What is hemp good at?
lets see, so far i have heard:
- food – the seed has is at least 33% protein
- nutrition – there are lots of omega-3s and 6s
- fabric and rope – for hundreds of years the fiber of choice
- paper – acid-free (and the first printed edition of the bible (gutenberg) was on hemp paper)
- biofuel – the leftovers can be used for biodiesel
- building material – i read that you can make particle board out of hemp
- doesn’t need herbicides and pesticides nor much water or fertilizer – so it’s energy efficient
hemp trumps cotton for clothing, soy for food, and trees for paper. this is huge. Please read why planting trees helps the world, too!
other benefits
I don’t really know any other benefits offhand. But I’m sure you can find a whole bunch more if you think about it and/or look online.
Temporary drawbacks
What are some drawbacks? Well, at least temporarily, if hemp were legal to cultivate in the US, several industries could potentially lose billions of dollars. This would result in folks out of jobs. But new jobs would be created. Growth in GDP means growth in jobs. Growth in value and production means growth in GDP. Hemp produces greater value than cotton, soy and timber. Therefore more jobs are created.
Let me put it another way. Going from a horse and buggy-based transport system to an engine-based system resulted in the loss of jobs in the stables, in the carpentry business. But other jobs were created. The same can be said for any innovation. Such is the case with hemp. Many times throughout history entrenched entities have prevented progress to further their institutional profits.
The main argument for the illegalization of hemp: that legalizing hemp promotes the legalization of marijuana. This string of logic could be followed in many arguments. That legalizing handguns promotes the legalization of rocket launchers and machine guns. That legalizing alcohol promotes the legalization of drinking and driving. That selling glues means you’re allowed to sniff glue.
Wait, it’s true that legalizing handguns gives leeway to larger weapons. And allowing the consumption of alcohol makes it easier to drink and drive, a different sort of loaded gun, really. And how could you sniff glue if you couldn’t buy it at the store? Make it yourself?
But growing hemp deters the growth of marijuana. The last thing a marijuana farmer wants is a hemp plant ruining the potency of his or her marijuana crop. Check out 6:30 of the video above.
Hemp is a legitimate, money-making plants that would really help the US economy. In some ways, it could be an agricultural revolution, in much the same way that the internet revolutionized the computing world.
Cultivating hemp and using it in everyday products would save untold amounts of oil, fertilizer, pesticides, forests. All those resources could be used for more important functions. The end result: the USA would become more productive.