Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Hemp

What is Hemp?

Hemp is one of the oldest cultivated plants used by humans and has been employed in diverse forms throughout Europe since the dawn of history.

Hemp is as versatile as hardly any other agricultural crop. Hemp has a very long history of human cultivation and use. For thousands of years, it has provided people with clothing and food, oil and energy, paper and building materials. The hemp plant requires no pesticides during cultivation and still produces many times more fiber per cultivated area than a cotton field, as well as many times more paper compared to forests.

What can hemp do?

Hemp is fully usable in all its parts. Nothing is wasted, meaning there are no low-value production residues. Stems, roots, leaves, flowers, and seeds are processed further and can be used in a wide variety of products and consumer goods. This range includes textiles, paper, ropes, insulation and building materials, fiberboards, bioplastics, animal bedding, fuel, paints, feed, food, nutritional supplements, as well as cosmetic products, medical products, and pharmaceuticals.

Hemp has been native to our climate for centuries. The plant is easy to cultivate here as well as in many other parts of the world. This is one reason why this plant has such a rich and versatile history of use.

Hemp is also extremely beneficial to soil health due to its deep rooting. Therefore, it is suitable for revitalizing compacted soils, which it loosens with its deep roots.

Hemp provides very durable natural fibers. These can be three times as tear-resistant as cotton. Neither chemicals are used during cultivation nor during the harvesting and processing of industrial hemp. For this reason, hemp textiles are becoming increasingly popular.

Hemp can be processed into better paper with less chemical and energy input than wood. Compared directly to wood, hemp yields four times more cellulose. Due to the special fiber quality, hemp paper can be recycled more than twice as often as paper made from wood. Thus, it is a genuine alternative to wood-based paper production, which can help prevent further deforestation of valuable forests.

Hemp provides, besides fibers for textiles, building materials, and paper, a nutritionally valuable oil as well as other foods made from hemp seeds. The hemp seeds, from which the oil is pressed, have long been a staple food for humans and animals in many parts of the world. They are considered a source of high-quality protein and offer a unique spectrum of essential fatty acids.

Hemp offers the optimal combination of unsaturated fatty acids among all oils used for food purposes. The oil obtained from the nut-like hemp seed has an extremely favorable ratio of omega fatty acids. The content of therapeutically valuable gamma-linolenic acid gives hemp oil a unique effect as an edible oil or in cosmetics.

Hemp was one of the most important raw materials worldwide for centuries, providing the best and most affordable products. Especially in the last 20 years, it has also gained increasing importance again in Europe.

Hemp is an important carbon sink: thanks to its deep roots, the plant binds CO2 in the soil. The biobased materials derived from hemp further increase the plant’s total storage capacity. One hectare of industrial hemp field can absorb up to 13.4 tons of CO2, making it as efficient as one hectare of rainforest.

Hemp is also increasingly used as insulation material from sustainable production. Controversial insulation materials like styrofoam can be replaced by natural materials such as hemp. This also helps prevent the generation of hazardous waste and the associated disposal effort.

What does the future with hemp look like?

Hemp is therefore on the rise. These facts show that this plant can play a significant and supporting role on the path to a greener and more sustainable society. Hemp offers many concrete solutions to produce nutrient-rich food and environmentally friendly products without impairing air and soil quality. Moreover, hemp is naturally of economic interest. The extensive hemp value chain with holistic use of the plant undeniably provides great economic and eco-social benefits as well as added value for agriculture, society, and the environment.

The coming years and decades will show the enormous potential of the European hemp sector to drive the transition to a zero-emission and more sustainable economy. Through innovative value chains, rural areas can be revitalized, and long-term sustainable growth and highly qualified jobs can be created.

We are convinced that the variety of innovative and tangible applications of this plant and the raw materials derived from it will make and continue to make a significant contribution to a greener and healthier future for our society. We believe in the green upswing!

Read more about the millennia-old and multifaceted history of hemp use, as well as the highlights of research & development in this field over recent decades.

Together with the EIHA, cannhelp is committed to the future of the European hemp sector.