Hemp is a plant with the potential to provide valuable ecological solutions to help our civilization transform its economy to a more natural one. All energy for life on earth comes from the sun through plants. In order to create a sustainable cycle for life, a viable economy must be based on renewable carbohydrates (plants) - the vital alternative to non-renewable hydrocarbons (petroleum and other fossil fuels). The primary reason that our civilization is out of balance with the environment is because it depends too heavily on fossil fuels for energy and resource needs. The exploitation of stored solar energy locked into fossil fuels by prehistoric plants releases enormous quantities of carbon dioxide and other pollutants that threaten our health, our future economy, and, ultimately, the sustainability of our presence and that of other species on this planet. Today, with the very real environmental threats such as global warming, a plant-based economy presents a solution to this crisis. When we utilize plants as our primary resource for energy and other materials, we come back into balance, creating a closed loop that does not generate pollution.
We can create a sustainable path by holistically integrating human activity into the ecosystems that sustain us. We must do this in all of our extraction, cultivation, manufacturing, engineering, packaging, distribution, regulation, and consumption activities.
Ecology and Environmentalism
Ecology can be described as the study of the relationship of organisms to their physical environment and to one another. In a broader view, ecology encompasses all life and is about relationships, balance, and how everything is interconnected. When we ignore the needs of other species and the environment as a whole, we damage our own quality of life and threaten our existence on this planet. This realization gave birth to environmentalism, which can be described as the movement to protect the quality and continuity of life through conservation of natural resources, prevention of pollution, and beneficial land use while respecting and appreciating our natural world. Environmentalism is not an abstract or radical concept; it is a fundamental response of the human species to preserve itself.
Green Plants Replenish the Energy for Life
An ecosystem may be as small as a tidal pool or a rotting log or as large as an ocean or a continent-spanning forest. Each ecosystem consists of a community of plants and animals in an environment that supplies them with raw materials for life. The energy necessary for all life processes reaches the earth in the form of sunlight. By photosynthesis, green plants convert light energy into chemical energy; carbon dioxide and water are transformed into sugar, which is then stored in the plant. The energy for life on earth can only be replenished by green plants absorbing and converting solar energy.
The Many Benefits of Hemp Agriculture
Hemp is the most environmentally positive crop, improving soil quality as it grows. It requires no herbicides and is naturally resistant to insects, fungus, and other pests. Hemp grows rapidly during its vegetative period, becoming tall and thick. It suppresses weeds, and shades and mulches the ground, which its deep taproots break up and aerate. These attributes promote healthy microbial soil life and leave the earth in a condition where it is easily worked and able to retain moisture during the next growing season.
Requirements of Hemp Agriculture
Hemp is so gentle on the land that it can be grown year after year in the same location, although this is not the most ecological option and is not permitted in organic cultivation (according to the stringent European Union organic certification regulations that we follow in our organic cultivation). It is best for fiber hemp to be cultivated in rotation with cereal crops and legumes. In fact, cereal crops will yield an extra 15-25% when cultivated after fiber hemp, because hemp eliminates competing weeds and improves the health of the soil. Crop rotation with hemp works well, since the ground is usually available for other crops by the middle of August. Legumes such as soybeans are the best preceding crop, because they add to the soil a lot of nitrogen, the basic building block of plant growth. Nitrogen is a crucial nutrient for hemp production, since hemp reaches a height of 10 to 12 feet during its short growing season of less than five months. Supplying sufficient nitrogen is a big challenge with organic hemp agriculture, and the use of artificial chemical fertilizers is prohibited in organic agriculture. This requirement of nitrogen can be resolved with proper cover cropping, rotation, and, if needed, the addition of manure.
Organic Hemp Cultivation
Conventional hemp farming is already very ecological, since hemp requires no herbicides, pesticides, or irrigation and leaves the ground in a healthy condition. The next ecological step is to eliminate the use of synthetic fertilizers and attain organic certification. The people at ECOLUTION® have always been devoted to finding the most environmentally conscious solutions in all of our activities. For example, they already produce all of their hemp fiber with strict ecological methods of natural mechanical processing -- in marked contrast to the harsh chemicals used for processing hemp fiber in China.
Since 2001, ECOLUTION® has been cultivating hemp organically in the Satu Mare area of western Romania. These fertile plains are ideally suited for growing hemp and cereal crops.
As an alternative to cotton
Hemp provides an ecological alternative to environmentally destructive cotton cultivation. Cotton is one of the most environmentally destructive agricultural crops, annually using over 275 million pounds of pesticides in the US alone. This is in addition to massive quantities of fertilizers, defoliants, growth regulators, and general biocides such as methyl bromide. Cotton production requires an immense amount of water, which depletes this resource and can cause salts to build up in the soil, while hemp needs no irrigation at all. Also the wide spacing between cotton plants allows the bare soils to bake and oxidize, releasing carbon to the atmosphere and decreasing soil fertility.
As an alternative to fossil fuel use
Hemp can reduce our use of synthetic textile fibers. Synthetic textile fibers are not biodegradable, generate pollution in their production, and are made from non-renewable petroleum. Hemp can also help us shift to a carbohydrate-based sustainable economy, because it is the largest biomass producer of any agricultural crop. This has tremendous potential for any biomass energy generation system and as a feedstock for bio-plastics, which are fully biodegradable and do not contaminate the soil after decomposition or emit harmful gasses if incinerated.
As an alternative to deforestation
Hemp can be processed into construction materials and paper products of excellent strength and quality, easing some of the unsustainable burden placed on our forests. An acre of hemp actually produces more than four times as much pulp for paper making than an acre of trees when figured on an annual basis. Additionally hemp requires no bleach in processing, due to its low lignin content, and there is no dioxin produced from its manufacture.
The above was taken from www.ecolution.com with their permission.