Leveraging Hemp's Lucrative Cash Crop with Environmental Benefits

Hemp's eco-friendly benefits include carbon-negative production and diverse applications. 

FREMONT, CA: Hemp, a versatile and sustainable crop, has a rich history of providing essential raw materials and high-protein, health-promoting food. It has contributed to various aspects of Western civilization, including construction, paper production, textiles, and ropes. With roots reaching back for centuries, hemp has played a significant role in human development. In recent decades, hemp has experienced a renaissance, emerging as one of the fastest-growing agricultural and industrial markets. As we face critical challenges related to transitioning from high-carbon to low-carbon economies, hemp presents a valuable contribution, offering economically viable solutions to address pressing societal issues. These issues include pollution, carbon emissions, plastic waste, global hunger, public health, unemployment, and rural underdevelopment.

One of hemp's remarkable environmental advantages is its carbon-negative production. Growing hemp consumes more carbon than harvesting, processing, and transporting it emits. It stands as a beacon of sustainability by efficiently sequestering carbon and storing it within its biomass. Additionally, hemp's cultivation demands less energy and fewer resources compared to other industrial materials like cotton, resulting in a lower carbon footprint.

The potential of hemp extends to over 10,000 environmentally responsible industrial and consumer applications. These applications span a wide range, including bioplastics, composite materials, construction products, high-protein foods and beverages, health-promoting dietary supplements, textiles, paper goods, biofuels, and even substitutes for graphene. Hemp's versatility empowers the development of materials that are not only stronger and more durable than their traditional counterparts but also more sustainable and renewable. Moreover, the use of hemp in synthetic biology allows for creating healthier and more nutritious food products than conventional options.

Hemp brings significant environmental benefits to the table. It excels at carbon sequestration, enhancing biodiversity, offering a late-season food source for bees, assisting in land reclamation, and contributing to phytoremediation – removing environmental pollutants using plants.

Hemp also can be a lucrative cash crop for farmers when the entire plant is permitted for use. Unfortunately, nearly six decades ago, hemp was wrongly classified alongside cannabis (marijuana) as a narcotic substance in the UN Single Convention, leading to confusion. While the cultivation of cannabis plants for industrial purposes is explicitly exempted from international control, the industrial hemp sector has faced severe restrictions. This includes demanding licensing procedures and complex European and national regulations governing hemp-derived food products.

Hemp is naturally rich in cannabinoids; the best-known is cannabidiol (CBD). In the 21st century, there is a growing awareness that consuming healthy foods and supplements can significantly impact our overall health and well-being. This awareness has paved the way for the introduction of hemp extracts in food supplements, often referred to as CBD oils. Hemp foods play a crucial role in supporting our health due to the existence of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) in humans and vertebrates. Phytocannabinoids in hemp can be supplemented with endocannabinoids to further support the ECS, which is critical to maintaining homeostasis.

The most economically viable part of the hemp plant is the flower and leaves. However, the hemp sector's potential for growth is hampered when it is restricted to using only the seeds and stalks, particularly with the added burden of onerous licensing procedures. This approach must offer the financial viability necessary for significant investment in research and development or developing large-scale, environmentally responsible industrial and consumer products. The recent revision of the Novel Food catalog further threatens the European hemp industry, as the assessment process is costly and time-consuming, taking several years to complete.