Hemp Farming For Food And Industry
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HEMP - THE PREMIERE PLANT
Hemp or Cannabis sativa is a diocious annual plant that has been grown by humans for millenia. Every part of the plant has an end use that is beneficial to human beings. It has an astonishing array of practical and industrial applications. From animal husbandry to paint, food to fabric and plastic to medicine, hemp can be grown and processed in different ways to achieve desired results.
Hemp is a versatile and hardy plant, that enjoys a long and rich history. It was compulsory for farmers to grow hemp in the United States up until prohibition and was the preferred way for taxes to be paid to the state. Hemp has had such an intimate role with humans, that it has a place within etymology. The Arabic word for cannabis, qannab, is the root word for canvas and hemp is present in many names, Hemphill for example.
Don't be confused. Historically marijuana, hemp and cannabis are all different names for the same plant. Marijuana is Mexican slang used by the Hearst newspaper chain to confuse and misdirect an entire global population for their own nefarious purposes, coercing moral support from an unknowing public for the prohibition of one of the most useful plants on the planet. Hemp.
VERSATILE HEMP
Husbandry determines the final cannabis product. Grown close together, hemp has minimal side branching, encouraging long bast fibers. Grown further apart encourages side branching, less height and more seed heads.
The drug argument has been an unfortunate hysterical smokescreen used by the prohibitionists for so many decades that this information has become an undeserved and incorrect fact in Western culture.
THC and other cannabinoids play a vital role in the healthy early development of the cannabis plant. Acting with other resins they perform anti-bacterial, antifungal and anti-desiccant functions.
When cannabis is used industrially, it becomes useless for recreational or medicinal purposes, because it is always left to seed. Hemp undergoes certain hormonal changes when pollinated that curb psychoactive resin production and ramp up biological processes for seed production. Also, a number of hemp varieties are monoceous or self-pollinating (hermaphrodites).
A significant amount of the industrial value of the cannabis plant is in the seeds. Seeds make up to 80% of the finished weight of industrially used cannabis. They are pressed for oil, are the base for organic paints and lacquers, and most importantly, are a complete food for human beings.
On one side of the coin: if a dispensary tried to compete with what little plant material was left after the industrial process, they would be laughed out of every Cannabis Cup in the world. If a contemporary THC-rich Cannabis Cup-winning sativa was grown under industrial conditions, it would have no drug content whatsoever.
On the flipside: if you time-travelled back to George Washington's farm and obtained some of his hemp seeds and then grew them using modern knowledge of sinsemilla cultivation (removing the male plants, so the females remain unfertilized), the end product would assuredly be a reasonable recreational or therapeutic example of contemporary seedless cannabis flowers.
HEMP RENAISSANCE
Cannabis as hemp has been enjoying a renaissance over the past few decades. The proliferation of the internet means everybody is finding out how useful the cannabis plant can be. It has several practical applications such as environmental reclamation of deserts, as a fibre for luxurious clothing or most importantly, for producing nourishing foodstuffs and therapeutic oils.
Hemp seeds are vitamin and protein-rich and are renowned for their culinary versatility. They contain GLA-gamma linolenic acid and omega 3 & 6 fatty acids in a ratio of 3:1, ready for absorption by the body. Hemp seeds are considered a savvy addition to any healthy diet.
With a 15-30cm tap root and vigorous growth, hemp is an ideal soil conditioner that shades out weeds and increases friability of exhausted soils.
Hemp produces four times the resources of an acre of trees (biomass, oxygen, fibre), while binding four times the carbon dioxide.
Seed, fibre, oil, multi-purpose hurds and livestock food from one crop are all possible with the venerable hemp plant.
The versatile cannabis plant is reclaiming it's reputation as the source of a boon of beneficial products for human beings.
CIBDOL CBD OIL IS WORLD CLASS
Cibdol presents a range of organic hemp products that are free from heavy metals and fungicides, pesticides and industrial-type fertilizers and are grown to EU organic standards.
100% legal therapeutic CBD oil by Cibdol, sourced from the finest hemp in Europe, is non-psychoactive and has several beneficial health effects. Ongoing scientific and clinical research shows continuing promise for CBD oil, underscoring hemp's potential as a treatment for a range of conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, alcoholism, MS, chronic pain and PTSD. CBD oil is proving to have neuroprotective qualities and is an excellent topical antibiotic.
The usefulness of cannabis as hemp is unquestioned.