By Clay McGlaughlin
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Sometimes referred to as marijuana's "sober cousin," industrial hemp has gotten a bad rap in some circles because of its much-demonized relative. While many proponents compare it to arresting a person for something their distant cousin did — or, more accurately, arresting them for something a rival falsely accused their cousin of doing — they say that hasn't stopped industrial competitors and short-sighted politicians from restricting hemp production in the United States for almost 80 years.
According to the North American Industrial Hemp Council (http://naihc.org), hemp and marijuana are both classified as Cannabis sativa (a species with hundreds of varieties), but industrial hemp is bred to maximize fiber, seed and/or oil, while "marijuana" varieties are bred for maximum THC (delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol). Hemp has a negligible THC content of between .05 and 1 percent, making it "almost impossible" for someone to get a psychoactive dose. Marijuana has between 3 and 20 percent THC content, according to the council.
"Hemp History Week is a single-issue, non-drug campaign," said Annalisa Rush, a local advocate who is helping to coordinate a Hemp History Week event in Humboldt County. "It's an entirely separate issue from marijuana cultivation."
Rush said she "was first introduced to industrial hemp about 20 years ago, and it has always been on my mind as a crop that can provide sustainable energy resources, clean building materials, biomass, biocomposite textiles, and also happens to be a 'superfood' with the oil and the seeds."
Celebrated this year from June 2-8, Hemp History Week seeks to address the misconceptions and stigmas associated with hemp production, and clear the way for the crop to be grown commercially again in the United States.
Estimates from 2012 indicate that the U.S. hemp industry had annual retail sales of around $500 million, but much of that money currently flows to producers in other countries. According toHempHistoryWeek.com, Canadian farmers earn $200-400 per acre growing the crop, compared to U.S. farmers' net profits of about $50 per acre for soy and corn.
One of the ways advocates hope to change minds about hemp is with a documentary called "Bringing It Home." The film will be shown at the Bayside Grange this evening at 6 p.m., along with an event featuring samples of hemp products and information about the plant's myriad uses. (View a trailer here: http://vimeo.com/58996047).
Anna Owen of Redwood Hemp, a volunteer helping to coordinate Hemp History Week events in Northern California, said the film "tells the story of hemp — past, present and future — and explores why a crop with so many uses and environmental benefits is still illegal to farm under federal law in the United States." She said the California State Grange "has been a big champion in lobbying for hemp," and that "it's been great to see the farmers onboard."
"The political situation is that we have 16 states (including California) where it's legal to grow hemp at the state level, but it's still federally prohibited because right now under the Controlled Substances Act, hemp isn't defined — it's basically synonymous with marijuana," Owen said. "We're trying to get legislation passed, like the Industrial Hemp Farming Act, that would give states that have current legislation control to grow hemp, and would also define industrial hemp appropriately under the Controlled Substances Act. Votehemp.com is where people should go for all the political information."
BUILDING WITH 'HEMPCRETE'
Also featured at the event today will be a "hempcrete" wall built by Ryan Hayes of Terrabuilt Construction in Arcata. The contractor is building the first permitted hempcrete structure in California — an 800-square-foot addition to a home in Palos Verdes near Los Angeles, which will have two walls with hempcrete used as an in-fill. Hayes said the permitting stage of the project was a challenge, because there hasn't been much testing done in the U.S. to show that the material complies with building codes.
"Oftentimes, in the building world, alternative materials can be kind of scary because they haven't necessarily stood the test of time. But this stuff has been used elsewhere and been given a lifespan upwards of the 200- 300-year range. It has held up in structures that are still standing in France and Japan, which gave me the inclination that it is a plausible material to work with," Hayes said.
Composed of hemp hurds — which are fragments of stems and stalks left over after removing the fibers — hydraulic lime and water, hempcrete is a non-toxic and energy-efficient building material that is resistant to mold, fire and pests.
"The fact that it inhibits mold growth is what I use as a major selling point with people," Hayes said. "A lot of our building science is kind of flawed in the way that we try to seal up our buildings. Hempcrete is breathable, and by that I don't mean that it takes in air, but that the wall 'breathes' in the sense that it reacts with water vapor in the air and dissipates it, so it's a really good humidity controller. That's a huge bonus, especially when you have conventional homes that are trapping moisture and creating mold, which has a lot of sicknesses associated with it."
Hayes said that the material has "a scroll of benefits that come along with it," such as being termite proof, extremely fire resistant — "you could hold a torch to it for an hour and a half before it would do anything" — and a carbon-negative footprint.
"Currently, the building industry creates a tremendous amount of carbon emissions. Just in materials alone, you see anywhere from 5-8 percent (of global emissions) in producing the materials to build a house. Then a staggering 38 to 40 percent of carbon emissions come from heating and cooling conventional homes due to lack of efficiency," he said.
Hempcrete, on the other hand, not only absorbs carbon during the growing cycle of the hemp plants themselves, but also sequesters carbon from the atmosphere as the bricks cure.
"The lime is trying to go back to its initial rock state, so it's taking carbon out of the air as it hardens more over time. It's petrifying, essentially. It just keeps getting harder and harder," Hayes said. The substance is also "an incredibly insulative material that has a high thermal inertia, so it transfers heat and cold very slowly and retains it as a thermal mass, like a concrete wall. It's very capable of controlling the temperature of your house better, then you don't have to rely so much on central heating and all these other facets."
Hayes also emphasized the fact that leftover hempcrete can be tilled right back into the soil, essentially becoming fertilizer.
"It's really just a good cycle. You know, we care about what we eat and the food that we put in our bodies, and we should care about the environment that we're living in. It's a nice feeling when you're working with a material that you feel good about, and you know that the house you're putting together is going to have a healthy environment," he said.
BUSINESS TIE-INS
Other local businesses are also participating in Hemp History Week, including Masaki's Kyoto Japanese restaurant in Eureka, Masaki's Mongolian Grill and Sake Bar in Arcata, Solutions in Arcata and Satori Movement in McKinleyville.
Eric Masaki said that his restaurants will likely feature a dish made with hemp seeds .
"Last year, we did seared albacore rolled in hemp seeds, sliced and made into a salad," he said.
Solutions has free samples of some hemp food products, and is selling hemp shoes, hats, body care products and more, while Satori Movement features lots of hemp-blend clothing, which employee Alex Labbe said lasts for years and is much more durable than cotton clothing.
"Hemp doesn't wear out, it wears in," Labbe said. "A pair of pants made with hemp will last three times as long as regular jeans. They don't mold, they don't shrink, and they're super breathable. It's the second strongest natural fiber after spiderweb, and it's really one of those things that should be way ahead of cotton, because the hemp plants use less water and space to grow, and yield more fiber. It grows so densely that you don't have to use herbicides, pesticides or miticides. It doesn't make sense that it's not already the default fiber. It could be a billion-dollar crop for this country, and it really needs to take off. I think it will, eventually, once people get informed about it. I mean, it's really ideal for so many things."
Rush emphasized hemp's adaptability and potential as well, and stressed that things won't change until voters demand it.
"I just hope that people from all different sectors of the community start learning about industrial hemp. It's a rich part of our history, and even though it's been illegal for the past 70 years, it was legal for millennia before that. It's a very important crop," she said.
Ryan Hayes of Terrabuilt Construction in Arcata holds a handful of hemp hurds — bits of stems and stalks — that are used to make "hempcrete," a building material made with lime and water to form fire, pest and mold-resistant walls. Hayes is the contractor for the first permitted hempcrete structure in California, and he's currently testing out mixtures and binders to find out what works best. (Clay McGlaughlin — The Times-Standard)
Hemp hurds are shown here in detail. Ryan Hayes of Terrabuilt Construction in Arcata said that American Lime Technology in Chicago supplies the hurds and binders to make hempcrete, and that the process is still being tested to comply with U.S. building codes, despite the fact that the material has been used for years in Europe and Asia. He said that hempcrete has a lifespan of 200-300 years when made properly. (Clay McGlaughlin — The Times-Standard)
Shown here is a hempcrete wall made by Ryan Hayes of Terrabuilt Construction in Arcata to demonstrate the material. He plans to render lime on the outside and use American clay to finish the inside before displaying the wall at a Hemp History Week event today at 6 p.m. at Bayside Grange. The documentary "Bringing It Home" will be shown at the event to answer common questions and dispel misconceptions about industrial hemp, which is still classified as a drug, despite having negligible amounts of THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana. (Clay McGlaughlin — The Times-Standard)
Shown here is a detail view of Ryan Hayes' hempcrete wall. The material is not only termite proof and resistant to fire and mold, it is also carbon-negative, meaning that it actually absorbs more carbon than it takes to produce it. The building industry is a huge source of carbon emissions, and advocates hope that by switching to natural building materials, many of those emissions can be reduced significantly. (Clay McGlaughlin — The Times-Standard)
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