JUST SAY YES TO INDUSTRIAL HEMP

As an annual or bi-annual crop, Hemp is a renewable resource that can provide for fibre and cordage. If petrol becomes extinct, so do synthetics like nylon, made from the by-products of petroleum, and we will possibly then be obliged to return to traditional renewable resources, like hemp.

Fibre:

Hemp cloth is softer and warmer than cotton and has 3 times the tensile strength. It is many times more durable and does not harbour bacteria, which makes it a very good plant for the health industry. Hemp does not require the amount of pesticides and chemicals needed for cotton. Properly grown hemp can have a beneficial use for soil structure because of it deep root system and production of biomass. China, Russia, France and Chile are the world’s largest hemp producing nations.

Paper:

Paper made from hemp is stronger and less likely to tear. It has more wet resistance than wood pulp and is 7 times as recyclable. It is also grown from an annual plant thus saving forest resources. It can produce a wider range of papers, whilst only using a fraction of the dangerous chemicals. No dioxins are produced and less energy/water used. Cannabis can be mixed with other fibre pulp for strength eg, Wheat, bagesse, kenaf etc.

Building materials:

Hemp produces many times the cellular fibre of trees and is perfect for hemp bricks, concrete framework and particle board, it is very long lasting and highly flexible. It can also be combined with lime for bricks or infill walls. See below for more on this building technique.

Fuel:

As Henry Ford found – Hemp produces far more biomass suitable for conversion to methane than almost any other plant. This renewable biomass fuel contains no sulphur and whilst growing helps remove CO2 from the atmosphere via photosynthesis.

Food:

The Cannabis hemp seed is a complete source of easily accessible protein. It is available in the form found in human blood plasma, the fluid portion of blood that supplies nutrients to tissues. Hemp oil can be made from the seeds too. Most countries allow the sale of Hemp food products, but not Australia.

Rope, Fibre, Cordage, Canvas
& Farming Jobs:

Until the 19th century about 80% of all rope and twine was made of hemp until replaced by synthetic petro-chemicals. 90% of all sails were made from hemp. The word canvas derives from a Greek word for Cannabis. In Britain in the 17th and 18th Centuries it was law that all farmers sow 10% of all arable land to hemp.

Paint and Varnish:
For hundreds of years all good paints and varnishes were made with either hemp or linseed oil grown specifically for that purpose. This use has been almost totally replaced by petro-chemical derived oils. Hemp’s inner hurds yield industrial cellulose which is an excellent basis for plastics and glues.

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/ncnu02/v5-284.html

Industrial Hemp.

A comparison of hemp, flax, jute and cotton as related to artists' canvas

NSW Industrial Hemp Bill under Development

In the 5 March 2008 NSW Parliamentary sitting, a report from the Standing Committee on State Development, titled "Aspects of Agriculture", was discussed. It had first been tabled in the House on 28 November 2007.

As a result of the discussion, the Minister for Primary Industries the Hon. Ian McDonald MLC proposed the adoption of Recommendation 10 that concerned an amendment to the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985 to allow for the commercialisation of industrial hemp in New South Wales. It was acknowledged that industrial hemp should be promoted as a rotational crop for farmers because of overseas market demand for fibre.

Over the next few weeks the regulatory framework will be developed. This framework will specify how the commercial hemp industry in NSW will operate. In other words what the application process will be, the cost of licences, the required testing regimes and the regulations related to reporting and security.

Hopefully the final bill will adopt the best elements of the Queensland and Western Australian Industrial hemp bills. To date the focus of parliamentary discussion has predominantly been around the commercial applications of hemp fibre, so Keith Bolton and I will be submitting information to the Minister to try to ensure that the NSW legislation includes the relevant information to allow for the development of a hemp food industry as soon as Federal authorities allow this industry to commercialise.

If all goes smoothly it’s expected that the Bill will go before parliament in May. (Bills are usually presented then amended and represented a couple of times before they are passed into law.)

Klara Marosszeky
14 April 2008

9 April 2008

Farmers In NSW Going To Pot

The NSW Government has turned over a new leaf after decades of opposing commercial cannabis, revealing plans for a new scheme to grow the plant on an industrial scale. It will introduce legislation in weeks to allow farms to grow hemp, the fibres and oil of which can be used in food and clothes, bio fuels and skin-care products.

The state's first legal hemp crop has been approved by police and will contain only tiny amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive compound that some people smoke for recreation. It will be planted later this year, with farmers no longer needing their licences to be approved by the NSW Health Department.

"Industrial hemp fibre produced here in NSW could pave the way for the establishment of a new viable industry that creates and sells textiles, cloth and building products made from locally grown industrial hemp," said the Primary Industries Minister, Ian Macdonald, who will oversee the licences for the new crop.

"There is growing support from the agricultural sector for the development of such a new industry. This is a direct result of the environmentally friendly nature of industrial hemp and a perceived interest for hemp products in the market."

Trials in the state's west had yielded 10 to 12 tonnes of dry stem per hectare, which was similar to yields reported from crops in other states and in Europe, Mr Macdonald said.

Some farming groups cautiously welcomed the move, although the National Farmers Federation said it was not aware of large numbers of farmers clamouring to grow hemp.

"If it meets all the safety and health requirements, then farmers should have the option of growing whatever crops that best fits their business," Ben Fargher, the federation's chief executive officer, said. "There are farmers who look for innovative specialist crops, and this may fit that category."

By contrast, industrial hemp campaigners were on a high.

Klara Marosszeky, who holds a licence to grow industrial hemp under a trial program, said it was "fantastic" news.

"I've seen really big interest from all sorts of farmers in growing industrial hemp," she said. "The market couldn't be very competitive when you couldn't grow in NSW, but if that changes then you will see a new industry occur."

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
Copyright: The Sydney Morning Herald
Contact: Ben Cubby, Environment Reporter
Website: The Sydney Morning Herald: national, world, business, entertainment, sport and technology news from Australia's leading newspaper.

This new system is not fully mapped out, but is in the works. What happened the other day was broad cabinet approval for the Minister's proposal to amend the legislation so that there can be a commercial industry in NSW. It is hoped that the legislation will be a bill by the end of May.

Dept of Primary Industries staff do not have any information yet.

The legislation will support commercial industrial hemp production of fibre for building, textiles (presumably paper and plastics)and oil for bodycare and other industrial applications. There will be a transition to the new system for those with existing permits.

At this stage they are not legislating for food as this is dependent on approval from ANZFA. The status of hemp foods has been dormant since this report in 2001

We will have to wait for the details to be revealed, hopefully after May.

Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2007
and current status of USA Hemp legislation.

27 FEB 2008

HOUSE OF STRAW, HOUSE OF STICKS,

THE THIRD LITTLE PIG USED HEMP BRICKS!

The Nimbin HEMP Embassy is sponsoring a Build your House from Hemp workshop and “everyone is welcome to see for themselves how easy it is”, says Klara Marosszeky. “On the footpath outside the Embassy Monday 3rd March 2008 at 2pm the concrete mixer will start turning but it won’t be cement in the mixer”.

Klara an Industrial hemp researcher has been working with UNSW since 2001 to develop a series of mixes for lime-based mortars and hemp masonry for a variety of applications in the construction industry.

“Mixing lime-based mortars with hemp is an ancient technology that is currently being used in modern applications all over the world – except in Australia. The French have been building with this technique for the past forty years because hemp has always been grown there. A lot of what has been grown has been supported by American investment who are also doing a lot more at home than we are in Australia.

Now the UK government is leading the way. They plan to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2010. A major way in which they are doing it is by moving forward with the hemp industry. They’ve just used 90,000 hemp blocks in a $30 million dollar brewery building in Suffolk England.

There is a natural chemical reaction between hemp and lime that enables the material to set like cement naturally but with more flexibility and less weight. The material breathes and provides an ideal mould free environment with a modern look. Added to that it is a renewable resource.

You can grow enough hemp for a house on one hectare in four months.

There is a waiting list for these houses if only we had sufficient fibre here. NSW produces virtually nothing and has been left behind as this reborn industry takes off overseas.”

President of the Embassy Michael Balderstone is thrilled Klara is building a section of hemp wall.

“It will be enlightening for most of the estimated 100,000 visitors per year who walk through our doors. The 2008 MardiGrass on May 3 & 4 plans to have a hands on HEMP EXPO where people can mould their own creations from industrial hemp as well as see hemp paper being made and handle hemp blocks. We hope this will be a national gathering of people working with hemp in its various commercial forms.”

Further info contact Michael 66891842 a/h 66897525

This is already done in Europe. See the links below

http://www.puredelighthemp.com.au/index.php?page=manyUsesOfHemp#buildingMaterials

Art. Rute Eires França Agosto06.pdf (Portugal)

BuildingwithTradicalHemcrete.pdf

Keith and Klara trial this method in 2005

CANNABIS CONSTRUCTIONS

Hemp is a renewable resource that can be grown in about 110 days. Approximately 10 tonnes of hemp hurd or hurd and fibre is needed to build a 135sq house. In good conditions industrial hemp which is planted at a rate of 150-250 seeds per sq m can produce 15 tonnes of fibre per hectare. It can be grown on existing agricultural land (unlike most forestry projects), and can be included as part of a farm's crop rotation with positive effects on overall yields of follow on crops.
The demonstration hemp wall in the Nimbin Hemp Embassy has been constructed to be a removable wall as it is in a Heritage Building. Under normal circumstances there would be no timber exposed at the base of a wall.

Overseas hemp masonry is placed on the ground for floors and there are footings around the perimeter of the rooms to support the walls. As the material is lighter than bricks or concrete the footings do not need to be as deep. In the Suffolk Housing Project hemp masonry footings were used. Loose bricks were included. Overseas, the proportions of hydraulic and hydrated lime in the masonry mix are varied according to the temperatures reached in the region.
This wall demonstrates an infill method of building. It is the most sustainable of the hemp masonry mixes in the sense that the mix has a higher volume of hemp material in it than is possible in the production of blocks. In this form of building the masonry is tamped down lightly between the formwork. This produces the highest possible insulation value.

The Project:

This was a three part research project. The first part consisted of growing field trials of industrial hemp under licence from NSW Dept of Health and NSW Dept of Agriculture in Wollombi NSW to prove that industrial hemp cultivars could be grown in Australian conditions and to prove that yields were sufficient to warrant further trials.

The second part was in researching existing machinery to provide suitable harvesting and processing options for NSW. Conventional hemp harvesters are heavy, large, expensive and not currently produced in Australia. They are built for broad acre farming and are not suitable for smaller scale use or on sloping land. They also leave the long stems in the field. On the other hand Ti tree harvesting equipment is available locally, is smaller, can remove chopped green plant quickly from the field and reduce the potential loss to farmers in rainy conditions.

Both harvesting methods were trialled on the Mop Crop with Dr Keith Bolton at Bangalow. The work undertaken with UNSW was to document and prove over time that when tested in the lab and in a variety of exposed conditions, hemp masonry could meet the building requirements of local councils.

The third part was to develop processes that would enable it to be a commercially viable building material on a mainstream scale and to design a sustainable regional model for production of the masonry. Dept of Agriculture had given their assurance to the NSW Govt Licensed Researchers that commercialisation would occur once there was a value-added product.

As there is no hydraulic lime available in Australia the work involved developing a series of lime based binders for the various uses in mainstream building e.g. internal and external walling, renders, blocks etc.

"The first recorded use of hydraulic lime is dated to 1759 when John Smeaton, a Leeds engineer, was engaged in the construction of the third Eddystone lighthouse and found that he needed to have a cement that was capable of rapid hardening under water (pure lime is non-hydraulic – it won’t set under water). Smeaton discovered that limes set more effectively under water if they had sufficient clay content in them when burned (in excess of 5 per cent). As a result the composition of plaster for wall-finishing, of mortar for joining stone or brickwork, and of concrete for foundations all underwent important developments." More

Hemp masonry is a viable sustainable alternative to many current building materials. The materials used in the construction of a typical house are responsible for tens of tonnes of CO2 emissions.

The UK government’s goal is to reach zero-carbon housing by 2016 and research conducted there indicates that hemp construction produces better than zero-carbon results, because the masonry material locks up carbon. According to recent data from research in the UK a small detached house (52sq m with 300mm thick walls) will lock up 5.4T of CO2 in the walls. A larger house (100sq m with 500mm thick walls) will lock up 13.2T of CO2 in the walls. The rate of carbon sequestration is 165Kg CO2 capture/m2.

Hemp masonry is also thermally efficient. High thermal performance and single skin structures mean additional insulation layers are unnecessary, avoiding the need for cavity walling. In addition, with walls able to both breathe and store heat, the need for air conditioning is reduced or eliminated – as are the harmful emissions associated with it. For these reasons hemp masonry also has obvious application in Australia.

Hemp Masonry can create healthy, comfortable thermally efficient buildings. The material has a low embodied energy as unlike other masonry materials it does not require kiln baking.
While lime production does use energy, this is considerably less than the energy used in producing cement or bricks. Lime is available within a 2 hr radius of the NSW Northern Rivers Region.

Klara Marosszeky
hempmasonry@y7mail.com

HEMP Grinder Discs

"The new PLANTEX® flap disc has been developed to replace the glass fibre discs. This natural fibre high tech compound material required a new, patented treatment method (impact process) for hemp fibres to be developed before the required strength values for grinding discs could be achieved. This material is harmless, can be disposed of easily and is made mainly of sustainable natural materials that produce a good CO2 balance throughout the process from production to disposal." http://www.specialabrasives.com/plantex.htm