Hemp
Hemp
Hemp
cash crop
BILLION-
history DOLLAR
CROP
Hemp was called ‘Billion Dollar Crop’ in 1938 by Popular Mechanics. It was the first time a cash crop
had ever had the business potential to exceed a billion dollars. It is a mystery to me why this renewable
resource is still being ignored. I am going to reveal the history of plant, how it can be used and how
I see the resource will have a positive impact on landscape architecture in the future. Let’s see if we
can’t make it a trillion dollar crop and save the environment at the same time. Hemp has been utilized
for thousands of years. The oldest known records of hemp date back as far as
According to state archives, in the United States hemp was the first crop to be grown in many of the
states. Hemp was grown at an astonishing rate, with stated producing up to 40,000 tons of hemp a
year, making it the largest cash crop in the United States until the 20th Century.
Many of the things we are familiar with today were origionally constructed from hemp. The King James
Bible, maps, charts, Betsy Ross’s flag, the first drafts of the Declaration of Independence even the...
It was illegal
not to grow hemp.
For thousands of years, 90% of all ships’ sails and rope were made from hemp. In fact, the word
‘canvas’ is Dutch for hemp. The army and the navy also harnessed the strength of the fibers
in order to make their ropes There is even a 14 minute film from the United States Department
of Agriculture’s 1942 encouraging and instructing ‘patriotic American farmers’ to grow 350,000
acres of hemp each year for the war effort.
‘...The Navy’s rapidly dwindling reserves. When that is gone, American hemp will go on duty
again; hemp for mooring ships; hemp for tow lines; hemp for tackle and gear; hemp for
countless naval uses both on ship and shore. Just as in the days when Old Ironsides sailed the
seas victorious with her hempen shrouds and hempen sails.
The above image is Adnams Brewery, Britian’s Greenest warehouse. This marvel of a building was designed by Aukett Fitzroy Robinson
and designed built using lime hemp blocks. Hemp actually absorbs CO2 as it grows, while the lime mortar and lime render absorbs
carbon dioxide as it sets. Therefore this building uses less than one fourth the carbon dioxide as a building of similar size using traditional
construction methods.
It is becoming increasingly popular to practice sustainability in design and other countries are exploring the use of hemp as a building
material. Lime and hemp block is just one way that this resource can be used. Hempcrete is another interesting form of replacing
concrete. Hemp walls are 7 times stronger than concrete wallls, half as light, and three times as elastic, which means that these building
will bend, but not break. Because of their superior strength and flexibility, hemp walls are resistant to stress-induced cracking and
breaking. Even earthquakes and other natural disaster cannot break or crack these structures. Yet another building material that hemp
can substitute for is wood. Hemp can be made into wood-like building materials that are stronger than wood and can be manufactured
cheaper than wood from trees. Even a seemingly sturdy and reliable material such as steel is no match for the incredible fibers of hemp.
In 1941 Henry Ford and Popular Mechanics discovered that hemp is seven times stronger than steel.
Hemp produces more biomass than any plant that can be grown in the U.S. This
biomass can be converted to fuel in the form of clean-burning alcohol, or no-
sulphur man-made coal. Hemp has more potential as a clean and renewable
energy source than any crop on earth. Potentially we could be designing for a
cleaner future that would actually cost less.
tomorrow
In the future, hemp will return to the powerful resource that it once was. Combined with the technology that
we now posses the possibilities are endless. Soon there will be a shift in design that will bring architecture
and landscape architecture together in a way that will allow buildings and landscapes to blend together as
one in a way never thought possible.
Materials will be drastically less expensive, therefore the need for designers will be at an alltime high. The
fact that materials for projects can be locally grown will eliminate the need to ship lond distances and that
energy will then be saved.
There would also be an opportunity for millions of new jobs that would be needed. I mentioned the need
for more architects and landscape architects, but there would need to be more contractors and skilled
laborers. Car manufacturing would increase as would the need for more roads and road maintance.
Hempcrete would ba an excelent way to create permiable pavings and solve the stormwater and flooding
issue once and for all.
Overall we need to prepare for what the future has in store. There will be many changes that will occur but
when they do the world as a whole will finally become sustainable.
In 1935 116 million pounds Hemp seed oil is the
of hemp seed was used highest source of omega-3
make paints and varnish. and 6 fatty acids. Which
help control cholesterol,
arterial blockage
Canada has been
and the immune
growing industrial
system.
hemp since 1998.
Today seed
shops are all There
over CA. are
enough
nutrients that you
Industrial hemp has a THC can survive off eating
content of between 0.05% hemp seeds and
and 1%. Marijuana has a drinking water alone.
THC content of 3% to 20%.
economy
deforestation
Trees must grow
20 to 50
vs sustainability
years 4 months after it is planted hemp grows
after planting before they 10 to 20 feet tall and is ready
can be harvested for to be harvested.
commercial use
The above image is Adnams Brewery, Britian’s Greenest warehouse. This marvel of a
building was designed by Aukett Fitzroy Robinson and designed built using lime hemp
blocks. Hemp actually absorbs CO2 as it grows, while the lime mortar and lime render
absorbs carbon dioxide as it sets. Therefore this building uses less than one fourth the
carbon dioxide as a building of similar size using traditional construction methods.