Hemp – a Very Useful Crop That Helped The World Advance
by This gives some idea of the value of hemp and its products.
If one remembers reading books about the old days of sailing ships one will probably remember the mention of hemp rope and possibly hemp sails. Hemp was used extensively for sails, clothes, rope and so on. In facilitating sailing hemp helped the world advance.
Hemp is a very fast growing crop and readily helps prevent soil erosion. It is used in the manufacture of paper, fuel, textiles, oil for human consumption, produces hemp seeds to eat, and has many other uses.
Hemp oil is rich in essential fatty acids and is therefore healthy as a food, helping the immune system, and is good for skin care.
The hemp stalk can be used as a fuel: Using a method called pyrolysis the hemp can be converted into a suitable form of fuel for power stations. This fuel is environmentally cleaner than coal. It has also been reported that one acre of hemp can produce over 3000 litres of methanol which can be used to fuel cars.
When coal is burned it puts carbon dioxide into the air. In fact by leaving coal in the ground we are storing carbon in the ground. When we grow plants to burn we first take carbon dioxide out of the air whilst growing the plant then we put carbon dioxide back into the air when we burn the plant. This is carbon neutral, meaning that as much carbon dioxide is taken out of the air as is put back into the air. Clearly digging up coal and burning it is worse than growing and burning.
Of course many products are made from petroleum, but almost anything made from petroleum can be made from hemp (it is said that if something can be made from a hydrocarbon it can probably be made from a carbohydrate). So hemp can be made into car parts, such as body panels, can be used to make medicines and so on.
Probably one of the most important aspects of hemp production is that hemp helps environmentally and can help save the world from global warming.
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