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soil and soaks up enormous amounts of carbon from the sie spe gs . atmosphere. Hemp legislation, classification and processing "Every tonne of cellulose grown and used removes 1.5 In most of Eastern and Western Europe, in North tonnes of carbon dioxide. For example, if 200,000 America (even the United States, where it is illegal to hectares of hemp were grown (averaging a yield of 12 grow hemp), Russia, China, Nepal, India, South America, tonnes [of dried stem matter] per hectare), 3.6 million the Middle East and many other countries, there are no tonnes of carbon dioxide would be removed."' This would __ barriers to the use of hempseed products. Indeed, hemp have obvious benefits in reducing our carbon footprint. products have been used in some countries for millennia. Hemp is an extremely fast-growing crop, producing The United Nations International Narcotics Control more fibre yield per hectare than any other source. Hemp _ Board (INCB) tried to implement a ban on the production can produce 250 per cent more fibre than cotton, with less | of hempseed for human nutrition throughout Europe. Its water consumption, and 600 per cent more fibre than flax, reason for the proposed change in legislation was that using the same amount of land. The area of land needed "hempseed has no nutritional value" and "is a benign way for obtaining equal yields of fibre place hemp at an _ of introducing drugs to minors".’ Fortunately, Hemp advantage over other fibres. Union Ltd from the UK lobbied the European Union and "The anatomy of the stem of hemp is crucial to its the UK government and so the INCB withdrew the quality as a raw material for paper. The bark contains _ proposal. primary bast fibres (about 20 millimetres long), and may Here in Australia, even though most of the states are contain secondary bast fibres now issuing industrial hemp (about 2 mm long). The core cultivation licences, the contains fibres 0.5 to 0.6 mm legislation to allow hempseed long."* In comparison, the Hemp So produce 250 pet products to be used as a food average fibre length for softwood cent more fibre than cotton, source for humans is still in (pine) ranges from 2.8 to 3 mm. . . limbo. Previous applications The average fibre length for with less water consumption, toward this end were rejected by hardwood (eucalypt) ranges from and 600 per cent more fibre the Howard government. 0.8 to 1.0 mm. Because of the Interestingly, the authority that extraordinary length of the bast than flax, using the same assessed the applications on amount of land. fibres (collected from the phloem or bast surrounding the stem), as hemp food in nutrition could see no reason to withhold hempseed compared with the length of tree products as a food source for fibres used in Australia, bast general human consumption.* fibres produce higher-quality goods such as paper and _—_ Unfortunately, there is a general misunderstanding among fabric. the public about the benefits of hemp foods. One acre (one hectare) of hemp can produce as much Technically, hempseeds are classified as a nut or achene. paper as four to 10 acres (1.62 to 4.05 hectares) of trees They have an outer sheath, a hard shell and an inner over a 20-year cycle, but hemp stalks only take four __ kernel. Before the seeds are pressed, they are cleaned, months to mature, whereas trees take 20 to 80 years. This removing 99.99 per cent of residual plant matter. information has been known for a long time, as it was Hempseed oil is pressed from the seeds of non-drug, mentioned in a 1916 US Department of Agriculture "industrial" varieties of the hemp plant Cannabis sativa L. report.’ Hemp paper can also be recycled more often, | These seeds contain no THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the though this fact is not of much value since hemp is a _active drug compound) and have no psycho-active effects. renewable resource. However, trace amounts of THC may be found in If the use of all fossil fuels and their derivatives as well hempseed oil if any hemp plant matter happens to adhere as trees for paper and construction were banned in order to _ to the seed surface during processing. save the planet, reverse the "greenhouse effect" and stop The modern production of hempseed oil, particularly in deforestation, then there would be only one known — Canada since 1998, has successfully lowered THC values.’ annually renewable, natural resource capable of providing Unfortunately, the urine sample drug-screening methods the overall majority of the world's paper and textiles, | employed in mining and other industries are extremely meeting all the world's transportation, industrial and home _ sensitive to minute traces of THC. So it's possible that by energy needs while simultaneously reducing pollution, using hempseed products, an employee could jeopardise rebuilding the soil and cleaning the atmosphere. That his or her drug-free status. resource is the same one that did it all before: hemp. (For more background information, see Jack Herer's _ Nutritional content and benefits book The Emperor Wears No Clothes’ Also see the 10- If all the practical applications aren't enough to convince minute video The Truth Leaked Out!, available on __ us of the benefits of the hemp plant, then the nutritional YouTube.°) value of hempseed should be. Hempseed nutrition Hemp can produce 250 per cent more fibre than cotton, with less water consumption, and 600 per cent more fibre than flax, using the same amount of land. Nutritional content and benefits If all the practical applications aren't enough to convince us of the benefits of the hemp plant, then the nutritional value of hempseed should be. Hempseed nutrition 26 ¢ NEXUS Hemp legislation, classification and processing www.nexusmagazine.com FEBRUARY — MARCH 2009