Hemp Facts

Hemp Bags

Naturally Clean

Naturally antimicrobial and resistant to mold, mildew, salt, heat, cold, UV rays and insects which makes it excellent for food storage.

Biodegradable

Hemp is completely biodegradable

Beautiful Fabric

Rich and natural texture and appearance and hemp is three times stronger than cotton.

No Dyes

These bags are a natural color with no added dyes, therefore no added toxins, chemicals or disposal of wastes.

No Bleach

Hemp is a naturally light fabric but if whitening is needed, mild, eco-friendly, non-toxic whiteners like hydrogen peroxide replace chlorine bleach.

Hemp Uses

Hemp can be used to make the highest quality

Cloth
Paper
Bio-degradable plastic
Construction materials
Fuel
Food
Medicines

Hemp Is Good For The Earth

No Pesticides, Herbicides, or Fungacides

Hemp grow vigorously with no pesticides, herbicides or fungicides due to it’s own production of natural resins and dense growth pattern.

Drought Tolerant

Hemp’s water requirements are negligible, so it doesn't require much irrigation and will grow in arid regions.

Fast Growing

Hemp is fast growing and yields three to four times annually (every 100 days).
Hemp produces 4 times as much fiber as trees per acre and produces that fiber at least 80 times faster than trees can.
Hemp produces twice the amount of fiber as cotton and six times that of flax.

Good for the Soil

Hemp adds nutrients to the soil, removes toxins, aerates the soil and prevents soil erosion with it’s long roots. Hemp actually leaves the soil in better condition than before it was planted.

Cheaper to Grow

Hemp is less expensive to farm because of its minimal growth requirements. Canadian hemp farmers are earning 10 times the revenue per acre than American grain farmers.

Hemp Lifecycle

Hemp is more sustainable on all accounts than any other fiber or plastic.
Hemp is fast growing, high yield, biodegradable, requires little water and no pesticides and herbicides. New technologies are being implemented to process mass quantities of hemp in the most sustainable and efficient ways possible.
Remember also that single-use paper and plastic bags require natural resources for each bag that is made. That means that for each reusable hemp bag that replaces 5,000 single use bags, there are at least 5,000 times fewer resources being invested in each reusable hemp bag.

Politics of Hemp

It is currently illegal to grow hemp in the U.S., but the U.S. is one of the largest importers of hemp products. Between 1500-1750 Americans were legally bound to grow hemp.

The U.S. is the only industrialized nation that does not allow hemp production.
All hemp fabric must therefore be imported.
Hemp was revered with widespread use until the 1930’s, when a smear campaign was created by a few individuals in competing industries, the media and government. They had personal and financial interests in destroying the future of hemp and successfully banned it from being grown in the U.S. to this day. (For a complete history of hemp, refer to San Diego Earth Times article: http://www.sdearthtimes.com/et0199/et0199s11.html)
The politics of hemp is the politics of corporate America. Although hemp is superior to most other industrial products in it's wide variety of uses and unmatched environmental sustainability, big industries can and hence do continue to make money at the expense of our earth.

Hemp's competing industries include:

Paper
Cotton
Synthetic Fabrics
Plastics
Oil
Petrochemicals
Logging
Wood Mills
Pharmaceuticals

U.S. History of Hemp

America’s founding fathers grew hemp. Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp and went to great lengths to get the best possible seeds.

The first American flag was made of hemp fabric.

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were drafted on hemp paper.

Between 1500-1750 Americans were legally bound to grow hemp.
The 1850 United States Census counted 8,327 hemp “plantations”* (minimum 2,000-acre farms) growing cannabis hemp for cloth, canvas and the cordage used for baling cotton.
Hemp became prohibited to grow in 1937.
1942-1945, during World War 2, the armed forces were faced with a shortage of fiber for their supplies. The federal government subsidized hemp and US farmers grew about a million acres of hemp as part of that program.
After the war, the U.S. soldiers were ordered to destroy the million acres of hemp fields planted for their benefit.
Hemp has been cultivated since ancient times. The earliest known woven fabric was made of hemp and dates back to the eighth millennium (8,000-7,000) BC.

Myth Busting

Myth 1: Hemp is Marijuana

Truth 1: Industrial hemp is drug-free.

Myth 2: High THC cannabis can be hidden in a hemp field

Truth 2: Cross-pollination would ruin the marijuana.

Myth 3: It is too difficult to tell the difference between Marijuana and Hemp.

Truth 3: Industrial hemp looks more like bamboo than marijuana, and the other 30 industrial nations that cultivate hemp legally have no problem identifying the types of cannabis in their fields.

Myth 4: The Drug Enforcement Agency regulates illegal drug activity.

Truth 4: It is prohibiting a drug-free plant. There is no drug in the hemp plant. Legalizing growing hemp in the United States would generate thousands of eco-friendly jobs, lessen environmental impacts of transporting hemp across seas and create many more opportunities to harness the great powers of this plant.

Global Suppliers of Hemp

The primary countries supplying hemp to the US include China, Hungary, Thailand, Romania and Chile with some production coming from other nations including Australia, England, Canada and New Zealand.

Positive Changes

We can create positive changes by buying products produced from sustainable sources and made by environmentally and socially responsible companies. When businesses provide environmentally superior options and are supported by consumers, the consumers are in charge of choosing to change our world.