The Next Big ‘Green’ Car Could Be Made from Hemp?

by George Kennedy
Source: boldride.com

Hey man, hemp is, like, really useful and stuff. Ok, outside of the advocate at your local head shop, there have been many reports on the uses of hemp. They include rope, and it is even used as a powder for protein shakes, but this is one use we have not heard yet– a car made completely from hemp.

In an effort to be the halo car of the stoner world, Calgary-based Motive Industries INC has created the Kestrel; an electric car made from hemp. The Canadian government is supporting the hemp industry and encouraging new uses for the substance, in addition to the more than 50,000 uses that already exist.

The battery is supposedly good for 100 miles on one charge, and is said to reach 90 km/h 56 mph. Though the trail on this car has gone mostly quiet, hopefully Canada’s support of the hemp industry, combined with our need for alternative, sustainable methods of production will breathe life back into the Kestrel!

Hawaii to Evaluate Hemp for Biofuel

By Anna Simet
Source: biomassmagazine.com

Talk of hemp, or Cannabis sativa, as an energy crop has come and gone in waves for many years with little traction.

Though a high-yielding, low-input crop that is perfectly suitable for use in a variety of products including durable clothing, nutritional products and plastic and composite materials, it is still illegal to grow in some countries. That includes the U.S., according to federal law, as well as the United Kingdom, because of marijuana-yielding breeds and drug laws. Some U.S. states have made the cultivation of industrial hemp legal, but none have any activity yet.

That is, besides Colorado, of course. And just this week, Hawaii legislators approved a bill that will focus on the study of hemp as a biofuel feedstock and phytoremediation resource.

By definition, phytoremediation is the environmentally-friendly science of using plants and trees to remove toxins in the soil, such as metals, pesticides, solvents, explosives and crude oil.  The toxins are be reduced by planting specific plants and trees in polluted areas, plants that draw in the toxins, and can later be harvested and disposed of.

As far as the biofuel component of the bill goes, it says that preexisting biodiesel plants in Hawaii are capable of meeting eight percent of the state's biodiesel needs for ground transportation, and that plants could potentially increase efficiency by utilizing industrial hemp as a feedstock, thus reducing the state's reliance on imported fuel.

For those two reasons, the bill authorizes the dean of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at the University of Hawaii-Manoa to establish a two-year industrial hemp remediation and biofuel crop research program. It does have quite a few strict stipulations to prevent undesired consequences. From the bill itself:

*The department of agriculture shall certify that the seed stock to be used in the research program is for growing industrial hemp.  If the seed stock cannot be verified by the department of agriculture as industrial hemp seed stock, the dean shall not commence the growing or cultivation of industrial hemp for the research program.

*The research program shall use only one test site to grow and cultivate industrial hemp.

*Industrial hemp is definted as Cannabis sativa L. and any part of that plant, whether growing or not, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry-weight basis. 

*No person shall be subject to any civil or criminal sanctions in this state for growing or possessing industrial hemp, provided that the person's growing or possession of industrial hemp is part of the person's participation in the two-year industrial hemp remediation and biofuel crop research program and the person's participation is in full compliance with the requirements of the program.

*The department of agriculture shall test and monitor the plants growing on the test site to ensure that no marijuana is grown on the site.  If marijuana is found to be growing or being cultivated on the test site, then the research project shall cease immediately.

The project begins in July, and runs through July 2016. I’m sure it will yield some interesting results, and hopefully help Hawaii—at least to some degree—in its quest to reduce its reliance on imported fossil fuels.

Hemp for health

Source: praguepost.com

Legal hemp products are pushing into the mainstream

Czech and European laws on hemp are fairly relaxed, as long as products are made of “industrial hemp” that contains only a trace amount of THC, the chemical that causes intoxication. This has led to a growing industry in products ranging from lollipops to skin ointments.

Movements to fully legalize marijuana are growing across Europe and in the United States, which is also generating more interest in spin-off products. Hemp is growing into the center of a lifestyle, as its advocates say it can be used for almost anything and is eco-friendly. It is also gaining acceptance among people interested in organic food and nature-based medicine.

Some hemp product vendors still have a 1960s-style counterculture vibe, with marijuana-leaf designs prominently featured, while others are much more serious and businesslike. All vendors emphasize that their products are legal, and most claim that there are health benefits from using hemp.

The lack of THC doesn’t deter customers. “THC is just one out of 150 good things in hemp. It is full of stuff that is really good for your health,” said Vítězslav, who declined to give his last name. He was selling products for České Budějovice–based Hemp Point at Festival Evolution, a recent fair for organic food, alternative medicine and similar products. “It is a good source of protein,” he said, indicating food products and snacks that his company sold.

“Seeds sell the best,” he added. People use them for cooking, such as making cookies and cakes, or roasting them with honey. They are also for growing, and these hemp seeds also result in plants that have less than 0.3 percent THC, the legal limit in the Czech Republic. 

People can grow the plants in limited quantities, he said. The law is a bit complicated. Farmers who grow hemp as a crop on more that 100 square meters are required to file some additional paperwork that is not required for other crops. Even if you are under that limit, it is a good idea to keep records concerning the source of the seeds, advocates warn.

Hemp Point had the widest array of products, including lollipops, energy bars, herb-flavored salt, pasta, cookies, oil and flour, as well as hemp-flavored liquor, cosmetics and textile products from both local and imported sources.

Another vendor, Zelená země concentrated more on food and cosmetics. Hemp beer was one of their most popular items. “It is better than regular beer; you get a more relaxed feeling,” their salesperson Kateřina Hanačiková said. “Hemp tea also sells well,” she said, adding that seeds were also popular. Arabian coffee flavored with hemp seeds was a new product and had not been catching on yet. “It’s new. People have just seen it,” she added. Cannabissimo Coffee, imported from Italy, may be a tough sell, as most true coffee aficionados seldom go for added flavors. Tea drinkers, however, seem more willing to embrace new herbal blends.

She touted the benefits of hemp oil, which is high in Omega 3, an essential fatty acid, and has a good balance of Omega 3 and Omega 6. Some nutritionists claim that a 3:1 ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 is most beneficial for human health, and hemp comes very close to this. 

Supporters of the idea of using hemp oil in place of olive oil for cooking and salads also point out that hemp is lower in saturated fat.

While both Omega 3 and Omega 6 are necessary in a balanced diet, many of the health claims surrounding them remain unproven.

She also said that the cosmetics were popular, especially for people with sensitive skin, as the oils were beneficial.

A Czech firm that takes the medical power of hemp very seriously is Olomouc-based Annabis, which has a laboratory in Prague. Unlike the other companies, the image of the hemp leaf is rather small in advertisements. The logo uses a medical-style cross on a green background. They try to avoid the hippy-era appeal and instead adopt a highly professional look.

“Our clients are interested in nature-based lifestyle,” salesman Libor Janů said. Annabis uses only organic hemp sourced from the Czech Republic for its range of ointments, lotions and new line shampoos. The company has been around for six years and exports to much of the EU, Switzerland and Japan.

The firm does use the phrase “medical cannabis” in its English-language brochure and website, www.annabismedical.com, but this shouldn’t be confused with the American term “medical marijuana.” Like all legal hemp products, it contains virtually no THC.

A cream for joint pain is the most popular item, Janů said, followed by a skin cream and lip balm. It was too early to judge the popularity of the shampoos, he added. The firm’s literature touted many of the claims that the other vendors had made about essential oils and proteins, and added hemp cultivation had a relatively low impact in the environment compared to other plants.

The products often blend hemp with other natural oils to make them useful for specific problems, according to Janů.

A similar line of products is offered by Cannaderm, a Czech firm that also exports throughout the EU. Its products are certified as either bio (organic) or natural, and each product lists the amount of hemp in the product. The firm also claims the products free of mineral oils such as Vaseline, and synthetic dyes and fragrances. The products are also not tested on animals. In addition to skin ointments, lotions and shampoos, they offer sun block and soap.

Having started operations in 2002, they claim to be the first firm in the Czech Republic to offer hemp-based skin care products. They also point out that hemp oil was included in the Czech list of pharmaceutical ingredients in 2010. According to Cannaderm, studies concluded that hemp oil had a measurable moisturizing effect on skin, and when combined with other oils it had a soothing effect.

Most firms that carry hemp products seem to do so exclusively, with few if any non-hemp items in their array. But that is also changing. Aromatherapy and natural cosmetics firm Saloos (Saloos.cz) recently introduced a handful of hemp products including bath oil, shower oil and balm among their wide range of herbal products that otherwise includes products with oils from jasmine, clove, bergamot, lavender and eucalyptus, among other popular fragrances. Sales clerks said that more people had been asking about the hemp products than buying them, since they were new. So far, there have been no negative reactions to the idea of hemp side-by-side with jasmine.

Most vendors note that the food and healthcare products shouldn’t interfere with passing a drug test for people who are subject to random testing. Many of the health benefits do remain unproven, so as always, one should consult with a doctor or healthcare professional before starting any treatment. 

There’s a reason why Alberta is Canada’s hemp leader

The ‘dope’ on industrial hemp is that it’s good news for Alberta producers looking for a new crop for their rotation

by Claudette Lacombe

Source: albertafarmexpress.ca

These photos of Jan Slaski in his Vegreville hemp plots were taken five 

days apart in July 2004, and show how quickly hemp can grow.

Farming Smarter – There was a time in Canada’s history when homesteaders received free hemp seeds because the plant products served so many purposes. Hemp seed is a source of food and its stalks provide fibre.

Jan Slaski — Alberta’s hemp expert — provided this tidbit of information when he spoke at the Farming Smarter AGM in February. His research in Vegreville now spans more than a decade, and his efforts to make hemp a viable, profitable crop had led to Alberta becoming Canada’s leading hemp-growing province over the past five years.

I never thought about why hemp fell out of grace as a rope-manufacturing material. (Yes, I thought that was its only use.)  However, many years ago, I lived in a southern Ontario farm community where hemp still grew wild in the ditches, decades after its days as a field crop were over. 

So did asparagus, but that wasn’t nearly as amusing — no one ever stopped and tried to smoke the asparagus. But that is why hemp fell out of favour after being one of the world’s longest-standing and most widely grown crops. See, industrial hemp has one of those relatives you wish would stop showing up at family gatherings. So Canada banned it in the late 1930s and the UN banned it in 1961.

Slaski also told us the fascinating fact that hemp grows ridiculously fast. He had flanking photos dated about five days apart. The hemp plants had grown about two feet over that time and towered over him.

It occurs to me that hemp could easily replace corn mazes as a tourist attraction. In the centre of the hemp maze, you could have Lazy-Boy chairs, a big-screen TV, a beer fridge and a snack vending machine. You would make MILLIONS! Except, of course, industrial hemp can’t give the vacant-head feeling its cousin does.

I like the idea of growing more hemp for cloth. I have difficulty wearing synthetics, so I’m always looking for natural-fibre clothes and they are hard to find. Hemp fibre clothes are as varied as cotton in texture and weight. Maybe that’s because hemp provides two lengths of fibre as Slaski explained. The outside of the stalk yields longer strands than the inside — two fibres for the price of one!

Rope and clothes seem obvious, but Slaski had a photo of a truck canopy made of hemp fibre. It looked just like fibreglass. Hempcrete is an insulating wall material and hemp is used in erosion control mats. Calgary Olympic Park uses the latter and Motive Industries Inc. in Calgary uses hemp for car bodies. They call the car the Kestrel.

Alberta has some hemp advantages. Hemp is a short-day plant, which means the long days of northern summers delay the flowering and cause hemp to grow notably larger. It means Alberta farmers have excellent fibre-growing conditions and can still get the grain crop. 

Now I will admit that I had never thought of hemp as a grain crop even though a hippie-dippy buddy of mine introduced me to hemp heart granola decades ago. Anywho, hemp grain also provides hemp oil, hemp hearts and hemp milk… and hippie-dippy granola. 

Someone named Dr. Bronner uses hemp oil in cosmetics. Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap leads me to another attention grabber about hemp. You see Dr. Bronner is American and imports his hemp oil from Canada because Americans still can’t grow hemp legally. Heh, heh… you knew that crazy cousin was good for something eh? We can tie up all the markets before our neighbours even think about it! Perhaps that’s why there is a new processing plant coming for Alberta.

Bill proposes industrial hemp cultivation in NY

By Scott Waldman
Source: capitalnewyork.com

ALBANY—New York would become one of the first states to legalize industrial hemp cultivation under a proposed new bill.

The bill would allow state colleges and universities, as well as the state agriculture department, to grow industrial hemp as part of a pilot program, said co-sponsor Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo of Binghamton.

Hemp is variant of the cannabis plant that also produces marijuana, but has a far lower concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol, which gets users high. Lupardo said her effort was not tied to medical marijuana bills proposed earlier this year. She said commercial grade hemp has been unfairly associated with recreational marijuana.

“It has suffered from the stigma of the connection to marijuana, it has no recreational value whatsoever,” she said.

Lupardo said industrial hemp plants don't get users high and are strictly an agricultural product with multiple uses, including as fiber, building material and as a food supplement. Hemp has a long history of industrial use and was purportedly grown by both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. She said the law would require industrial hemp cultivation on state land.

Industrial hemp production is legal in more than 30 countries, including Canada, Germany, England and France, Lupardo said. It is illegal to cultivate industrial hemp in the United States without a permit from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

She said researchers at Cornell University and the State University of New York Environmental Science and Forestry have already expressed interest in growing the hemp.

The bill is co-sponsored in the Senate by Republican Thomas O'Mara of Elmira.

She said the pilot program is possible under the new federal farm bill, and will help the state prepare for a larger commercial operation if federal restriction on hemp farming are lifted.

“This another potential lucrative option for our family farms,” she said.

Hemp Unbound: The Crop that Could Save Us from Environmental Collapse

Reviewed by Gar Smith
Source: berkeleydailyplanet.com

"Hemp Bound," by Doug Fine (Chelsea Green, 2014)

What if there was a completely natural and affordable alternative to fossil fuels? A healthy and nutritious substitute for packaged foods? A replacement for energy-intensive steel and plastic parts? An alternative to chemical-based (and occasionally toxic) medications and pharmaceuticals? 

There is, says "comedic investigative journalist" Doug Fine, and that multifaceted industrial feedstock is a miracle product called . . . hemp. The tasty details are all rolled up in Fine's new book, Hemp Bound: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Next Agricultural Revolution (Chelsea Green 2014). 

We've all heard the stories about hemp's history as crop that provided canvas for the sails of the USS Constitution. It was hemp that was pressed into the parchment Tom Jefferson used to inscribe the Declaration of Independence and was spun into the cloth Betsy Ross used to stitch the first US flag. Hemp's powerful fibers were so essential to the US Army that the Pentagon commissioned a black-and-white documentary celebrating "Hemp for Victory." 

Thanks to the stubborn, stoner persistence of the Sixties counter-culture, hemp today has grown into a crop that is once again providing Americans with a range of new-again products ranging from clothing to medicines to breakfast cereals. 

What Doug's fine book does is take the story of hemp to the next higher level, providing a look inside a burgeoning new industry that is generating a buzz for innovators, entrepreneurs and customers alike. 

Across the US, new business start-ups are discovering amazing new ways to reinvent the old manufacturing paradigms that have ravaged and polluted the planet. Hemp is re-emerging as a legal and leading American crop at the same time Colorado and other states are striking down laws against the medicinal (and recreational) use of cannabis. Fine sees the trend as an irreversible return to a human-plant relationship that dates back more that 8,000 years. Ten states now allow the commercial cultivation of industrial hemp. 

Fine calls cannabis prohibition "America's worst law since segregation." And just as popular pressure reformed and refuted America's race laws, the 77-year-old war against hemp/cannabis/marijuana is now coming to an end. And the post-war era promises to bring growing profits to heartland farmers (whose profits have been tied to genetically modified and federally subsidized corn and soy) and an expanding legion of domestic companies who, to date, have had to rely on costly shipments of imported hemp. 

Fine takes his readers on a gallivanting, trippy trek to the frontlines of a Brave Renewable World—"from Canada to Hawaii, Germany to Colorado"—to meet the "hempreneurs" whose new businesses will be creating the new products and new jobs for a sustainable future. (If the contamination and ravages of the Old Oil/Chemical/Nuclear Economy doesn't do us in first.) 

Meet the 'Hempreneurs' 

One of Fine's first stops is in Richmond, California where John Roulac presides over Nutiva, a $77 million-dollar hemp seed oil company that has been growing like gong-busters. "Our company has doubled in size each of the past two years, has been growing 41 percent per year since 2006," Roulac beams. 

Also on board is Dr. David West, a former Big Ag scientist who is now a leading hemp researcher/advocate; Ray Loflin, a Colorado farmer currently cultivating 60 acres of legal hemp; Simon Potter, a Canadian biologist who's working on "hemp insulation, hemp tractors and hemp energy"; Francis Clark, an Ontario inventor who has found a better way to harvest hemp fibers from the plant's tough outer husk; Colleen Dyck, a young woman who churns out hemp-infused GORP Clean Energy Bars in her basement; Barbara Filippone, whose $15 million company, EnviroTextiles, is positioned to topple the global cotton industry. "The federal government knows hemp is an alternative to cotton that's drought-resistant," Filippone says. "Cotton's done. China knows it too." 

One of Fine's revealing visits takes him to a lab in Winnipeg where Composites Innovation Center is creating hemp-based products for the $80 billion biocomposits market. CIC's lab nerds proudly show off auto parts (hoods, fenders and the like) made from hemp. Because vehicles made from biocomposits are 30 percent lighter, they will be more fuel-efficient. The manufacturing process produces less carbon and hemp-bodied roadsters fueled by tanks of hemp oil will produce 78 percent less carbon per mile driven. 

Unlimited POTential 

Long story short: Hempsteading is not only good for the economy, it's great for the ecology. On a planet threatened by climate change, polluted seas and depleted resources, Fine demonstrates, "hemp hands us a ninth-inning comeback opportunity" that can heal the soil, expand local food production, produce sustainable energy along with plant-based plastics and paper that will enable us to stop burning oil, polluting the planet and clear-cutting our forests. 

Hemp Bound is a breezy read, filled with snappy banter and visionary-on-the-point-of-happening head-trips galore. 

Fossil fuels, chemicals and nuclear energy have brought us to the brink of global environmental ruin but hemp—more than ever before—looks like the Plant that Could Save the Planet. 

Here's looking forward to the second edition of Hemp Bound—and hoping that it come to us published on renewable, tree-free plant paper.

Have an interest in hemp?

By Tobie Baker
Source: durangoherald.com

The Dolores County Development Corp. has partnered with a local advocacy group to help educate area farmers about industrial hemp opportunities.

Members of the development corporation board voted unanimously Monday to secure the licensing rights to screen “Bringing It Home,” a hemp documentary. The 52-minute film explores why a crop with widespread benefits has been illegal to farm in the United States, examines hemp’s history and current industries and reveals views from opponents and proponents of legalizing industrial hemp farming.

A date has yet to be finalized, but “Bringing It Home” will be screened sometime in June at the Dolores County Courthouse.

“It’s exciting to partner with other organizations,” Sharon Stewart said.

Last fall, Stewart led efforts to establish Hemp Talks/Western Slope Colorado, a local organization aimed to inform farmers and others about industrial hemp. On Monday, she addressed Dolores County Development Corp. board members, owners of the now-defunct San Juan Bioenergy plant in Dove Creek.

“We’ve had some lively discussions in our monthly meetings, and people are really excited about the potential for hemp production in the area,” Stewart told board members.

The conversation that continues to surface among Hemp Talks members is the former Dove Creek processing plant. Stewart said that if industrial hemp were ever to be produced in Southwest Colorado, then farmers would need a local processing facility. She said that converting hemp seed into biodiesel was the easiest production method available.

During the near hour-long discussion, Dolores County Development Corp. board members indicated that they offered small loans of $500 to $5,000 to residents interested in launching a local business, and they invited the Hemp Talks organization to tour the Dove Creek plant.

“We’re fully supportive of your efforts, and we’re willing to work with you in the future,” Dolores County Development Corp. Chairman Bryce Capron told Stewart.

Board member Dan Fernandez was excited to learn that farmers could profit $600 per acre from growing drought-resistant industrial hemp. He said the biodiesel plant, which opened as a local-processing house for sunflowers and safflowers, could easily be converted for hemp oil.

“This is very interesting,” Fernandez said. “This could be a huge, long-term benefit for Dolores County.”

Stewart agreed, saying she was ecstatic to know that Hemp Talks now has a viable partner.

“I think the potential is huge,” she said. “This has been a good first step.”

The Dove Creek oil production plant was announced with great fanfare in the fall of 2007. Four years later, the plant was shuttered and $4.3 million in debt after operating for only 18 months. The facility is capable of producing 1.5 million gallons of oil annually.

Stewart informed Dolores County Development Corp. board members that obtaining seed was the most immediate hurdle to growing industrial hemp. She said many area farmers have also expressed legitimate banking, legal and federal farm subsidy concerns.

Officials legalized hemp production in Colorado earlier this year, and a May 1 deadline exists for farmers to apply with the Colorado Department of Agriculture.

The Senate Local Government Committee voted 6-0 last week to pass Senate Bill 184, which makes it easier for farmers to get a license to grow hemp in Colorado. The bill also allows people to sell products made from Colorado-grown hemp, and it sets up a grant program to fund university research on hemp.