Environmental Impact of Hemp

The Cannabis College attempts to inform the public on all aspects of Cannabis and hemp, especially those with which you may not be familiar. One of the most important applications of the hemp plant is in the realm of environmental protection, such as its ability to leach radioactivity from the soil, prevent erosion and mudslides, and grow with little or no pesticides. Hemp plants are hardy, adapting to and thriving in almost any climate on the planet. Unlike most crops, rather than depleting the earth, hemp actually helps to prepare the soil for the following year’s harvest (crop rotation). Hemp building materials and plastic products are environmentally-friendly and for the most part recyclable, and are also known to be mould-resistant.

Hemp can, for the most part, reduce the need for many other mass-produced modern raw materials. The fuel industry and other petrochemical products create large amounts of toxins and waste. Compared to common resources (such as cotton), the hemp industry not only results in eco-friendly fibres, fuels, cosmetics, medicines, and so on, it also protects the earth and makes the land more viable for other crops. The cotton manufacturing process is responsible for the utilisation of over 20% of the world’s chemical pesticides and processing chemicals; hemp can be grown and processed with minimal or no chemical use. There are very few by-products from hemp processing, and the small amounts of vegetable matter that are not used are easy to either re-use or dispose of.

With regards to the eco industry, it appears that even modern approaches in environmental protection sometimes accidentally lead to the over-consumption of resources, often non-renewable. Hemp plants help to produce oxygen, prevent deforestation and process greenhouse gases while offering materials for food, fuel, cosmetics, plastic, building materials, medicine, textiles and more. Many large companies producing the aforementioned goods are now considering, or have already implemented, the switch to hemp due to the current worldwide concern towards global warming, climate change and CO2 emissions.

Relevant information

The use of Cannabis as an industrial crop by humans is as old as the practice of agriculture itself, dating back almost 10,000 years. Originally it was culitivated for the fibres of the stalk in order to make fabrics for clothing or nets for hunting and fishing.

Today the Cannabis plant family can be separated into three main groups: Cannabis Sativa, Cannabis Indica, and Cannabis Ruderalis, although disputes exist regarding the exact distinctions of these groups.