Hemp vs. Wood for Paper
"From 75-90% of all paper was made with Cannabis Hemp fiber until 1883: books, bibles, maps, paper money, stocks, bonds, newspapers, etc., ...and just about everything else was printed on hemp paper."3
"Hemp's biggest contribution to the world's economy and ecology could well be as a part of a return to plant based papers. Half of all trees cut down are used to make paper, and deforestation is a serious environmental crisis, weakening our ecosystems, topsoil and watersheds, as well as increasing the greenhouse effect."1
"One acre of annually grown hemp may spare up to four acres of forest from the current practice of clear cutting."2
"Hemp fiber paper has many beneficial characteristics, including high tensile strength, opacity, tearing resistance, wet strength, and folding endurance. It can be recycled 7 times while maintaining a suitable substrate and surface for modern printing purposes, compared with 3 times for tree paper. Hemp has a low lignin content, so a non-Kraft, non-chlorine bleach mill is feasible."4
Hemp vs. Cotton For Clothes & Textiles
"Hemp fiber bundles are up to fifteen feet long, while cotton fibers are a mere three-quarters of an inch, which reportedly gives hemp eight times the tensile strength and four times the durability of cotton. Hemp has a natural luster and takes dyes beautifully, due to its superior absorbency."1
"Much of the groundwater tested in agricultural regions around the world has been contaminated by runoff from pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. Already 15,000 lakes in the United States are so contaminated that nothing can live in them."1
"The pesticide king is cotton. Cotton is adapted to a wide range of uses, and it spins easily, but the environmental costs of cotton cultivation are incalculable. Cotton is grown on 3% of the earths best arable land and uses a whopping 26% of the worlds pesticides. It is a demanding crop that requires heavy irrigation and consumes more than 7% of the fertilizer used annually. It exhausts the soil, but is widely grown by developing countries desperate for a cash crop to pay international debts."1
"An acre of land will produce about 1000 pounds of primary hemp fiber, about 2 or 3 more times fiber than cotton. Fiber comes right off the plant ready to comb and use."4
"With few insect enemies and little competition from weeds, hemp is a much better candidate than cotton to produce a high quality, sustainable and organcially grown fiber.".