Hemp: FOODS For Thought!

"Hemp is a nutritional source rich in high-value nutrients such as proteins, with good digestibility and essential amino acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids, fiber, minerals and vitamins it cleans polluted land, grows with little water, is insect resistant and...Hemp can make over 25,000 different products including conservatively over 500 food products!"

By 2030, the global hemp industry can reach over a trillion dollars, led by medicines, fiber for composites, bricks and paper industries, and other sectors.

People use hemp seeds and oils in a range of food products including hemp milk, hemp oil, hemp crackers, hemp flour, hemp beer, hemp tea, hemp coffee, hemp infused wine, hemp burgers, hemp cookies, hemp breads, hemp granola bars, hemp protein powders for bodybuilding, hemp gummies, and hemp cheese. Hemp provides healthy fat and is a good source of protein.

Hemp can be a natural solution for soil replenishment and decontamination. Conventional crops (such as corn and wheat) deplete the nutrition of soil, causing it to dry out and erode. Hemp’s deep roots help stabilize the soil structure. Also, since hemp plants grow quickly (180-500 cm tall in just 110 days), they provide natural shade which kills weeds. This eliminates the need of costly and toxic herbicides. In any contaminated soil, hemp also actively absorbs heavy-metal contaminants from soil, gradually purifying the earth.

Oil Spill Cleanup: Bioremediation

Hemp’s core has been found to be a carrier of microorganisms for bioremediation. Bioremediation describes a process in which certain microorganism, such as those found in hemp, break down oil by feeding off of it. Once metabolized, the resulting substances can be released back into the water or soil without the toxins.

HEMP PROFITABILITY

Every part of the Hemp plant can be used to make products and hemp is not psychoactive in fact industrial hemp can't be grown near marijuana because it will cause the crop to become industrial hemp! The main reason poor nations are convinced and coerced NOT to grow hemp is to keep them poor hemp is potentially the most profitable plant on the planet not for use as a drug but for its industrial uses! Hempcrete created by combining hemp hurds with lime, sand, (pozzolans, fly ash or red mud can be used instead of or with sand) and water.

Pozzolans substitutes for hempcrete...What are the sources of pozzolans?

Pozzolanic materials occur both naturally in the earth's crust, as well as being produced as by-products of various industrial processes (e.g. fly ash, silica fume, rice husk and some non-ferrous slags).The nonferrous slags are molten by-products of high-temperature processes that are used to separate the nonferrous metal from other constituents. As a result of the melting of nonferrous metals, iron and silicon are separated to form a silicon-based slag. The resulting slag contains a high proportion of steel.

So this by product that would ordinarily become a pollutant can be used combined with hemp to make a high quality building material superior to concrete and resistant to mold as well as being fire retardant and perfect for building in tropical areas and beach front properties. Due to its low-density properties (weights only one-seventh the weight of concrete by volume), hempcrete is easy to transport and implement on-site, adaptable to all climate zones, cures within a few hours, is more flexible than concrete and complies with European fire resistance and acoustic standards.

Hemp linen and silk is amazingly eco-friendly to grow and has a very small environmental impact as it is naturally pest-resistant and produced pesticide-free, making it an ideal fabric for slow fashion lovers!

About 50 countries produced some 275,000 tons of raw or semi-processed industrial hemp in 2023, according to the latest available statistics. But just four countries account for more than half of global output. China leads the pack, followed by France, Canada and the United States. In 2022, the value of hemp production for the United States totaled $238 million, down 71 percent from 2021due to increased global competition. Many EU countries lifted their bans on hemp production in the 1990s and, until recently, also subsidized the production of “flax and hemp” under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy.22 Most EU production is of hurds, seeds, fibers, and pharmaceuticals.23 Other non-EU European countries with reported hemp production include Russia, Ukraine, and Switzerland. Sadly the countries many of these nations colonized are still operating under laws the colonizer established to keep the nations poor and disenfranchised.

By 1923 in South Africa, debates around hemp had become highly racialized. Cannabis consumption had historically been described by white colonists as an immoral habit of African and Indian communities. In the USA Cannabis Sativa was described as an immoral habit of Blacks and Mexicans! Both countries had calls for prohibition of cannabis combined racist fears popular in the print media with policies meant to control cannabis-based livelihoods! This is a reflection of how Africans across the globe were damaged economically, politically, and culturally. Africa's traditional lifestyles and culture were destroyed in an attempt to make them culturally European and therefore subservient to European rule. The Europeans had no interest in traditional African culture and had no concern for the global African diaspora. To this day what Eurocentric culture fears most is historic truths, Afrocentric perspectives and traditional African cultures and moral tenets.