Hempathy - Village Magazine

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N a world where ‘economic growth’ may not

be desirable, materials will have to come

from the environment around us. One won-

der material is a controversial crop called

hemp. Hemp is a commonly used term for varie-

ties of the cannabis plant and its products, which

include oil, ﬁbre and seed. Hemp can provide

ﬁbre and biomass from the stem and high qual-

ity food from the seeds and has great beneﬁts for

the land it is grown upon.

I have been involved with trials and research of

Hemp here in Ireland for the last  years. Hemp

crops have been grown in many areas of the coun-

try over this time including counties Cavan, Clare,

Down, Kerry, Kildare, Roscommon and Tipperary,

So far we don’t have the type of processing equip-

ment needed to turn the crop into a marketable

product, but I and others are working on what

will become the world’s ﬁrst hemp combine har-

vester. Many of the , uses identiﬁed for

the plant will be displayed in the Dublin Hemp

Museum opening soon in the basement of the

Hemp Shop on Capel St, Dublin.

Hemp has been grown for at least the last

, years for ﬁbre (textiles and paper) and

food. Because of its importance for sails (the

word “canvas” is rooted in “cannabis”) and rope

for ships, hemp was a key crop in the American

colonies. George Washington and Thomas

Jeﬀerson both grew hemp and the Declaration

of Independence was drafted on hemp paper. But

it has been eﬀectively prohibited in the United

States since the Marijuana Tax Act of ,

which placed an extremely high tax on mari-

juana and made it eﬀectively impossible to grow

industrial hemp. This is despite the fact that the

dangers of confounding marijuana and hemp are

negligible. Marijuana is grown widely spaced

to maximise leaves. Hemp is grown in tightly-

spaced rows to maximize stalk and is usually

harvested before it goes to seed.

Hemp grows well in a variety of climates and

soil types. Hemp is especially conducive to sus-

tainable and organic agriculture. It is naturally

resistant to most pests, precluding the need for

pesticides. Its tight-spacing squeezes out weeds,

so herbicides are not necessary. It also leaves a

weed-free ﬁeld for a following crop.

It produces up to four tonnes per acre per year.

After processing its stems, two materials are pro-

duced; hurds and ﬁbres. Both hurds and ﬁbres

have properties that make them useful in building

construction. Rudolph Diesel designed his engine

to run on hemp oil. Henry Ford experimented

with hemp to build car bodies. He wanted to build

and fuel cars from farm products. More recently

BMW has been experimenting with hemp mate-

rials in automobiles as part of an eﬀort to make

cars more recyclable.

Because of hemp’s long ﬁbres, the products

are stronger and/or lighter than those made from

wood. Construction products such as medium-

density ﬁbre-board, and even beams, studs and

posts could be made out of hemp. Hempcrete is

a bio-composite made of the inner woody core of

the hemp plant mixed with a lime-based binder.

The hemp core or “shiv” has a high silica con-

tent which allows it to bind well with lime. This

property is unique to hemp among all natural

ﬁbres. The result is a lightweight cement-like

insulating material a seventh the weight of con-

crete. Hempcrete blocks ﬂoat.

Hemp ﬁbres are longer, stronger, more

absorbent and more mildew-resistant than cot-

ton. Fabrics made of at least one-half hemp block

the sun’s UV rays more eﬀectively than other fab-

rics. Hemp can replace cotton which is usually

grown with the aid of chemicals. % of all the

world’s pesticides are sprayed on cotton.

Hemp can be made into ﬁne quality paper.

The long ﬁbres in hemp allow such paper to be

recycled several times more than wood-based

paper. Because of its low lignin content, hemp

can be pulped using fewer chemicals than wood.

Its natural brightness obviates the need for chlo-

rine bleach, which averts the dumping of toxic

dioxins.

Nutritionally, hemp oil is the richest known

source of polyunsaturated essential fatty acids

(‘good’ fats). It’s high in some essential amino

acids, including gamma linoleic acid (GLA), a very

rare nutrient also found in mother’s milk. While

the original frugal “gruel” was made of hemp-

seed meal, hemp oil and seed can easily be made

into nutritional products.

Hemp has been touted as a tool to ‘Save the

Planet’ but as I illustrate in my stand-up show,

“Hemp Can’t Save the Planet but It Might Save

Humanity” by clothing, feeding, housing and

transporting us.

Steve Allin will give a talk on the wonders of hemp

on June 27th at 8.00pm downstairs in the Ormond

Wine Bar, 6 Upper Ormond Quay, Dublin 7. A book of

the show will be published later this year.

steve allin

culture

Hempathy

A wonder material that is gentle on the planet has uses in construction, paper,

clothing and food

Because of hemp’s long

bres, the products are

stronger and/or lighter than

those made from wood

“

you can live in it