By CannEvolv
The future of the cannabis industry, and possibly the world lies in industrial hemp.
Cannabis - American Pastime and Industrial Future
For over a millennium hemp was an American cash crop and staple of western living. Everything from ropes to clothing and even important documents like the American Constitution were all made using hemp.
In fact, weed used to grow freely and wild across America according to merryjane.com
Through no fault of its own, cannabis became outlawed after years of propoganda campaigns designed to demonize the plant.
As a newly industrialized nation, America quickly developed powerful men with powerful corporations. Corporations which had a legal obligation to maximize profits for its investors at any cost (as long as it didn't cost them).
By the 1930’s entities with vested interest in oil, petroleum synthetics, and the lumber industries had successfully turned the public against cannabis for corporate interests.
The industrial tycoons of the early 20th century saw cannabis and all its uses as competition, so they stamped out the competition.
With the Marihuana Tax Act in 1937 cannabis was effectively outlawed.
Corporations have historically been able to do as they please, but consumers are increasingly becoming more aware and active in changing the impact these corporations are having socially and environmentally. In a sense, the woke movement has made corporate greed much harder to hide.
So, what was it that had the corporate kings so shook in the early 20th century?
The one thing that can make a corporation sweat – the thought of losing money.
If you think about it…
The cannabis plant can:
Be used to make any kind of petroleum-based product including biofuel.
Take customers away from smoking tobacco products. Plus, tobacco is much easier to grow than cannabis flowers.
Be used for paper and construction materials.
Cause people to drink/buy less alcohol.
The various uses of cannabis go far beyond smoking and eating the plant. Luckily many of these uses can help combat social and environmental issues that are on the forefront of consumer’s minds.
So, let’s look at some of the exciting ways hemp can be used and the kind of potential impact of this sustainable resource.
Fuels
Foods and Nutrition Suppliments, protein powder, seed butter
Textiles
Auto parts – brake and clutch pads
Plastics
Cement
Cosmetics
Insulation
Flour
Animal feed
Clothing and accessories
Milk
Beer
Chemical clean up
Water Filters
The cannabis plant not only is useful for building things and consuming but is also one of the best biological filters we have access to.
Cannabis is a bioaccumulator which means it acts as a sponge which leeches toxic chemicals from the soil. This is also why it is very important to procure your cannabis from a trusted source. Any toxins in the soil used to grow cannabis will be brought into the plant itself.
The term “phytoremediation,” was coined by the scientist Ilya Raskin, a member of a team that tested hemp’s ability to accumulate heavy metals from soil in contaminated fields near Chernobyl in the 1990s. According to another team member, Vyacheslav Dushenkov, the experiment was a success. “For the specific contaminants that we tested, hemp demonstrated very good phytoremediation properties,” says Dushenkov,
In 2001, a team of German researchers confirmed the Chernobyl results by showing that hemp was able to extract lead, cadmium and nickel from a plot of land contaminated with sewage sludge. In 2011, hundreds of farmers in Puglia, Italy, started testing the theory, planting hemp in a long-term effort to clean up fields disastrously polluted by a massive steel plant. (Conclusive data on how well the Italian bioremediation project is working doesn’t appear to be available yet, but the farmers have been cleared to sell harvested hemp fiber for industrial use.) - Rolling Stone Magazine
Cannabis can clean toxic chemicals and heavy metals from the environment and still be used for industrial purposes.
Conclusion
We are now on the precipice of being able to live a completely hemp supported life from consumption to textiles to pollution clean up- all can be addressed using hemp and cannabis derived products.
It is now possible to wake up in hemp pajamas in a hemp framed bed with hemp sheets. We can make CBD coffee with hemp milk before driving in a hemp composite car to work.
We may be a little biased but we believe industrial hemp is going to be an integral part of our economy and lifestyle from now on into history.