| Some
Qualities of Hemp
● Hemp makes a strong,
durable, comfortable, healthy, and high-performance fabric
that's great for all seasons and for use indoors and out.
● Hemp makes a strong,
durable, comfortable, healthy, and high-performance fabric
that's great for all seasons and for use indoors and out.
● Hemp has excellent
insulative and conductive qualities. When compared to cotton,
for example, hemp is warmer yet breathes better. For hot
weather, hemp has superior conductive qualities to those
of all other textile fibers (equaled only by flax), allowing
the wearer to feel cool, comfortable, and fresh in very
hot and/or humid conditions. Aditionally, the shaft-like
structure of the hemp fiber molecule allows it to wick
moisture right off the body, dry quickly, and, in cold
conditions, even feel warm when wet.
● Hemp fabric is
very resistant to degradation from mold, bacteria, salt
water, sunlight, abrasion, and chemicals, while being fully
biodegradable (unlike synthetic fibers).
● Hemp fabric is
very resistant to degradation from mold, bacteria, salt
water, sunlight, abrasion, and chemicals, while being fully
biodegradable (unlike synthetic fibers).
● Hemp is an excellent
ecological alternative to environmentally destructive conventional
cotton cultivation and synthetics.
The
Many Benefits of Hemp Agriculture
Hemp is the most environmentally
positive crop, improving soil quality as it grows. It requires
no herbicides and is naturally resistant to insects, fungus,
and other pests. Hemp grows rapidly during its vegetative
period, becoming tall and thick. It suppresses weeds, and
shades and mulches the ground, which its deep taproots
break up and aerate. These attributes promote healthy microbial
soil life and leave the earth in a condition where it is
easily worked and able to retain moisture during the next
growing season.
Requirements of Hemp Agriculture
Hemp is so gentle on the
land that it can be grown year after year in the same location,
although this is not the most ecological option and is
not permitted in organic cultivation (according to the
stringent European Union organic certification regulations
that we follow in our organic cultivation). It is best
for fiber hemp to be cultivated in rotation with cereal
crops and legumes. In fact, cereal crops will yield an
extra 15-25% when cultivated after fiber hemp, because
hemp eliminates competing weeds and improves the health
of the soil. Crop rotation with hemp works well, since
the ground is usually available for other crops by the
middle of August. Legumes such as soybeans are the best
preceding crop, because they add to the soil a lot of nitrogen,
the basic building block of plant growth. Nitrogen is a
crucial nutrient for hemp production, since hemp reaches
a height of 10 to 12 feet during its short growing season
of less than five months. Supplying sufficient nitrogen
is a big challenge with organic hemp agriculture, and the
use of artificial chemical fertilizers is prohibited in
organic agriculture. This requirement of nitrogen can be
resolved with proper cover cropping, rotation, and, if
needed, the addition of manure. As an alternative to cotton — Hemp
provides an ecological alternative to environmentally destructive
cotton cultivation. Cotton is one of the most environmentally
destructive agricultural crops, annually using over 275
million pounds of pesticides in the US alone. This is in
addition to massive quantities of fertilizers, defoliants,
growth regulators, and general biocides such as methyl
bromide. Cotton production requires an immense amount of
water, which depletes this resource and can cause salts
to build up in the soil, while hemp needs no irrigation
at all. Also the wide spacing between cotton plants allows
the bare soils to bake and oxidize, releasing carbon to
the atmosphere and decreasing soil fertility. As an alternative to fossil
fuel use — Hemp can reduce our use of synthetic textile
fibers. Synthetic textile fibers are not biodegradable,
generate pollution in their production, and are made from
non-renewable petroleum. Hemp can also help us shift to
a carbohydrate-based sustainable economy, because it is
the largest biomass producer of any agricultural crop.
This has tremendous potential for any biomass energy generation
system and as a feedstock for bio-plastics, which are fully
biodegradable and do not contaminate the soil after decomposition
or emit harmful gasses if incinerated. As an alternative to deforestation — Hemp
can be processed into construction materials and paper
products of excellent strength and quality, easing some
of the unsustainable burden placed on our forests. An acre
of hemp actually produces more than four times as much
pulp for paper making than an acre of trees when figured
on an annual basis. Additionally hemp requires no bleach
in processing, due to its low lignin content, and there
is no dioxin produced from its manufacture.
Organic
Hemp Cultivation
Conventional hemp farming
is already very ecological, since hemp requires no herbicides,
pesticides, or irrigation and leaves the ground in a healthy
condition. The next ecological step is to eliminate the
use of synthetic fertilizers and attain organic certification.
At ECOLUTION® we have always been devoted to finding
the most environmentally conscious solutions in all of
our activities. For example, we already
produce all of our hemp fiber with strictly ecological
methods of natural mechanical processing in marked contrast
to the use of harsh chemicals used in some hemp processing.
Since 2001, ECOLUTION® has
been cultivating hemp organically in the Satu Mare area
of western Romania. These fertile plains are ideally suited
for growing hemp and cereal crops.
Organic Certification
ECOLUTION® is the
first company in the modern world that is growing hemp
organically for textiles. And in 2005, ECOLUTION® completed
the transitional period and
is proud to announce that all hemp cultivation is certified
organic.
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