The Benefits of Hemp

By Laura Lubarov

Updated: Wednesday, April 21, 2010

The benefits of hemp

The word “hemp” usually conjures up images of hippies wearing woven bracelets and smoking joints. But despite society’s dismissal of hemp, it is one of the most useful plants in nature and can provide many of the materials our society needs to function.
After hours of grueling research, I have compiled some facts about hemp’s benefits.
Hemp plants produce strong fibers that make durable paper, clothing, rope and building materials. Hemp oil can be used as car fuel and, along with hemp seeds, is extremely nutritious. The best part is that because hemp is a weed — the good kind — it grows big and fast and can therefore provide an abundance of these useful materials.
Hemp and marijuana both come from the same plant genus, Cannabis sativa Linnaeas, according to the San Diego Earth Times article, “The history and benefits of hemp.” But while the two plants may look alike, hemp cannot be used to get high.
Marijuana usually contains 3 percent to 15 percent of the psychoactive ingredient delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, but hemp contains less than 1 percent THC, according to the Common Sense for Drug Policy Web site.
From this plant that appears so strikingly similar to the “evil” marijuana plant, so many uses can be derived.
First off, hemp makes some of the greatest paper around at a low cost to the environment. Growing 10,000 acres of hemp produces the same amount of paper as 40,500 acres of trees, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture document “Hemp Hurds as Paper-Making Material.” The document was written in 1916, when hemp was still legal and the government was researching its benefits.
Our current method of producing paper involves cutting down forests. Since hemp produces more paper per acre than trees and we cut down more trees than we plant, the solution seems obvious.
Plus, trees can take hundreds of years to grow, but hemp is ready to be harvested for paper just 120 days after it is planted, according to an article on hubpages.com.
Second, hemp is an abundant source of food. Different parts of the hemp plant can be used to make many foods, including cheese, pretzels and beer.
Hemp seeds are one of the best sources of vegetable protein and contain a full complement of essential amino acids, according to the San Diego Earth Times. The seeds can also be used in dishes such as pastas and soups.
Hemp seeds are high in minerals such as potassium, iron and zinc and have a much higher amount of concentrated nutrients than soybeans, according to the health section of the Web site innvista.com.
Because hemp grows effortlessly even in poor soil, legalizing it would be an important step toward ending world hunger.
Third, hemp fibers can make extremely durable clothes that last longer than cotton. Hemp fabric has four times the tensile strength and twice the abrasion resistance of cotton, according to the hemp clothing Web site rawganique.com.
Some hemp activists may seem a little too adamant about the cause, but their enthusiasm is understandable.
Observing widespread ignorance is always frustrating and it is exasperating to see people ignore hemp’s many benefits just because it looks like a marijuana plant.
Watching people cut down trees to make paper or seeing Third-World country dwellers starve to death, all the while knowing that a simple solution exists can be downright maddening.
So next time a group of hippies tells you that hemp can save the world, know that they may be right.

Laura Lubarov can be reached at

llubarov@theorion.com


Source: http://www.theorion.com/online-exclusives/the-benefits-of-hemp-1.1374955