15 Plus Amazing Facts, Stats and Uses of Industrial Hemp

Hemp is a natural resource that has been harvested for many centuries, but nowadays it is many cases associated with cannabis since it is derived from there and since cannabis is illegal in many countries there can be a negative stigma around hemp. That's unfortunate because hemp is and can be applied for many different things such as a food (hemp seeds) and includes health benefits, and used for many different types of textiles. We'll see a list of amazing benefits and facts about hemp which will probably change how you see hemp, if not already convinced it should be applied even more, in addition we made some rough estimates on its environmental impact. Nb: We sometimes use 'tons' and 'tonnes' so if you're british or american we're truly sorry for the confusion, as they both sound good for us depending on the context, so bear with us through this one.

Table of Contents:

Brief history of Hemp
Interesting facts about Hemp
The challenge with Conventional Cotton Production
Hemp Water Consumption vs Cotton (non-organic)
CO2 Absorption of Hemp and Other Resources
Summary

Brief History of Hemp

Hemp has a long history of cultivation and use dating back thousands of years. One of the first crops domesticated by humans, hemp was grown widely in ancient China, India and Europe for its strong fibers. In the 16th century, hemp cultivation and production increased significantly in Europe and later in the Americas for applications such as rope, fabrics and even heavily used by the marine industry. By the mid-19th century, hemp was one of the most important crops. However, during the 1930s-1950s time period, hemp cultivation declined significantly due to the introduction of petrochemical based products as well as restrictions imposed by prohibition policies due to the use of cannabis. Fortunately, recenty there has been a renewed interest in hemp for its sustainable and versatile applications.

Sources:
Climate trade
Avervink, J - Global Footprint of Industrial Hemp Textile
Hempfundation
University of Kentucky. "The History and Future of Hemp Farming and CBD Production in Kentucky." Cannabis Training University, 2022.
Randall, Gene. "A Brief History of Hemp." The Hemp Industries Association, 2017.

Interesting Facts on Hemp

Tall and Fast-Growing
Industrial hemp plants can reach heights of over 4 meters in just 100 days. This makes it one the most efficient or best tools for converting co2 into biomass.

A CO2 Powerhouse
With its ability to be harvested twice per year, one hectare of hemp can sequester an impressive 22 tons of CO2 annually. That's over 22,000 kg removed from the atmosphere. Since it's twice a year, that translates to 44 tons of CO2

Land Conservation Champion
Compared to cotton, hemp requires only 1/3 of the acreage to produce the same fiber yields. Leaving two-thirds of farmland available for other uses or rewilding.

Durability Beyond Cotton
Hemp clothing ages beautifully with each wash, becoming softer yet retaining strength. Garments crafted from hemp fibers withstand repeated laundering without wearing out.

Naturally Resistant
As a dense, tall crop blocking sunlight, hemp crowds out weeds without herbicides. This obviates agricultural runoff and allows organic cultivation by default.

Pesticide-Free Production

Hemp's natural defenses make artificial chemicals unnecessary. As a dense, tall crop, it blocks weeds without pesticides. This environmental-friendly approach is safer for farmers and consumers alike.

Naturally Organic Production
Industrial hemp's defenses negate the need for artificial inputs. Certification is mostly redundant since the plant's properties guarantee organic practices. Producers can thus focus on quality without unnecessary paperwork.

Same species but different from Cannabis
Industrial hemp and cannabis are of the same species but different variations of it. The major significant difference is the content of the psychoactive ingredient THC. Industrial hemp only contains a fraction of THC, compared to cannabis at around 3 - 15 %. This means industrial hemp therefore won't lead to substance intoxication delirum, in other words getting 'high'.

Less water consumption
One of the great benefits of hemp is that it requires a lot less water consumption to produce 1 kg of hemp in comparison to cotton, on average it's 5 times less of the water usage of cotton.

Multi - applications of hemp
Hemp can be used in many applications such in the food industry, in the form of hemp seeds, and also in many other industries such as the textile industry, known as hemp clothing, in building materials, producing paper, biodegradable plastics, cosmetics, biofuel and even more uses, such as hemp milk, hemp lotion, which makes it such a great natural resource. In fact, it can even be applied for making shoes which is what 8000 Kicks have been able to do which we've have reviewed, and is acknowledged as sustainable shoes.

The Challenges With Conventionel Cotton

Cotton in itself is not the main issue it's the way it is being produced that causes many challenges. Organic Cotton for example has much less of an environmental impact than conventional cotton, however less than 10 % of the global cotton production is organic cotton and the rest: conventional cotton.

The major challenges with conventional cotton production is the water consumption and pesticide usage.

Water Consumption and Pesticide Usage in Conventional Cotton Production
Cotton is one of the two most dominant fibres used in the textile industry, and the other one is polyester. Cotton alone stands for roughly 35 - 40 % of the textile production, and also is the fibre that uses the most water at around 69 %. Just 1 kg of conventional cotton production requires around 10000 liters of water, if not more. The other challenge that is related with this is the cultivation of cotton which in many cases occurs in countries with severe water problems.

In terms of pesticide use, conventional cotton production requires around 200 000 tonnes of pesticides and 8 mio. tonnes of synthetic fertilisers each year.
In addition to this, cotton alone is responsible for 4 % of nitrogen fertilizers and artifcial phosphorus uses in the world. The issue here is for human safety, surrounding ecosystems, and pollution to lakes and oceans.

Cotton is not the only responsible here
Most of the textile industry is made of polyester, and majority of these are still made from virgin polyester which is very energy intensive, produces a lot of GHG emissions because it's petroleum based. In some cases, some people are just sensitive to synthetic fibres or plastic based clothes, which is also a challenge. Obviously, petroleum as our current knowledge is not a infinite resource, and one of the other challenges is the amount of microfiber or microplastics that is produced, surprisingly from washing machines. Around 35 % of the microplastics that is reaching the lakes and oceans is derived from this wastewaters process, but fortunately there is a solution that mitigate this problem, which is getting a microfiber or microplastic filter. Even if textile is made of recycled polyester, which is a better alternative than virgin polyester, a microfiber filter would still be necessary, and even if it's not made from synthetic fibres it would still be beneficial to get one.

In France from 2025, it will be mandatory that all washing machines includes a microfiber filter to mitigate this issue, which is the only country thus far to implement such regulations and with time is probably not the only country who will be implementing this.

Hemp Water Consumption vs Conventional Production

Back to hemp again which is the main topic. We made some rough estimates based on the water consumption of the two fibres to compare how much hemp uses versus conventional cotton production. Nb: This is just rough estimates, and conventional cotton is not per say the black sheep, but it does give perspective to compare with the most water intense fiber globally.

Industrial Hemp is being produced on a global scale and is it estimated that roughly 69000 tons of hemp is produced each year. The amount of cotton is alot higher but for the sake of comparison we compared, if hypothetically there were produced at the same rate to give a better comparison. As seen from table 1, the water consumption of 1 kg industrial hemp is around 5 times less than convenctional cotton. This results in a water consumption that when scaled up to the actual global water consumption adds to 138 bio. liters of water, in comparison to 639 bio. liters of water. In both cases it may seem like a lot, but in the case of hemp a good portion of that is based of natural rain water, and not industrial based water. In addition, when looking at the amount of percentage that can be saved annually, assuming that both fibres are produced at the same rate it would result in water savings up to 400 %.

To give an illustrative figure on how large the difference is between the two water consumption, assuming equivalent production rate. By looking at graph 1, the difference is very significant.

CO2 Absorption of Hemp and Other Resources

As mentioned earlier, industrial hemp can absorp 22 tons of CO2 per hectare and since it has ability to have two crop cycles a year it means 44 tons of CO2 per hectare.

To put this into perspective we've made a comparison of commonly of other plants and tress, which can be seen from the graph below.

As seen from the graph hemp comes in a great 2nd place (among the ones we chose) and it absorbs 4 times as much as a hectare of forest (a combination of tree species), and more than 8 times as much as cotton. However, cotton still absorbs 5 tons of CO2 per hectare which is still significantly positive. It also demonstrates that cotton is not the problem, it is the way it is harvest that is the main issue here. Surprisingly or not surprisingly, bamboo stands alone in the first place being able to absorb 60 tons of CO2 per hectare, and is also applied in the textile industry which has a net positive in general; this can be observed in our analysis on bamboo here. Bamboo is applied in many areas such as in mattresses, pillows, socks, towels and more.
We also decided to look at the overall co2 absorption from industrial which can be seen from the table below.

This in total amounts to an absorption of 3.28 million tons of CO2, and assumming and being optisimistic these numbers might increase with a higher harvest rate of hemp in coming future.

Another amazing benefit from applying more industrial and hopefully reducing the production of conventional cotton would be a total or complete reduction of the 200 000 tons of pesticides applied by year in the harvesting of cotton. Assumming that 50 % was subsituted with industrial hemp would still mean a decrease in 100 000 tons of pesticides, and that's because as we earlier mentioned that hemp is actually organic by nature, and doesnt need pesticides to grown, and according to many farmers therefore does not need a certification to indicate it's made organic because it is by nature.

Summary

Hemp is slowly gaining more popularity due to its features such as found in hemp seeds, and mainly the emphasis here on the textile industry. By applying more industrial hemp it will greatly reduce the currect water consumption, greatly reduce the use of pesticides, require less 1/3 less land to harvest than conventional cotton, increase CO2 absorption, positively impact the soil and eco systems, and even improve the quality of the textile clothes because of its durability. The benefits are many and evident for the case of applying more industrial hemp which hopefully will increasing in the coming future. We made a short blog on the benefits of hemp, in case someone is interested, but it's a bit similiar on the facts.

Table 1: Water Consumption (Hemp vs Cotton)

Graph 1: Water Consumption (Hemp vs Cotton)

Graph 2: CO2 absorption pr hectare (Tonnes pr Year)

Table 2: Total CO2 absorption of Hemp pr Year