PowerSwitch

Fascinating report from RT about the suppression of hemp growing and use in the US.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE1sUwY_ ... ture=share

The problem would be that if we used hemp for all the possible uses we would severely restrict our food growing area. We need to start making less STUFF before we try and make some of it from hemp.

And don't get me going on hemp lime!!

Growing grain crops to for animal feed also restricts the amount of land available for growing food. It is legal to grow it in the UK even if not the USA. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rgDyEO_8cI

Don't hold back, get going on hemp lime, tell us more.

http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/good_wood/hemp.htm
http://www.binhaitimes.com/hemp.html

It's the uneconomic use of the lime that gets me annoyed. It is much more economic in lime, and gives a lower u-value, to use the timber frame with a hemp board and lime render and plaster. Lime might be a low carbon alternative to cement but it is not really low carbon at all; it requires a huge amount of energy to burn which is not taken up when it carbonates again. If you want thermal mass use some earth to fill the cavity in the timber frame. That is low carbon.

Un-ecological maybe, but for the economics, isn't it that the hemp morphs into a mineral when mixed with lime? So you have an almost maintenance free structure. With timber frames, once the water finds a way in, the wood can rot. With what I see from a distance, timber frame building today has nothing to do with better housing, merely cheap housing. Shipping earth in to fill framework will cost more, so it won't be done. Major builders don't give a stuff about building houses, they just want to make money.

Which is why major builders will never use hemp/lime. H/l is, at best, a niche market.

As far a I know h/l has to be lime washed on a regular basis as would lime render on a hemp board.

Could Hemp Disrupt the Energy Industry ?
http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_a ... ZZeVM4PSJ9

In West Virginia, residents will soon be seeing a lot more green than they’re used to. And it may come in the form of dollar bills, too. Researchers from West Virginia University are teaming up with a new startup called Agri Carb Electric Corporation to investigate the farming infrastructure benefits of hemp. This will mark the first time West Virginia has allowed hemp cultivation in 70 years. The state is taking advantage of the Federal Farm Bill, which Obama signed in 2014. The bill allows states to cultivate hemp for research and pilot programs. 23 other states have already begun growing hemp in the last two years. Hemp is a resilient plant. It’s capable of phytoremediation, a process in which the plant leaches pollutants from the soil, hyper-accumulates them, and metabolizes them. Phytoremediation works particularly well on sites contaminated with heavy metals, uranium, and arsenic. This could potentially clean up fields in West Virginia that have been contaminated by coal and gas extraction. “There are a lot of contaminated brownfields throughout West Virginia that people find too expensive to cleanup,” said Agri Carb’s CEO, Don Smith II. “We can be a complement to the state’s coal and gas industries by using a hemp cash crop to revitalize spoiled lands. This research should interest every post-industrial community in West Virginia to invest (with grants) and monetize what is now considered worthless.” The idea here is not just to clean up the fields with hemp, but to use the plants for products that will bring in cash. Hemp has a wide variety of uses, including textiles, fuel, paper, food, plastics, and construction materials. Although Agri Carb frames this as a boon for West Virginia, the implications go beyond that. Imagine an entire economy supported by the sustainability of hemp. So what is Agri Carb, and why is the company interested in sustaining agricultural infrastructure with hemp?

‘West Virginia’s newest cleantech startup’

Erik Janus is Agri Carb’s VP of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs. He’s also the Director of Business Operations at Compassion West Virginia, a non-profit working toward “comprehensive medical cannabis reform” in West Virginia (marijuana and hemp are two varieties of cannabis). According to Janus, “Agri Carb seeks to demonstrate and market advanced carbon applications from a sustainable agriculture base, and we think industrial hemp is the key to establishing a regional bio-based economy and to providing jobs and revenue in the Mountain State.” In what may be an obvious connection, Janus and Smith were among the principle organizers of the Medical Cannabis Conference. They’re advocating for both the medical and business benefits of cannabis. No doubt they’re inspired by states such as Colorado, where legal marijuana has seen an influx of tax dollars. They point toward West Virginia’s history of opioid abuse as one reason to legalize medical pot. Opioids provide pain relief, but a study cited by WebMD found that marijuana relieves chronic pain. In that light, medical marijuana has the potential to unseat the pharmaceutical industry surrounding opioids. Additionally, the phytocannabinoid CBD, which is found in marijuana and hemp, may be able to help treat epilepsy and schizophrenia.

Agri Carb’s buy-in

The company isn’t growing hemp for medical purposes, however. While Smith says the operation would “complement” the coal and gas industries, the fact is that hemp has potential as a fuel source. It could replace coal for electricity generation (Agri Carb is an “Electric Corporation”, after all), and it could replace gasoline: Hemp seed oil can be made into biodiesel, and you can use fermented hemp stalks to make ethanol and methanol. Biodiesel has passed EPA tests as clean-burning fuel. It’s 11 percent oxygen by weight, contains no sulfur, and extends the life of diesel engines because it acts as a lubricant. Biodiesel can run in regular diesel engines, which would save fleets money, since they wouldn’t have to replace existing trucks. Unfortunately, biodiesel isn’t compatible with most new diesel engines. That’s because of manufacturers’ response to standards set by the EPA and the California Air Resources Board. But hemp diesel could be used in old engines, and it wouldn’t take a lot to mandate new production of compatible engines, which could eventually replace gas engines. This would shift the balance of capital away from its concentration in the hands of entrenched traditional fuel interests. Coal will be supplanted first. As we’ve seen in the last year, renewable energy is on the rise while coal is losing out. If hemp becomes a renewable energy source, Agri Carb’s mission may be another nail in coal’s coffin. By partnering with West Virginia University, Agri Carb is taking a potentially fruitful scientific approach. If they succeed in proving hemp is a viable product for agricultural and economic sustainability, they’ll set a precedent that will be tough to ignore across the United States.

I wear hemp clothes. Long lasting and warm. It makes good rope. It can be used in many different products and traditionally was.

However, it is just another crop. It is prone to disease when farmed intensively. It's yield per acre is nothing special, and needs fertilizer liake all crops to get good yields from average modern soil.

It has a fanatical and uncritical following because it is illegal in the USA.

PS_RalphW wrote:.....However, it is just another crop. It is prone to disease when farmed intensively. It's yield per acre is nothing special, and needs fertilizer liake all crops to get good yields from average modern soil.

It has a fanatical and uncritical following because it is illegal in the USA.

At last! An opinion that brings the benefits of hemp down to earth! Thank you , Ralph. Most of the reports I have had from "Hempies" is that you can grow the stuff on thin air, it can solve all the world's building, clothing, fuel and food problems at the same time and it is resistant to 99.999% of all known germs.

As an aside - what happened to JohnB - is he still about? Last I heard he had settled into a little place in Wales somewhere after spending years in his mobile camperhome.

Is Hemp illegal in all of the States of the USA. I know that Cannabis has been legalised in a few states (Maybe only 2).

snow hope wrote:As an aside - what happened to JohnB - is he still about? Last I heard he had settled into a little place in Wales somewhere after spending years in his mobile camperhome.

He lives not too far from me in Wales. I seem to remember he got fed up with a troll on this site.

Catweazle wrote:

snow hope wrote:As an aside - what happened to JohnB - is he still about? Last I heard he had settled into a little place in Wales somewhere after spending years in his mobile camperhome.

He lives not too far from me in Wales. I seem to remember he got fed up with a troll on this site.

Yeah, he's missed (JohnB, that is).