Can Hemp Help Save Our Forests?

Save a Tree: Stop Hemp Prohibition

Can hemp save our forests? The short answer is probably "No", but it definitely could take pressure off of trees and forests harvested unnecessarily for paper and cardboard products. Growing hemp as a fibre alternative to wood would also give struggling farmers an excellent crop to produce, thus keeping farms running and development of farmland at bay.

Hemp has been used for a variety of purposes in China for 10,000 years. The first paper made from hemp fiber was made there 2000 years ago. Today, China is stockpiling B.C. trees in vast whole log storage facilities. They also happen to be the world largest producers of hemp fiber.

Using virgin forests for paper, single use products, and cardboard production is ecological insanity. Especially when there is a completely viable alternative fibre source available now.

It makes no sense to cut trees with lifespans measured in the hundreds of  years to make paper and single use convenience items. Even second growth trees require decades of growth before they are ready for harvest. It is time to try something different. Something better.

Hemp fiber is stronger than tree fiber

Interesting Hemp Facts

• Hemp fibers are stronger than tree fiber. Therefore any hemp cardboard or paper can be recycled four times more.
  
  
• Hemp requires no chlorine bleaching...this making the waste usable as compost...unlike bleached paper products which are toxic waste, producers of dioxin, one of the 12 worst industrial pollutants.
   
• Hemp can produce many spin-off industries...such as paper, cardboard, building paneling, soaps, foods, livestock feed, plastics (non toxic), insulation, fabrics, oils, fuel and so forth. No tree can match this usefulness.
   
• Hemp requires no pesticides, thus reducing pollution everywhere.
   
• Hemp agriculture can save farmlands from sprawl by making them economically viable.
  
  
• Hemp restores soils damaged by modern pesticide intensive etc farming techniques.
   
• Hemp needs very little water...unlike cotton (which also happens to be one of the top pesticide using crops).
   
• Logging workers MUST be educated about the alternative of hemp jobs...that will not poison or kill them or destroy forever parts of their and their children's own ecosystem.

Cartoon and Hemp Facts from: John Jonik