adminIT is well-known that Rastafarians deal with and actually revere the most controversial plant on the planet – cannabis.
Ibo Foroma
The why part is not so popular, and knowledge can be improved by reading “The Hemp Plant, Humankind’s Saviour – 50 000 Uses and Counting”, by Jeff Meints.
Cannabis exists in various forms and has been used in spiritual contexts throughout history.
Basically cannabis exists in two distinct forms, hemp and marijuana.
Hemp is cannabis with notetrahydrocannabinol (THC) cannabidiol (CBD) and other cannabinoid content. These variants grow high and tall and do not result in “highs”.
Marijuana is the low growing shorter variant with higher quantities of cannabinoids that result in euphoric effects and hence the controversial “dangerous drug” status.
This stance is exaggerated, and Rastafarians suffer because of it. We pray it be revised.
Hemp covers all mankind’s basic needs: food, shelter, clothing, energy, lighting and medicinal (preventative and curative).
Hemp seeds can be eaten raw, ground into a meal, made into hemp milk (akin to soy milk and especially good for vegans), prepared as a tea, and used in baking.
The fresh leaves can also be consumed in salads.
Products include cereals, frozen waffles, hemp milk ice cream, hemp tofu, hemp cake (a by-product of pressing the seed for oil) and hemp protein powder.
Whole hemp grain ground to hemp flour can bake any confectionery and savoury imaginable. Ganja cakes, scones, biscuits, bread, pies and pizzas.
Combining with wheat makes the mixture malleable. Even though hemp and marijuana are both cannabis plants, hemp seeds contain negligible levels of THC, the psychoactive “nuisance” in marijuana.
If an assortment of grains including hemp seeds is scattered on the ground for birds to eat, delicious hemp seeds are the first to go.
Goats, rats, cows and many wild animals consume hemp like no man’s business.
We refer to clothes as “hembe” – directly derived from “hempe” or “hemp”.
Hemp fibres are very strong. They can be made into rope, twine, textile fabrics, and do make a very smooth yet iron strong silk.
Hemp was often used to make sail canvas, and the word canvas derives from cannabis.
Hats, shirts, skirts, trousers, blouses, jeans, stockings, underwear, shoes including waterproof and fire-resistant clothing are made from hemp, especially in countries that previously colonised Africa.
For construction, hemp can literary replace wood, cement, sand and stones. A whole structure can be made from hemp, with hemp-crete, a mixture of hemp and lime as a replacement for conventional concrete.
Wherever timber is required, hemp can easily replace, proving to be more efficient. Hemp grows faster than all other known timbers.
Concrete-like blocks made with hemp and lime can be used as an insulating material for thermal and acoustic purposes.
Hemp fibres can replace wood and create durable and breathable homes.
The first example of the use of hemp-crete was in 1986 in France with the renovation of the Maison de la Turque in Nogent-sur-Seine by Charles Rasetti.
In the UK, hemp lime was first used in 2000 for construction of two test dwellings in Haverhill and designed by Modece Architects, who pioneered hemp’s use in that country.
Completed in 2009, the renewable house is one of the most technologically advanced made from hemp-based materials.
The first US renewable houses made of hemp-based materials were completed in August 2010 in North Carolina.
A panellised system of hemp-lime panels for use in building construction is currently under test in a European Union funded research lead by the University of Bath.
The panels are designed to assure high quality construction, rapid on-site erection, and optimal hygrothermal performance from day one, energy and resource efficient buildings.
Hemp can make bio-degradable plastic. A mixture of fibre glass, kenaf, and flax has been used since 2002 to make composite panels for automobiles.
Various carmakers are using hemp, including Audi, BMW, Ford, GM, Chrysler, Honda, Iveco, Lotus, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Saturn, Volkswagen and Volvo.
The Lotus Eco Elise and Mercedes C-Class both contain hemp (up to 20kg per car in the Benz).
Hemp can also make paper and using hemp for this purpose will help conserve all those forests being sacrificed daily for no logical reason.
The first identified coarse paper, made from hemp, dates to the early Western Han Dynasty, 200 years before the nominal invention of papermaking by Cai Lun, who improved and standardised paper production using a range of inexpensive materials, including hemp ends, approximately 2000 years ago.
The St Petersburg, Russia paper mill of Goznak opened in 1818 using hemp as its main input. The paper was used to print banknotes, stamped paper, credit bills, postal stamps, bonds, stocks and other water marked paper.
Growing hemp is practically growing money.
The word “mari” is short for marijuana, the tree responsible for the paper.
Biofuels, such as biodiesel and alcohol fuel, can be made from the oils in hemp seeds and stalks, and fermentation of the plant as a whole, respectively.
These biofuels do not pollute the environment.
The listing of materials made from hemp does not end here, but space does.
The world leading producer of hemp is China.
Over 30 countries produce industrial hemp including Australia, Austria, Britain, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey and Ukraine.
For these reasons and more, the Rastafari Empire insists that hemp be legalised.
Online Reporter