What Is Hemp?

Hemp is a hero plant, with the power to change the world for good. It’s one of the most versatile, planet-friendly, nutritious plants around with thousands of different uses. Here are just a few of the best things about hemp:

Superfood

Hemp is a versatile, nutritious and delicious superfood packed full of protein, vitamins, omegas and nutrients. Boost any meal by including hemp; try using hemp oil, hemp seeds, hemp flour, hemp protein powder or any other hemp-gredient. "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food"

Skincare

Nourishing for your skin and body, hemp based skincare is perfectly suited for moisturising and soothing the skin. Full of antioxidants, fatty acids, vitamins with anti-inflammatory and hormone balancing properties, making it a great choice for any skin type. Hemp seed oil and CBD combined to naturally enhance beauty.

Textile

Hemp fabric could be pivotal in creating a more comfortable, more sustainable world. Hemp clothing lasts longer, retains colour better, is cheaper and harms the environment less than your average cotton T-shirt. Hemp fabric is soft and breathable on the skin, naturally resistant to bacteria and super durable.

Construction

Have you heard about hempcrete or hemp insulation? From floor to ceiling, you can build or renovate buildings with healthy, sustainable and renewable hemp materials. Hemp is a leading natural choice in eco-friendly construction and architecture.

Paper

Hemp paper is not only stronger and more durable than tree paper, it can also help save the deforestation crisis. Hemp grows far quicker than trees, using much less water and requires less chemical processing to produce paper. Let's save the forests, using hemp!

Green Energy

A high-yielding energy crop with low environmental impact, hemp is a great choice for bioenergy. Hemp produces a large amount of biomass that can be converted into clean and economical fuels, making it an excellent alternative to non-renewable fossil fuels.

Eco-friendly

Hemp is good for the planet with many environmental benefits. Hemp breathes in CO2 purifying the air and regenerates the soil with nutrients. It requires little water and no pesticides or herbicides to grow. It cleans toxins from the ground and was even planted following the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl to naturally remove the radioactive material.

Medicine

Full of CBD and other nutrients, hemp and other cannabis strains have been shown to have numerous medical and therapeutic benefits. In the UK, two FDA approved cannabis-based medicines, Epidolex and Sativex, are used to treat epilepsy and multiple sclerosis. Ongoing scientific studies indicate the potential to ease symptoms of other ailments.

BioPlastic

Hemp plastics are the way of the future and make an excellent alternative to those made from petroleum! Hemp bioplastics are renewable, sustainable and often made using agricultural waste. Depending on their composition, they are recyclable or compostable at the end of their usable life. All parts of the hemp plant can go to further use.

So, what is hemp? Hemp is cannabis - otherwise known as Cannabis Sativa L.

Hemp plants are part of the cannabis family, but hemp describes varieties of cannabis that have very low concentrations of THC.

In the UK, hemp is cannabis that contains less than 0.2% THC, but the legal levels of THC content that define hemp plants vary from country to country. The U.S. describes hemp as falling under 0.3% THC, whereas Switzerland permit up to 1% THC in their distinction between hemp and cannabis.

Being low in THC means that hemp is non-intoxicating, so unlike cannabis, it can't get you high. Hemp is an abundant natural source of CBD, a therapeutic compound that's becoming a rising star in beauty, wellbeing and medicine.

Hemp is also sometimes called 'Industrial Hemp' - which refers to the national industry that cultivates hemp for its fibre, hurd, and seeds (the only legally harvestable parts of the plant in the UK).

Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?

— Henry Ford

Hemp is the most versatile and useful plant on earth, which should be common knowledge! It's packed with potential from root to flower.

Hemp is one of the most sustainable, planet-friendly plants around. It purifies the air and the soil, requires no pesticides and very little water, grows quickly with high yields, is incredibly durable and adaptable, and even regenerates the earth with nutrients.

So far, over 50,000 uses for hemp have been discovered - it can be used in biofuel, building, textiles, plastic, paper, food, milk, medicine, skincare and more. However scientific research and development has been stunted due to decades of prohibition and restriction, so we're really only now beginning to unlock hemp's potential.

Humans and hemp have grown together - hemp has been one of the most important crops for mankind up until it was demonised in the last century. Hemp was one of the first plants ever cultivated by mankind, and hemp has been a key player in our nations history. In 1533, King Henry VIII made hemp cultivation compulsory by law, and landowners could even pay their taxes with Hemp.

The most exciting thing about hemp is its potential to address a whole host of ecological, climatic, economic and social challenges. Though we can’t go back in time and rewrite hemp’s history, we can take action to create a better future by utilising one of the most versatile and therapeutic plants on earth.

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