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Thursday 11 October 2012



The Magic Weed to achieve a SUSTAINABLE PLANET
Last source to mankind to save this earth





First, hemp is not marijuana’s "cousin" (as if the two were totally different plants). Marijuana is the leaf and the fruit of the cannabis hemp plant. Hemp is the fiber produced from the stalk and the oil produced from the seed of the cannabis hemp plant.

Second, how can a plant from which the word canvas is derived be a novelty product? According to archeological records, cannabis hemp was probably man’s first cultivated crop and remained the world’s largest agricultural crop through the 1800s, being spread all over the world for its many vast uses. The word canvas itself is a testament to early man’s survival, including shelter, clothing, sails, and a medium for recording his art and history. And the Biblical command to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” was achieved through the rigging and sails made from hemp on nearly all the world’s sea-going vessels.


Hemp (from Old English hænep) is a term reserved mainly for low tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) varieties of the plant Cannabis sativa. Of the approximately 2000 cannabis plants varieties known, about 90% contain only low-grade THC and are most useful for their fiber, seeds and medicinal or psychoactive oils. Hemp is one of the earliest domesticated plants known.[1]
In modern times hemp is used for industrial purposes including paper, textiles, clothing, biodegradable plastics, construction (as withHemcrete and insulation), body products, health food and bio-fuel. Hemp is thus legally grown in many countries across the world including Spain, China, Japan, Korea, France, North Africa and Ireland. Although hemp is commonly associated with marijuana (hemp's THC-rich cousin), since 2007 the commercial success of hemp food products has grown considerably.
Hemp is one of the faster growing biomasses known, producing up to 25 tonnes of dry matter per hectare per year.[8] A typical average yield in large scale modern agriculture is about 2.5–3.5 t/ac (air dry stem yields of dry, retted stalks per acre at 12% moisture). Approximately one tonne of bast fiber and 2–3 tonnes of core material can be decorticated from 3–4 tonnes of good quality, dry retted straw.

Hemp is very environmentally friendly as it requires few pesticides and no herbicides. It has been called a carbon-negative rawmaterial. Results indicate that high yield of hemp may require high total nutrient levels (field plus fertilizer nutrients) similar to a high yielding wheat crop



The history of cannabis suppression is complex, especially over the last 80 or so years, and this documentary sheds some light on the hemp plant’s countless uses and how nearly every culture throughout history has utilized it. Hemp fiber is one of the strongest natural fibers known and resistant to rot, which gives it thousands of uses in the textile industries. Also known as marijuana, this versatile plant can be made into soap, rope, paper, clothing, building material, burnable fuels, detergents, tools and even weapons, medicine of all sorts and so much more. Seeds can be made into a highly nutritious protein food source, all without the need of pesticides. The Magic Weed documentary shows us that it is time for humans to recognize and understand that this plant could literally save the world from the greed driven corporations such as the cotton, polymer plastics and pharmaceutical industries that were largely responsible for the propaganda and illegalization.

Cannabis Sativa is one of the most ancient plants cultivated by mankind. Hemp processing was already developed in China 8000 years before Christ was born. Hemp was first harvested for its seeds, a rich source of amino acids used for food. Then it was discovered that by breaking the stalks, they could use the fibers to make paper, as well as fishing nets and up to 5000 Hemp related products, including of course textiles. The ancient Chinese called their country The Land of Hemp and Mulberry. Mulberry leaves were used to feed silk worms from which was produced the precious silk that only the rich and powerful could afford. Everyone else wore hemp clothing. Hemp was called “ma” by the Chinese, literally meaning plant with two forms, male and female. The Chinese had originally used bamboo to make bow strings, but then they discovered the hemp fiber was stronger and lasted longer. Imperial decrees ordered that certain areas of the land would be exclusively used to grow hemp.

England has been using hemp as a strategic material for centuries. At the beginning of the 19th century, ropes and sails for ships were exclusively made from hemp. But 90% of this hemp was imported from Italy and Russia. The United Kingdom was seriously worried about maintaining its hemp supplies during the expansion of the Napoleonic empire. King George III of England decided to increase the cultivation of hemp and develop its production in the sea ports along the south coast of Britain.

Now, Bridport is a most remarkable seaport. It’s been making, growing, manufacturing hemp, flax, sail cloth, ropes, twines, nets of every conceivable description since time out of mind. And I use the phrase time out of mind because it was used in a charter by King John in 1213 where he wrote to the Bourgeois of Bridport and exhorted them night and day to make cables and ropes of every description. There were frequent wars with France, certainly from early medieval times until of course Napoleonic Wars. And Bridport took part in that span of history.

In 1803 the British navy organized a blockade against France. Napoleon counteracted by signing an agreement with Czar Alexander I. This contract was called the Tilsit Treaty and it explicitly forbade any export of hemp to England and America, therefore depriving them both of the use of hemp towards their sail cloth, rope, and other hemp product used in the war effort. Despite Napoleon’s protests, Alexander I allowed merchants to smuggle hemp to Britain. This is one of the reasons why Napoleon decided to invade Russia. But the severe winter of 1912 forced him to withdraw his troops and led to the end of his empire.

A real fashion began with this look on hemp. Hemp has become so popular in Germany that the market today is very good for us. Some of our textiles come from eastern Europe, from Hungary, Romania, very few from China because we are not yet satisfied with the quality. And we have also our own textiles directly produced here in Germany. I hope it will soon be legal to grow hemp in Germany because a lot of European countries already do it. We still have a very strong bureaucratic system in Germany and for this reason we are not yet allowed to grow hemp. But I think hemp growing will soon be legalized here too.

The main difference is certainly that hemp is an ecological culture. Hemp growing doesn’t need any weed killing, no pesticide. Its raw material grows naturally and it doesn’t need chemical intervention. This is surely the most important thing.

In France you can even build houses out of boards made from hemp fiber. The producers ensure that they are protected against fire and rot. This material is long lasting, has good insulating properties and strong and flexible.




* Hemp is among the earth's primary renewable resources: trees cut down to make paper take 50 to 500 years to grow back while hemp can be cultivated in as little as 100 days, and can yield 4 times more paper over a 20 year period.

* Hemp does not require pesticides: while half the pollutants in the U.S. today are sprayed on cotton plants, hemp is naturally mildew resistant, requires no pesticides, and maintains a healthy environment for the surrounding streams, air, flora andfauna.

* Hemp slows ozone depletion: the industrial use of fossil fuels, like petroleum, contributes to global warming by rapidly increasing the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere; however, hemp fuels, derived from the plant itself, maintain the earth's natural O2/CO2 balance.

* Hemp Paper Can Save the Forests! One acre of cannabis hemp, in annual rotation over a twenty year period would produce asmuch pulp for paper as 4.1 acres of trees being cut down over the same twenty year period. And while hemp reaches full growth and can be harvested every year, the trees which are cut down take hundreds of years to return. The process of making paper from hemp uses only 1/5 to 1/7 as much polluting, sulfer-based chemicals and does not require the use of any chlorine bleach.

* Hemp as an Ecological, Renewable Fuel Source. Hemp can also produce 10 times more methanol than corn,. the second best living fuelsource. Hemp as fuel is renewable whereas oil is not.

* Hemp as fuel is environmentally beneficial: It enriches and prevents erosions, it burns clean and sulfur-free while oil's sulfur content causes acid rain.


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