HESO 449: Ecohealth SDS

I found Sebastian’s presentation really enlightening; and I sadly admit that I did not know much at all about hemp and its properties before last class. Like many of the points we raised however, I too wanted to look more into why it’s not being used to its maximum benefit; i.e. why trees are still being chopped down football fields at a time, why we’re growing far less environmentally sustainable crops for similar purposes that hemp can fulfill. I found that the Master’s thesis paper posted above useful in addressing this question, since it talks about some of the strong social stigma that surrounded hemp historically, and how this continues to pervade the sentiments of some governments. There’s concerns about its THC content, which is present in the leaves of some strains, from what I read, but not in the edible seeds. And, apparently the plant is highly prone to cross-breeding and that’s found to increase the need to have a stable supply of seeds that have the qualities that we desire, such as pest resistance and low THC levels. This, in turn would take investment in research; that is, once there is considerable government and public support…
But maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Just for interest, I found this article that talks about the construction of perhaps the first house to be made out of hemp, built last fall in the UK: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100915205229.htm
It talks a bit about its superhero-like qualities, including highly insulating walls that also have breathable qualities. Even the cost to build it was comparable to ordinary brick/mortar homes. Like my impressions of hemp in class, I was floored at its versatility. They’re calling the house the HempPod, and for the next year or so they’re monitoring it to see how it holds. Who knows, after that this could be something that can go far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxlj6fgQ-ZU&feature=related

The above link is a video I found about Henry Ford’s ‘Hemp Plastic Car’ (it even has a man hitting the car with an axe towards the end).

I was torn during Sebastian’s presentation between like Natasha said, enlightened – and being quite skeptical about hemp being the save-all solution towards world sustainability. I’ve never heard of any solution that has no negative connotations attached to it so my brain automatically believes that it’s ‘too good to be true’. I’m definitely going to do more research on the subject to see with my own eyes the research behind this movement. Definitely a barrier I see is moving past this skepticism behind the future of hemp and what it can be utilized for versus its social stereotypes and rumoured facts. Perhaps in doing my own research I can make more of a realistic sense of Sebastian’s presentation.

Prior to Sebastian’s presentation, I personally had never heard about hemp, but it seems to be “the best thing on Earth”. During class, there seemed to be quite a few questions about the economics of the situation and government involvement and banning of hemp farms. This reminded me of the video my econ prof showed our class about marijuana. Although the two are different from one another, they most likely face the same issues and are illegal for the same reasons.
Heres a link I found for the video and I encourage everyone to watch it!
It’s called The Union: The business behind getting high
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9077214414651731007#

I really enjoyed sebastian’s presentation as well I
thought his ideas and energy were encouraging to thinking outside of the box in terms of resource choices. However, like a lot of other folks on our
class I am hesitant to believe that hemp is the answer to so many of our enironmental and health problems. First of all I am not convinced that making cars out of hemp is a solution; while it may be better than using metal soured from mining it would take massive amounts of land to grow enough hemp to fulfill the global demand. Where would this land come from? Who would work the land and who would benefit from it? I also worry about huge plots of monocrops because although hemp is currenty able to be grown organically pest problems could emerge. Basically I think that there needs to be some sort regulation to promote fair trade and sustainable growing methods for hemp. If Sebastian’s business in central Africa could serve s an ethical model for hemp producion that would be pretty sweet. Thanks for the links Megan and Natasha !

In order for the cultivation of hemp and manufacturing of hemp products to gain sufficient research and development dollars it will have to challenge society’s “oil paradigm”. Allowing hemp production to occur on a large scale and fulfill the role of what oil is currently doing will undoubtably come up against heavy resistance from political and industrial leaders worldwide. Hemp’s biggest challenge will be to overcome our society’s reliance on oil, or rather our society’s most wealthiest individuals’ reliance on oil. If hemp can succeed in crossing that bridge, then overcoming the moral stigma that hemp enables the destruction of lost and destitute pot smoking youth should be no problem at all.

A large scale shift from oil to hemp is unlikely, however it is made more feasible by creating additional opportunities for small scale cultivation, like Seb’s project aims to achieve.

Overcoming hemp’s illicit stigma may be closer than we think, check out this article on a Washington politician who wants to make marijuana available in liquor stores: http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110128/bc_weed_bill_110128/20110129?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

One barrier or maybe more of a possible disadvantage is that a monoculture of hemp could lead to pest problems, which Siena mentioned. A monoculture of any crop can degrade the soil, decrease biodiversity and results in increased use of pesticides due to increased susceptibility to disease. The idea of using hemp to build cars, for fuel, food, clothing, etc. that Sebastian mentioned would require a huge amount of land and vast monocultures that we see with many crops today. This makes me think of corn. If Hemp is accepted as a crop and IF it is grown on a large scale, I can’t help to think that Hemp will become the next corn, which depending on your viewpoint can be a good or bad thing. However, it’s hard to say what the future of Hemp will be.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m in favor of the crop and I am well aware of the advantages that it has. Even as a child I knew about Hemp, which is what happens when you grow up in the interior of B.C.!

For me, Sebastian’s presentation was intriguing informing, but his words were misleading. I think that calling hemp the solution to all of our resource problems is going very far. For me, what hemp represents, is shifting our resource demand towards products that are biodegradable, resilient due to natural properties instead of chemical engineering, and gentle on human health. I think that yes it sounds scary to have a new monocrop, but as Sebastian said, hemp grows very, very quickly, thus require a lot less land than our traditional system dominating crops such as corn and wheat. I can’t think of a reason not to make paper from hemp considering the alternative of trees. And with other products such as metal that come from mining, well I would rather “mine” a plant from the surface of the earth than cut it open and pull materials out, and in the process introduce chemicals and acids into the environment.
I definitely think that precautions need to be taken with the industry, but no differently than any other. Hemp is an extremely useful plant to our species, and I am unsure of it’s companion planting attributes with other plants. However if there are no immediate drawbacks, and the industry takes precautions that historically other agricultural products have not, then why not move forward with it on a larger scale? I think in this age of climate change, ecosystem destruction, pesticides and resource depletion, we need to start acting. Acting smartly, but moving in a new direction nonetheless.

Thanks everyone for those great links. I found Sebastian talk very interesting and informative. I really like his enthusiasm and his creative form of presentation specially his song. Prior to his talk, I had only heard briefly about medicinal use of Cannabis in my pharmacology class. They are known to have analgesic effect due to presence of compound THC. However, I didn’t know about hemp and how as he mentioned “it is the future of sustainability and the answer to all the problems”. I personally think hemp may be the answer to some of the environmental problems but I think it is far from being an answer to everything. First, there need to be more research done regarding hemp and its use in the industry. This is hard to accomplish due to the fact that this topic is controversial and stigmatized. Secondly, people need to be education about hemp and its uses. For example, many may be unaware of the nutritional benefits of hemp seeds. Thirdly, since there are many different strains of the plant and they are very prone to interbreeding, complication may arise when trying to cultivate a specific strain for specific use. Lastly, exploitation of hemp is another problem that can prevent the wide use of this plant. Besides the obvious nutritional benefit and medicinal use, if hemp is truly “the best thing on earth” it can affect many different aspects of human health by improving many of the world’s environmental problems. However, like many of you guys I am somewhat skeptical of the feasibility of hemp production and its use until future and more extensive research is done.

I found Sebastian’s talk extremely interesting. What came across my mind was how something so versatile has not already come to the forefront on the corporate agenda. How can something so promising not have already been exposed? Here are my thoughts…. Something might be extremely environmental friendly and completely biodegradable, but when the true costs are factored out for infrastructure and energy – it no longer can be considered as sustainable. I too am skeptical about the feasibility of hemp and would like to see some research supporting the claims presented.

Even if the claims turn out to be true, it may be that the investment is too great and the profits do not out weigh the costs. The processing of the products seem like costly, energy dependent, procedures….but then I wouldn’t know until some figures are presented.

It sounds like an amazing idea, I’d love to learn more about it. But the research available right now seems pretty limited…wish there was some more out there

I found his presentation really entertaining and interesting. I have some members in my family who are big on the uses of hemp as well as medicinal marijuana and grow it in California. After the presentation I went to the grocery store and happen to run into some hemp granola, gave it a try, it was delicious and really filling!

Do you believe that hemp is the future of sustainability?
I think that while it has major potential in sustainability, it is still not understood well enough to not be associated with illegal marijuana use. I don’t think our current generation or the ones surrounding us are open minded enough to give it a chance. I think that is really unfortunate because it could be such a boost for the economy. Opening up a whole new industry and tons of new jobs. Sure, some former fuels would be replaced but to the better of our environment, our health, and our wallets.

Just out of curiousity I asked my family member why she doesn’t harvest hemp seeds along with her medicinal marijuana and apparently it is because it is a completely different plant, un-smokeable for any THC and since it is a male plant, will harm her female cannabis.

Same with all of my classmates, I too, am a little skeptical about the “magical” uses of hemp. From a nutritional perspective, hemp seeds seem like a great famine food. They contain all the 9 essential amino acids that the human body needs and are flexible to growing conditions. This sounds like exactly something that poverty-stricken countries need. The question is, hemp have been grown for a millennia, why hasn’t it been adopted as a food source?

Amy mentioned that she can’t see why hemp isn’t used to produce paper. I looked up the use of it for paper. The main reason why we are not using it as the primary source is because the cost of hemp pulp is about six times more expensive than wood pulp. The high cost arises from the fact that hemp is harvested only once a year during August. In order to use it, it needs to be stored to feed the mill for an entire year. On top of that, 100% of the fiber from the trees can be used to produce paper. However for hemp, only 25% is useful.

The many uses of hemp sound really fantastic. I feel that the presentation we heard was very one sided, leaving many of us puzzled and skeptical. It would be more convincing if the presenter had instead mentioned the pros and cons of hemp and guided us to see how the pros had outweighed the cons. Apart from that, he was an excellent presenter!

Same with all of my classmates, I too, am a little skeptical about the “magical” uses of hemp. From a nutritional perspective, hemp seeds seem like a great famine food. They contain all the 9 essential amino acids that the human body needs and are flexible to growing conditions. This sounds like exactly something that poverty-stricken countries need. The question is, hemp have been grown for a millennia, why hasn’t it been adopted as a food source?

Amy mentioned that she can’t see why hemp isn’t used to produce paper. I looked up the use of it for paper. The main reason why we are not using it as the primary source is because the cost of hemp pulp is about six times more expensive than wood pulp. The high cost arises from the fact that hemp is harvested only once a year during August. In order to use it, it needs to be stored to feed the mill for an entire year. On top of that, 100% of the fiber from the trees can be used to produce paper. However for hemp, only 25% is useful.

The many uses of hemp sound really fantastic. I feel that the presentation we heard was very one sided, leaving many of us puzzled and skeptical. It would be more convincing if the presenter had instead mentioned the pros and cons of hemp and guided us to see how the pros had outweighed the cons. Apart from that, he was an excellent presenter!