Happy EARTH Day from your friends at EARTH Law, LLC! Today we celebrate the 50th Annivserary of Earth Day!
As Jack Herer, author of The Emperor Wears No Clothes, once said:
There is only one known annually renewable natural resource that is capable of providing the overall majority of the world’s paper and textiles; meet all of the world’s transportation, industrial and home energy needs, while simultaneously reducing pollution, rebuilding the soil, and cleaning the atmosphere all at the same time… and that substance is — the same one that did it all before — Cannabis Hemp! – Jack Herer 1993
Hemp Can Save the Planet
Agricultural Hemp has the potential of renewing the United States’s industrial fiber, food and feed industries. It can revolutionize building methods and construction materials as we know it.
Hemp can replace everyday plastic with a biodegradable alternative, and can even provide alternative fuel solutions that we can grow and process on American soil. By replacing toxic products with sustainable hemp-based ones, we make our homes and our planet cleaner and safer for everyone.
Hemp is the standard fiber of the world. It has great tensile strength and durability. It is used to produce more than 5,000 textile products… and can be used to produce more than 25,000 products, ranging from dynamite to Cellophane — Popular Mechanics, Hemp: Billion Dollar Crop
Returning to Our Roots
Let’s not forget, the USDA researched hemp at the turn of the 20th century! Through research they learned that hemp was more effective than timber in providing paper pulp . In a 1916 professional paper titled “Hemp Hurds as Paper Making Material” Lyster Dewey discovered that an acre of hemp could produce 4 times the amount of paper than an acre of trees.
Hemp continued to show superiority by demonstrating these additional benefits when made into paper:
Hemp is one of the strongest natural fibers of the world
Hemp doesn’t fade or brown with age like wood fiber
Hemp doesn’t require bleaching like wood pulp, so chemical use in the paper-making process is dramatically decreased
Hemp can be recycled up to 8 times, compared to 3 times for wood pulp
Hemp has a MUCH faster crop yield! Hemp stalks take about 4 months to reach maturity, while trees can take 20 to 60 YEARS.
Hemp requires less water to grow than many other agricultural crops such as alfalfa or flax
Hemp improves the physical condition of the soil, destroys weeds, and when retted on the ground, as is the common practice, does not exhaust fertility. — The 1900 Report of the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and the USDA Yearbooks 1896-1914: