What is hemp and what's so special about it?
What is so special about hemp products that I should pay more for them than conventional cotton products (although stores like Rawganique.com is rapidly closing the gap on conventional cotton and hemp prices--in many cases our designer organic cotton and hemp clothing and footwear are even cheaper than what you'd find on Main Street, USA!)?
Hemp is special in so many ways. It's arguably the strongest and most versatile fiber we know for consumer goods and industrial uses. It has been used to make durable and stylish clothing, footwear, paper, and home accessories for thousands of years in China and many other countries; in the US, it had been in use and cultivation up until the 1940's, when it was banned due to its association with its distant cousin plant, marijuana. Now, thanks to visionaries like Jack Herer, hemp is back! If you haven't seen or touched hemp clothing lately, you'll be surprised how far the industry has come in terms of quality (our hemp clothing is really soft and cozy, unlike the burlap-y hemp of the early days), style, economy, variety, and craftsmanship.
The hemp plant also yields one of the most nutritious foods you can eat (industrial hemp grown for fiber and food contain virtually no THC, the psychoactive substance in marijuana--our hemp food products are made from hulled hemp seeds, and so contain no THC, which is found in infinitesimal amounts only in the hulls).
While hemp's many uses in the clothing and food industry are well-known, little is known of the fact that you can make plastic, cement, gasoline, and so much more out of hemp! There really is no more need to cut down trees for paper or make bags out of conventional plastic or fill your car up with petroleum-based gasoline!
The hemp plant itself is a marvel of nature. It grows easily in temperate climates (it's a "weed" after all), with roots that penetrate deep into the ground, bringing much-needed minerals and nutrients that other plants can use to the top layers of the soil. It dislikes chemicals and fertilizers and hence lends itself easily to organic farming, as opposed to conventional cotton, which requires massive uses of water, chemicals, pesticides, bleaches, and many other toxic substances for its cultivation and production.
The hemp fiber is anti-fungal and so is great especially for footwear; it also wicks away moisture and has a natural sheen that is water-resistant, making it the fiber of choice for natural outdoors people everywhere. The fiber itself is durable and will easily outlast cotton 6-to-1. It's also much thicker than cotton and hence contains a lot more air space than cotton, thereby facilitating free air circulation, making it warmer in winter and cooler in summer than cotton. You can also really abuse your hemp clothing and still get at least three to four times the mileage you can get out of your cotton clothing. Products made of hemp are naturally beautiful, humble, and mindful of this fragile planet of ours.
Now, on to the question of price. Hemp is more expensive than cotton up front, but if you add up long-term costs to our environment from cotton production and the massive use value of hemp products, you'll easily find that hemp is much lighter on your pocket and on the planet in the long run. Also, if hemp farming were legalized in the US, as it is in many of the countries in the western world such as Germany and Canada, then the prices will come tumbling down in a hurry. And you can do your part in making this happen by supporting this wonder plant anyway you can. Wear hemp, eat hemp, walk on hemp, write on hemp! For a better future for us and our planet, so that we and our children can actually have a future to look forward to! The more widespread and mainstream hemp becomes, the more reasonable the prices of hemp products and the more likelihood that its cultivation will be legalized in the US.
- Excerpted from Hemp Horizons by John Roulac
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