Hemp has a long and rich heritage of being an eco-friendly crop that can help produce many different types of useful products. At Wanae, we use hemp to create our incredible line of CBD oil supplements. Here’s a quick guide to how hemp helps the environment and some of the many other different products that hemp can be used to create — including one that’s pretty astonishing!
Hemp doesn’t require pesticides and other chemicals like other crops do. It’s a major difference between it and crops such as cotton and soybeans, for example. Also, unlike cotton in particular, hemp doesn’t require intense amounts of water to grow and thrive. That’s important, given the fact that globally, agriculture uses about 70 percent of the world’s fresh water supply.
Another benefit of hemp farming concerns soil quality and fertility. Hemp prevents soil erosion because it forms deep roots, which help to hold the soil together. It also increases the microbial content of the soil, which helps with the soil’s overall health and adaptability. Farmers also can use any part of the hemp plant in composting, since it is nutrient rich. Plus, farmers can easily practice sustainable farming techniques with their hemp crops.
Here are some products that hemp is being used to create:
Fuel. There are several advantages to hemp as a source of biofuel. Since hemp grows in a variety of climates and soils, it is more adaptable and doesn’t take away from other farmland for food, which has been cited as a barrier for adopting biofuel on a mass scale. Hemp converts to biodiesel at a 97 percent efficiency rate and also burns at a lower temperature than other sources of biofuel.
Clothing. One product that hemp can be made into is fabric, and in several ways it’s a much more eco-friendly solution than cotton. It takes a lot of water to grow cotton, while hemp uses about a quarter of the water. In addition, hemp takes up less space land than cotton fields and requires less (or no) chemicals to control weeds and pests.
Building materials. Here’s one use of hemp you may find surprising! Hemp can be used as a building material that’s not unlike concrete and can be used for some of the same things as that building block of the construction industry.
It’s called hempcrete, and it’s been in use in many other countries, including France where it is quite popular. Hempcrete gets points for being less brittle than concrete, as well as being a form of insulation for walls. While it can’t be used for making home or building foundations, it can be used for non-load bearing walls.
That’s great news, given the fact that cement, an ingredient of concrete, is the second most consumed resource worldwide and the second largest producer of greenhouse gases.