What you have always 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 ways throughout Europe since the dawn of history.

Hemp is as versatile as hardly any other farmed plant. Hemp has a very long history of cultivation and use by humans. 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 yields many times more fibers per cultivated area than a cotton field, as well as many times more paper compared to forest.

What can hemp do?

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

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 also why this plant has a long and varied history of use.

Hemp is also very beneficial to soil health due to the plant’s 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 cultivation nor harvesting and processing of industrial hemp involves chemicals. For this reason, hemp textiles are becoming increasingly popular.

Hemp can be processed into better paper with less chemical and energy use 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 paper production from wood, which can help prevent further clearing of valuable forests.

Hemp provides, besides fibers for textiles, building materials, and paper, a healthful 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 range of essential fatty acids.

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

Hemp was for centuries one of the most important raw materials worldwide and provided 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: The plant binds CO2 in the soil thanks to its deep roots. The bio-based 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 and is thus 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 special 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 lasting 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 has great economic and eco-social benefits as well as added value for agriculture, society, and the environment.

The coming years and decades will show what enormous potential the European hemp sector holds to advance the transition to a carbon-free and more lasting economy. Through innovative value chains, rural areas can be revitalized and long-term sustainable growth and highly skilled jobs can be created.

We are convinced that the variety of innovative and tangible uses of this plant and the raw materials derived from it will 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.