________

With all these insightful facts its a wonder why we not replacing many of our environmentally damaging materials with the hero that is HEMP!