Hemp plant benefits

Hemp , Cannabis sativa , also called industrial hemp , plant of the family Cannabaceae cultivated for its fibre bast fibre or its edible seeds. Hemp is sometimes confused with the cannabis plants that serve as sources of the drug marijuana and the drug preparation hashish. Although all three products—hemp, marijuana, and hashish—contain tetrahydrocannabinol THC , a compound that produces psychoactive effects in humans, the variety of cannabis cultivated for hemp has only small amounts of THC relative to that grown for the production of marijuana or hashish. The hemp plant is a stout, aromatic, erect annual herb.

ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS OF HEMP

Your shopping cart is currently empty. If you would like to make a purchase today, add items to your shopping cart. Search Term. Advanced Search. On an annual basis, 1 acre of hemp will produce as much fiber as 2 to 3 acres of cotton.

Hemp fiber is stronger and softer than cotton, lasts twice as long as cotton, and will not mildew. Cotton grows only in moderate climates and requires more water than hemp; but hemp is frost tolerant, requires only moderate amounts of water, and grows in all 50 states. Hemp requires no pesticides, no herbicides, and only moderate amounts of fertilizer.

On an annual basis, 1 acre of hemp will produce as much paper as 2 to 4 acres of trees. From tissue paper to cardboard, all types of paper products can be produced from hemp. The quality of hemp paper is superior to tree-based paper. Hemp paper will last hundreds of years without degrading, can be recycled many more times than tree-based paper, and requires less toxic chemicals in the manufacturing process than does paper made from trees.

Hemp can be used to produce fiberboard that is stronger and lighter than wood. Substituting hemp fiberboard for timber would further reduce the need to cut down our forests. Hemp can be used to produce strong, durable and environmentally-friendly plastic substitutes. Thousands of products made from petroleum-based plastics can be produced from hemp-based composites.

It takes years for trees to grow until they can be harvested for paper or wood, but hemp is ready for harvesting only days after it is planted. Hemp can grow on most land suitable for farming, while forests and tree farms require large tracts of land available in few locations.

Harvesting hemp rather than trees would also eliminate erosion due to logging, thereby reducing topsoil loss and water pollution caused by soil runoff. Hemp seeds contain a protein that is more nutritious and more economical to produce than soybean protein. Hemp seeds are not intoxicating.

Hemp seed protein can be used to produce virtually any product made from soybean: tofu, veggie burgers, butter, cheese, salad oils, ice cream, milk, etc. Hemp seed can also be ground into a nutritious flour that can be used to produce baked goods such as pasta, cookies, and breads. Hemp seed oil can be used to produce non-toxic diesel fuel, paint, varnish, detergent, ink and lubricating oil.

Because hemp seeds account for up to half the weight of a mature hemp plant, hemp seed is a viable source for these products. Just as corn can be converted into clean-burning ethanol fuel, so can hemp.

Because hemp produces more biomass than any plant species including corn that can be grown in a wide range of climates and locations, hemp has great potential to become a major source of ethanol fuel. Literally millions of wild hemp plants currently grow throughout the U. Wild hemp, like hemp grown for industrial use, has no drug properties because of its low THC content.

From to , hemp was a major American crop and textiles made from hemp were common. The government's War on Drugs has created an atmosphere of self censorship where speaking of hemp in a positive manner is considered politically incorrect or taboo. United States Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp, used products made from hemp, and praised the hemp plant in some of their writings.

No other natural resource offers the potential of hemp. Cannabis Hemp is capable of producing significant quantities of paper, textiles, building materials, food, medicine, paint, detergent, varnish, oil, ink, and fuel.

Unlike other crops, hemp can grow in most climates and on most farmland throughout the world with moderate water and fertilizer requirements, no pesticides, and no herbicides. Cannabis Hemp also known as Indian Hemp has enormous potential to become a major natural resource that can benefit both the economy and the environment. This part of the plant is THC free i. Hemp and is used in housing construction.

The silica leached from the soil by the plant combined with unslaked lime forms a chemical bond similar to cement which is fire and water proof. Cannabis Homes. Hemp may be grown also for food the seed but in the UK at least and probably in other EU countries cultivation licenses are not available for this purpose. Within Defra the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs hemp is treated as purely a non-food crop, despite the fact that seed can and does appear on the UK market as a perfectly legal food product.

Both the complete protein and the oils contained in hempseeds rich in lanolin and linolenic acids are in ideal ratios for human nutrition. Until its rediscovery in the late s, the use of hemp for fiber production had declined sharply over the past decades, but hemp still occupied an important place amongst natural fibers as it is strong, durable and unaffected by water.

The main uses of hemp fiber were inrope, sacking, carpet, nets and webbing. A hemp clothing industry was reborn in the West in , and hemp is being used in increasing quantities in paper manufacturing. Smallholder plots are usually harvested by hand. The plants are cut at 2 to 3 cm above the soil and left on the ground to dry. Mechanical harvesting is now common, using specially adapted cutter-binders or simpler cutters.

The cut hemp is laid in swathes to dry for up to four days. This was traditionally followed by retting , either water retting whereby the bundled hemp floats in water or dew retting whereby the hemp remains on the ground and is affected by the moisture in dew moisture, and by moulds and bacterial action. Modern processes use steam and machinery to separate the fiber, a process known as thermo-mechanical pulping.

Fuel can be a by-product of hemp cultivation. One fuel would be biodiesel because of the oils in the seeds and stalk of the hemp, another would be biofuel from the fibrous stalks. Millennia of selective breeding have resulted in varieties that look quite different. Also, breeding since circa has focused quite specifically on producing strains which would perform very poorly as sources of drug material.

Hemp grown for fiber is planted closely, resulting in tall, slender plants with long fibers. Ideally, according to Defra in the herb should be harvested before it flowers.

This early cropping is because fiber quality declines if flowering is allowed and, incidentally, this cropping also pre-empts the herb's maturity as a potential source of drug material, even though the tetrahydrocannabinol THC content would still be very low with these strains of hemp.

The name Cannabis is the genus and was the name favored by the 19th century medical practitioners who helped to introduce the herb's drug potential to modern English-speaking consciousness. Cannabis for non-drug purposes especially ropes and textiles was then already well known as hemp.

The name marijuana is Mexican or Latin American in origin and associated almost exclusively with the herb's drug potential. That marijuana is now well known in English as a name for drug material is due largely to the efforts of US drug prohibitionists during the s and s. We can surmise that this name was highlighted because it helped to characterize the herbal drug as quite alien to English-speaking culture. There are broadly three groups of Cannabis varieties being cultivated today:.

A nominal if not legal distinction is often made between hemp, with concentrations of the psychoactive chemical THC far too low to be useful as a drug, and Cannabis used for medical, recreational, or spiritual purposes. The soils most suited to the culture of this plant are those of the deep, black, putrid vegetable kind, that are low, and rather inclined to moisture, and those of the deep mellow, loamy, or sandy descriptions.

The quantity of produce is generally much greater on the former than on the latter; but it is said to be greatly inferior in quality. It may, however, be grown with success on lands of a less rich and fertile kind by proper care and attention in their culture and preparation. In order to render the grounds proper for the reception of the crop, they should be reduced into a fine mellow state of mould, and be perfectly cleared from weeds, by repeated plowings.

When it succeeds grain crops, the work is mostly accomplished by three plowings, and as many harrowings: the first being given immediately after the preceding crop is removed, the second early in the spring, and the last, or seed earth, just before the seed is to be put in. In the last plowing, well rotted manure, in the proportion of fifteen or twenty, or good compost, in the quantity of twenty-five or thirty-three horse-cart loads, should be turned into the land; as without this it is seldom that good crops can be produced.

The surface of the ground being left perfectly flat, and as free from furrows as possible; as by these means the moisture is more effectually retained, and the growth of the plants more fully promoted. It is of much importance in the cultivation of hemp crops that the seed is new, and of a good quality, which may in some measure be known by its feeling heavy in the hand, and being of a bright shining color.

The proportion of seed that is most commonly employed is from two to three bushels, according to the quality of the land; but, as the crops are greatly injured by the plants standing too closely together, two bushels, or two bushels and a half may be a more advantageous quantity. As the hemp plant is extremely tender in its early growth, care should be taken not to put the seed into the ground at so early a period, as that it may be liable to be injured by the effects of frost; nor to protract the sowing to so late a season as that the quality of the produce may be effected.

The best season, on the drier sorts of land in the southern districts, is as soon as possible after the frosts are over in April; and, on the same descriptions of soil, in the more northern ones, towards the close of the same month or early in the ensuing one. The most general method of putting crops of this sort into the soil is the broadcast, the seed being dispersed over the surface of the land in as even a manner as possible, and afterwards covered in by means of a very light harrowing.

In many cases, however, especially when the crops are to stand for seed, the drill method in rows, at small distances, might be had recourse to with advantage; as, in this way, the early growth of the plants would be more effectually promoted, and the land be kept in a more clean and perfect state of mould, which are circumstances of importance in such crops.

In whatever method the seed is put in, care must constantly be taken to keep the birds from it for some time afterwards. This sort of crop is frequently cultivated on the same piece of ground for a great number of years, without any other kind intervening; but, in such cases, manure must be applied with almost every crop, in pretty large proportions, to prevent the exhaustion that must otherwise take place. It may be sown after most sorts of grain crops, especially where the land possesses sufficient fertility, and is in a proper state of tillage.

As hemp, from its tall growth and thick foliage, soon covers the surface of the land, and prevents the rising of weeds, little attention is necessary after the seed has been put into the ground, especially where the broadcast method of sowing is practiced; but, when put in by the drill machine, a hoeing or two may be had recourse to with advantage in the early growth of the crop. In the culture of this plant, it is particularly necessary that the same piece of land grows both male and female, or what is sometimes denominated simple hemp.

The latter kind contains the seed. When the grain is ripe which is known by its becoming of a whitish-yellow color, and a few of the leaves beginning to drop from the stems ; this happens commonly about thirteen or fourteen weeks from the period of its being sown, according as the season may be dry or wet the first sort being mostly ripe some weeks before the latter , the next operation is that of taking it from the ground; which is effected by pulling it up by the roots, in small parcels at a time, by the hand, taking care to shake off the mould well from them before the handfuls are laid down.

In some districts, the whole crop is pulled together, without any distinction being made between the different kinds of hemp; while, in others, it is the practice to separate and pull them at different times, according to their ripeness.

The latter is obviously the better practice; as by pulling a large proportion of the crop before it is in a proper state of maturity, the quantity of produce must not only be considerably lessened, but its quality greatly injured by being rendered less durable. Where crops of this kind are intended for seeding, they should be suffered to stand till the seed becomes in a perfect state of maturity, which is easily known by the appearance of it on inspection.

The stems are then pulled and bound up, as in the other case, the bundles being set up in the same manner as grain, until the seed becomes so dry and firm as to shed freely. It is then either immediately threshed out upon large cloths for the purpose in the field, or taken home to have the operation afterwards performed.

It is then conveyed to pits, or ponds of stagnant water, about six or eight feet in depth, such as have a clayey soil being in general preferred, and deposited in beds, according to their size, and depth, the small bundles being laid both in a straight direction and crosswise of each other, so as to bind perfectly together; the whole, being loaded with timber, or other materials, so as to keep the beds of hemp just below the surface of the water.

It is not usual to water more than four or five times in the same pit, till it has been filled with water. Where the ponds are not sufficiently large to contain the whole of the produce at once, it is the practice to pull the hemp only as it can be admitted into them, it being thought disadvantageous to leave the hemp upon the ground after being pulled.

It is left in these pits four, five, or six days, or even more, according to the warmth of the season and the judgment of the operator, on his examining whether the hemp material readily separates from the reed or stem; and then taken up and conveyed to a pasture field which is clean and even, the bundles being loosened and spread out thinly, stem by stem, turning it every second or third day, especially in damp weather, to prevent its being injured by worms or other insects.

It should remain in this situation for two, three, four, or more weeks, according to circumstances, and be then collected together when in a perfectly dry state, tied up into large bundles, and placed in some secure building until an opportunity is afforded for breaking it, in order to separate the hemp. By this means the process of grassing is not only shortened, but the more expensive ones of breaking, scutching, and bleaching the yarn, rendered less violent and troublesome.

After the hemp has been removed from the field it is in a state to be broken and swingled, operations that are mostly performed by common laborers, by means of machinery for the purpose, the produce being tied up in stones. The refuse collected in the latter process is denominated sheaves, and is in some districts employed for the purposes of fuel.

Seeds May Reduce Your Risk of Heart Disease. Seeds and Oil May Benefit Skin Disorders.

But what about the benefits of hemp on the world around us? Could hemp cultivation actually help to give back to the land? Hemp Cannabis sativa , also known as industrial hemp, is a plant from the same family as cannabis: Cannabaceae. However, unlike cannabis, hemp has very low levels of tetrahydrocannabinol THC — the psychoactive compound in cannabis — and therefore, it cannot get you high.

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Thanks to recent legalizations around the world, more and more people are beginning to become interested in the world of marihuana , specifically in hemp uses and its benefits. Hemp is one of the most beneficial and handy plants to ever have grown on this earth, as it can be used to obtain important materials and medicines. Hemp uses began to grow, as we discovered more and more, and if you look into it, hemp is present in almost any historical event that you can think of.

A Sustainable Future With Hemp | 10 Benefits for People and Planet

In many circles, hemp tends to have a negative connotation, due solely to its association with marijuana. Hemp and marijuana are both products of the cannabis plant, which means that the association does have merit. However, there are several notable differences between hemp and marijuana. Marijuana leaves are high in tetrahydrocannabinol THC , the chemical that produces the psychoactive effect that marijuana consumption provides. Hemp, on the other hand, is very low in THC and is most often used for industrial purposes such as the creation of fabrics, paper, plastics and more more than for any type of consumption. Cannabis plants are also cultivated and bred differently depending on their intended use.

Hemp Uses and Benefits

Hemp , or industrial hemp , is a variety of the Cannabis sativa plant species that is grown specifically for the industrial uses of its derived products. Although cannabis as a drug and industrial hemp both derive from the species Cannabis sativa and contain the psychoactive component tetrahydrocannabinol THC , they are distinct strains with unique phytochemical compositions and uses. Some governments regulate the concentration of THC and permit only hemp that is bred with an especially low THC content. In those languages "hemp" can refer to either industrial fiber hemp or narcotic cannabis strains. Hemp is used to make a variety of commercial and industrial products, including rope, textiles, clothing, shoes, food, paper, bioplastics, insulation, and biofuel. The inner two fibers of the plant are woodier and typically have industrial applications, such as mulch, animal bedding, and litter. When oxidized often erroneously referred to as "drying" , hemp oil from the seeds becomes solid and can be used in the manufacture of oil-based paints, in creams as a moisturizing agent, for cooking, and in plastics. Hemp seeds have been used in bird feed mix as well.

Recipes — making hemp tea at home. People have been drinking hemp tea for millennia.

Hemp is a plant that epitomises abundance. Not only does it grow abundantly with lush, green foliage, it also offers an abundance of nutrition and therapeutic benefits. We humans have been using hemp for thousands of years as a food, as a medicine and for its fibres. Our ancient ancestors loved the plant so much it was one of the first plants to be cultivated!

10 Health Benefits of Hemp

Forward-thinking people are looking to the past for ways to create a sustainable future for people on this planet. An ancient plant has a long history of use throughout the world for many purposes. This plant, the hemp plant Cannabis sativa L. Hemp and marijuana both are cannabis plants. All parts of the hemp plant can be used, from its chemical components and natural processes to its seeds, stems, roots, leaves, and flowers. Though hemp is experiencing a surge in popular discussion across the United States, the plant and its many uses have long been known in this country and across the globe. Hemp is literally woven into the origins of the nation, as well as the history of humankind. Below is an abbreviated timeline of hemp through the ages. Industrial hemp is allowed in most of the country, technically; the laws in all but three states and the District of Columbia allow cultivation of hemp for commercial, research, or pilot programs. However, the U. Each state is authorized to create a state industrial hemp program, which the USDA must approve. Despite the murky regulatory areas, farmers, researchers, and other growers are embracing the chance to legally grow hemp, for a variety of reasons and uses. Regenerative agriculture aims beyond just achieving sustainability and farming with organic methods. It is a set of farming principles and practices designed to increase biodiversity, enrich soil, and enhance ecosystems. Hemp is well-suited for use in regenerative agriculture, since the fast-growing and quick-to-mature plants require little water and no pesticides, pull large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air, and increase carbon and microbial content in soil.

The Benefits of Hemp for Regenerative Agriculture

Your shopping cart is currently empty. If you would like to make a purchase today, add items to your shopping cart. Search Term. Advanced Search. On an annual basis, 1 acre of hemp will produce as much fiber as 2 to 3 acres of cotton. Hemp fiber is stronger and softer than cotton, lasts twice as long as cotton, and will not mildew. Cotton grows only in moderate climates and requires more water than hemp; but hemp is frost tolerant, requires only moderate amounts of water, and grows in all 50 states. Hemp requires no pesticides, no herbicides, and only moderate amounts of fertilizer.