According to Barth (2018), the hemp, or cannabis plant is a super crop with a myriad of uses and the potential to create over 25,000 different products both environmentally and physically beneficial. Within a hand-full of weeks, farmers, cultivators, or anyone for that matter, can grow enough hemp to regenerate an entire population with food, clothing, biofuel, plastics, building materials, medicines, and clean soil, all which help fight the battle of climate change.
Food and Clothing
Hemp seeds provide a significant variety of nutrients, enough so, that the seeds alone can exceed the required daily intake for a healthier lifestyle. Per every one hundred grams of hemp seed, or hemp hearts, a person can consume more protein and iron than a steak, more omega than tuna, more dietary fibers than oats, and more than a hundred percent of the required daily intake of magnesium, phosphorous, and other nutrients needed to maintain healthy living (Axe, 2017). There are 150 million homeless in the world, out of 1.6 billion, 554, 000 are in the United States. Imagine feeding all 150 million homeless with a plant seed that provides more nutrients than the variety of foods offered on the market, which most have been shown to factor into health-related issues from being chemically induced. The hemp plant is not only beneficial in curbing hunger, which could remedy the hunger epidemic altogether, but also aid in creating a cleaner, healthier lifestyle with its medicinal properties.
Medicine
Hemp is a therapeutic plant that has been used for generations to aid in healing diseases, mental illnesses, immune-deficiency disorders, chronic pain disorders, eating disorders, and so-forth by unlocking the endocannabinoid system of the mammalian brain, regulating the metabolism, and bringing the body back to its original physiological state; called homeostasis. Using hemp medicinally, instead of man-made synthetic drugs proven to destroy internal organs, the doctors and big pharma can create a much cheaper and natural method of treatment not only beneficial to the patients but the legal system. Using hemp in place of toxic medicines known to lead to addiction and crime, can lower crime rates, decrease recidivism rates, lower death rates, create safer roads, and so-forth, permitting our justice system to focus on more serious offenses and scientists to focus on studying saving the environment.
Soil and Building Materials
The hemp seed can produce oils that can be used as biofuels, fiberglass substitutes, and converted into plastics, which are all biodegradable, eliminating ozone-damaging pollutants (Reefer, 2018). Imagine, a land with no trash, seas with no toxic wastes, and breathable, non-toxic, air. It seems too easy to be true, right? Well, cannabis plants feed on the toxins in the soil, find its water source, and absorbs carbon monoxide out of the air, making an unsustainable environment sustainable. The plant is a renewable resource of energy, creating products that can reverse greenhouse gas measures. Hemp can produce textiles such as clothing, rope, paper, concrete, and other viable products, all fire resistant, great for insulation, anti-fungal, and anti-bacterial, for a fraction of the cost, and in turn, save approximately four billion trees a year (Briggs, 2019).
Conclusion
As one of the most diverse crops in the world, the hemp plant can protect our planet from the toxicity in the land, air, consumer products, and living entities. Growing a hemp plant is the easiest, most economical, and most efficient method of eliminating exponential stresses caused by man-made and bio-hazard contaminates that are destroying the planet and increasing the chances of climate change and global warming. Therefore, help save our earth by going clean and planting green.
Until Next Week,
Love You All… Nothing You Can Do About It,
Dr. Amy Miller