There are numerous advantages to growing industrial hemp on a
widespread scale. These advantages come from both the physical act of
growing the plant, as well as utilizing the yield for business and
consumer products. Let's start off with how growing helps the
environment.
The hemp
plant is unique in that it grows in an incredible abundance. You can
get over ten tons of hemp from only one acre of farmland, and since
farmland is measured in the thousands of acres, you can imagine how much
total hemp you can ultimately grow. When a plant is growing, it
requires carbon dioxide to power photosynthesis; therefore, with a lot
of plants, you take out a lot of carbon dioxide from the air. Growing
large amounts of hemp will thus, over time, significantly affect CO2
levels and help fight global warming. Since climate change is one of the
most dangerous issues we face in this time, this is certainly an
important benefit.
When most plants grow, they deplete the soil
of vital nutrients and leave it with less vitality for the next crop.
Hemp actually revitalizes the soil it grows in, both by aerating the
soil and through the deposit of carbon dioxide in to it. This makes hemp
ideal for crop rotation, and the crop that follows in the soil hemp
grew in will develop better than if hemp had not been used.
These
have been just the benefits from growing the plant, but there are even
more for applying it. When hemp is used in the production of paper,
fuel, and plastic substitutes, the resulting products are much cleaner
and greener. For example, tree made paper requires the use of many
harmful chemicals, both for the production and as preservatives. Hemp
paper does not need these chemicals, and hemp fuel burns cleaner than
gasoline or diesel.
With all of these uses for hemp, it is
terrible that it is suppressed in this society. America is one of the
leading nations of the world, and because it denounces hemp, many other
countries follow suit, although they do grow it to some extent. If hemp
were fully utilized, we could save this world and ensure an everlasting,
sustainable future, and that is surely something to fight for.