Philippa Fleming Activist

So let’s start by saying that hemp could literally take over the world. Could this be the alien we’ve been looking for?! By golly gosh we had/have no need to look to other planets to provide for our requirements. There is a reason why cannabis/hemp is nicknamed “weed” it’s because Hemp grows just about everywhere including semi arid land.

You may or may not have seen photographs of cannabis plants growing in the cracks of pavements and you usually get comments like “OMG who planted that there” well the simple answer is a bird would have planted or rather dropped the seed. But why is the stuff not growing everywhere if birds drop the seeds? I hear you ask. The hemp seed contained in mixed bird seed, has been de-germinated by the manufacturers. If this process was cancelled then we would have hemp growing everywhere and i mean everywhere.

Hemp is an extremely versatile plant and could be used to replace most products made from fossil fuels and other polluting resources, but i want to start with the positive impact this plant could have on the environment, since i work for a political party that cares about people and planet i will attempt my best. Carbon Emissions of Hemp Products

If you haven”t already, I recommend reading Jack Herer’s Book “The Emperor Wears no Clothes”. It tells you about the history of Hemp how & why it was prohibited (not because it is a dangerous substance) and how it could be used to support the health of the environment, used to stop famines and many other uses besides. If you don’t have time to read the book here is a bite size article on the uses of hemp. Here is a video (with subtitles).

From this point on it can start to get really confusing because of it’s many uses there is a lot of crossover information and i really hope that you don’t become as confused as i have been at times. In some parts of the world they are growing hemp for the seeds (only) to make biofuels but they throw everything else away which is crazy considering it’s uses. We have to learn to diversify when it comes to hemp farming and how to produce the useful products like textiles, insulation, building materials, food and many more besides, E Hemp House explains this very nicely.

Here is an article from Darshil Shah who conducts research into biomaterials made from hemp at the Centre for Natural Material Innovation at Cambridge University.

Cranfield University who has a post grad program is learning about hemp.

My next article will concetrate on how Hemp can be used as a food and some of the products i have tried & currently use.