>> a quick guide to hemp
>> uses of hemp
>> interesting facts
>> hemp: the superfood

A QUICK GUIDE TO HEMP

What is paper made from?
How about your clothes?
How about buildings?
Cars?
Fuel?

Perhaps surprisingly, all of these common items can be made out of hemp. In fact, one can pretty much make anything using plants as a raw material. But hemp is a good choice because it is so versatile. Some people like to say that hemp has 30,000 uses as it combines the utility of the soybean, the cotton plant and the Douglas Fir into one green package.

Hemp certainly is a useful and flexible raw material. We particularly like hemp because it's an environmental, renewable, reusable and recyclable resource.

Hemp is a so-called "new crop", which there are many. Like other new crops, farmers shouldn’t grow it unless they have a contract. The hemp business is a new business in North America, so there are not as many companies working with it right now as we would like. And a lot of the products that could be made with hemp, aren't being made on a commercial scale…yet.

In Canada and in the US, hemp was outlawed 70-80 years ago, because it was confused with other kinds of Cannabis. We call it hemp "industrial hemp" to distinguish it from other "races" of the plant.

One useful analogy to make is that Cannabis is like cactus: all of them look the same at first unless you know what to look for.

Hemp's also been called a Heritage crop and a Rip Van Winkle Crop.

We like to think it’s a gift.

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USES OF HEMP

FOOD: The seed is high in protein, and has a really healthy oil content, including Essential Fatty Acids, which we need to keep our cells healthy. EFA's are called essential because our bodies can't make them, and we have to get them from outside sources.

Seed, oil, hulled seed, flour are basic forms of hemp foods. The seed is crushed to produce hemp oil; the seed cake leftover from the crush is processed into flour. The seed shell can be removed to create hulled seed.

These basic ingredients can be used to make just about anything edible: including bread, pasta, chips, dips, cheese substitutes, salad dressings, ice cream, lactose-free milk. If you want to experiment with your own hemp scratch cooking, there's a number of good hemp cookbooks out on the market to get you started.

BODYCARE: For the same reasons hemp is good for inside the body, hemp is great for the outside too. Hemp-based soaps and lotions are great for healthy skin and hair. Hemp lipbalm is also very popular.

PET/VET FOODS: Hemp is a healthy good protein for dogs and cats. Cows and horses like it. Birds -- from chickens to songbirds -- like it especially.

FIBRE USES: There are three kinds of hemp fibre: the outer, longer bast fibre, the shorter inner tow fibre and the woody core fibre.

1. Bast fibres are usually used for textiles, including carpets and clothing. Well-made hemp textiles are very strong and durable and breathe well, keeping the heat in winter, and cooling down in summer. Because of breathability, these fibres are mildew resistant.

2. Along with bast fibres, tow fibres are used for both textiles and for industrial uses, including geotextiles, erosion control blankets, car liners and plastic-like molds.

3. Core fibres can be used for things like mulch, absorbent pet litter and stable bedding. They can also be used to make a strong, long-lasting cement.

Hemp fibres are increasingly being used in industry as a substitute for fiberglass: the advantage is that hemp is lighter, as strong or stronger, is biodegradable and is cheaper.

FUEL: Hemp can be used to produce alternative, atmosphere sustaining fuels, including biodiesel and ethanol. Both the seed and the fibre can be used, though the process varies depending on what you use.

PAPER: Using hemp for paper relieves pressure on forests, and helps protect wildlife.
Because of low lignin content hemp fibres require no bleach, a major pulp pollutant in our water supply. Hemp fibres can add longer life to recycled fibres.

SOIL HEALTH: hemp helps clean up soil by bonding heavy metals to the fibre; some environmental engineers are using it for phytoremediation.

BUG REPELLANT: The pungent smell of hemp seems to keep bugs away. Canadian pioneers used to plant hemp around homesteads as a mosquito break. Cows have been seen to avoid hemp fields, because of the strong aroma.

ATMOSPHERE: With plant heights reaching 15' or more, hemp creates a lot of oxygen and capture high amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. Hemp fields could become very important in addressing issues of planetary climate change.

SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT HEMP

>> The word canvas comes to us from Arabs who took the word from the Greek Kannabis, which refers to sails and cloth. In the age of sail, hemp was a preferred fibre for ropes, rigging and sails (plus sailor's clothing, they were surrounded by the stuff).

>> Hemp was one of the crops that Champlain planted at Port Royal and later Québec. The cultivation of hemp was very important in the development of the country.

>> Historians are unsure whether cannabis hemp was here in North America before the Europeans (circa 1500 CE). There are some references to native hemp in explorer's literature but there is no archaeological evidence.

>> Along with wheat, immigrants from eastern Europe brought hempseeds with them when they settled the Canadian west. Anecdotal evidence being collected by the SHA to date suggests that some farmers quietly grew hemp as a garden crop up until the 1970's. The seeds were used for oil, baking and traditional dishes.

>> Hemp used to be one of the fibres they used to make money. Because of its fine qualities it is still used to make bibles and cigarette papers.

>> Henry Ford made a car from plant matter, including soybeans and hemp in the 1930's. Substituting hemp and other fibre crops such as flax for synthetics and metals is an idea that is coming back into vogue in the car sector.

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HEMP: THE SUPERFOOD
By Arthur Hanks

If a team of scientists held a press conference, and announced a new superfood —- one that is more nutritious than its alternatives, packed full of much needed Essential Fatty Acid’s, high yielding and easy to grow —- it would send the stock and money markets into a feeding frenzy. Media of all kinds would pounce on the story. The superfood would enlist a supporting cast of nutritionists and dieticians, and quickly pick up celebrity endorsements. In an effort to make the new industry grow, government would develop clear policies and give support on all levels. Farmers would embrace the superfood, as it would promise a new cash crop and promote diversification. The medical community, astounded by this new food's ability to enhance and promote health, would stumble over themselves to secure funding and line up clinical trials.

It would be the discovery of this new century.

Suppose this new superfood was already in the marketplace? Suppose the superfood was all natural? Suppose its name was hemp?

After a half century of prohibition, hemp has now been legally grown in Canada for three years, but still has an image problem. By now, most people are aware of hemp i.e. it has 25000 uses, it’s the sober relative of the cannabis plant, it doesn't get you "high" etc. Hemp is well known as a good fibre crop. Enduses for hemp fibre include clothing and household textiles, paper pulp, building materials from fibreboard to roof shingles to concrete, biodegradable automotive components, cordage, highly absorbent animal bedding and garden mulch too.

Because of the marketing efforts of a few national chains, hempseed is also known to be a good ingredient in effective bodycare products, such as shampoos, soaps, skin cremes, sunscreen, lipbalm and the like.

Hemp is a resource that certainly has many sides to it. But some sides are better known than others. And hemp foods are still a bit of a secret in North America, but more and more the word is getting out of what this "superfood" is about.

Hemp foods aren’t easy to find in the big box stores yet, so you’ll have to goto a natural products or organics retailer to find them (or order them from the Internet.) All hemp foods are derived from the seed (the plant’s fibre isn’t edible). Hemp foods come in packaged and ready-to-eat, as well as in "raw" forms.

A smorgasbord of finished hemp foods now available include energy/nutrition bars, waffles, granola, cheese substitutes, salad oil — whole and blended with other good oils, premixed salad dressings, peanut-like butters, toasted and salted whole seeds, flour, pasta, tortilla chips, wrap and flat breads, paté, protein powder concentrate (non isolate), and hemp ice cream too.

There's more product development on the way — hemp foods are moving quickly.

More commonly than finished foods, you’ll find "raw" hemp in the stores, packaged in whole seed, oil or dehulled forms. A look at their nutritional profiles will show you why many food partisans consider hemp to be a superfood.

A whole hempseed contains about 22.5 % protein, 35.8% carbohydrates and 30% fat, as well as minerals such as Calcium, Phosphorus, Iron, Thiamine, Niacin and Riboflavin. It’s a good source of dietary fibre too with 35.1 % dietary fibre (3.0% soluble). Hempseed is also a powerful source of amino acids. Note that 100 grams (1/2 cup) of hempseed have about 500 calories. Hempseed is never irradiated.

The main protein found in hempseed is edestin. Unlike soy, hemp doesn’t have to be cooked or fermented for it to be digestible.

Some people don’t like eating the shell, and so there’s hulled seed available. Dehulling collects all the high protein “meat” found in the hempseed; hulled seed has up to 30-31% protein. The hulled seed is very versatile and lends itself to all sorts of recipes on the fly: think stirfrys, pastas, sauces and spreads. A smoothie fortified with hulled seeds is an excellent meal replacement for athletes and people on the go.

Hempseed is also pressed to make a marvellous vegetable oil. Hemp oil contains 80% polyunsaturated fats — these are the good fats that we need for energy and are one of the highest counts of all vegetable oils. Hemp oil is also quite low in monounsaturated (12%) and saturated fats (typically 8.0% or lower). With this profile, hemp oil is very heart smart.

It gets better: hemp oil is also a rich source of Essential Fatty Acids — namely Omega-6 (LA- linolenic) and Omega 3 (ALA alpha linolenic). Hemp has a balance of three parts Omega-6 to Omega-3, very close to the body's nutritional requirements. EFA's are called essential for the good reason that our bodies can’t make them and they are needed for the healthy functioning of the body's cells. As regulators, the LA and ALA fatty acids provide stability and control the movement of all substances in and out of our bodies' building blocks. This is very key and very basic stuff.

Hemp is also a good source of Gamma Linoleic Acid (GLA), which stimulate the production of eiconsanoids, hormone-type substances. For this reason, many women find hemp oil in their diets helps relieve pre-menstrual syndrome and extreme symptoms of menopause.

Some of the other benefits of having all these EFA’s in the diet include an increased metabolism, lower cholesterol, better digestion, general vigour, improved skin and hair condition, and a boosted immune system.

Finally, the best for last: hemp tastes great. Many people compare it to walnuts. Hemp's nutty taste makes it easier for people to try and then keep using hemp.

Anyone interested in good tasting, all natural and healthy foods should look for and eat hemp…an unheralded and unhyped superfood.

© Arthur Hanks; a version of this article appeared in Alive! magazine, December 2000

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