BUY HEMP CLOTHING

[Phineas]

Last week I received my Kavu/Prana order of cool summer threads. Some nice stuff and its made w/ Hemp. Was thinking this morning if more people buy clothes made w/ Hemp it be better for the earth and if may put more pressure on the Gov to legalize it!

Hemp clothing is comfortable, durable and very fashionable. Hemp grows well w/out the use of fertilizers and pesticides...

[karpiel]

What's this hemp you speak of? Who knew it was so useful you could make a shirt from it?!!?!??

[dumpy]

What's this hemp you speak of? Who knew it was so useful you could make a shirt from it?!!?!??

George Washington, some hippies, Navies around the world for many years and the folks that produced "Hemp for Victory".

I may hate hippies, but hemp cloth/rope/whatever just makes good sense

[f2f]

let me be the first in this thread to state:

hemp ≠ marijuana

you can have one without ever paying attention to the other.

[Platinum Pete]

if hemp is such a magical happy resource for fabric making, how come it is always priced at 2 -3 times higher than other fabrics and mostly worn by pretentious hippy dipshits?

[VC]

if hemp is such a magical happy resource for fabric making, how come it is always priced at 2 -3 times higher than other fabrics and mostly worn by pretentious hippy dipshits?

Because the man is like keeping you down, man

[dumpy]

if hemp is such a magical happy resource for fabric making, how come it is always priced at 2 -3 times higher than other fabrics and mostly worn by pretentious hippy dipshits?

cause it's illegal to grow in the us. plus simple economics, pretentious hippy dipshits are currently the main consumer and are willing to pay more for it.

I have a pair of hemp shoes, quite nice, classy enough to wear at work, but comfortable enough that they work well for all of the running around I have to do. Semi-name brand (Simple), seem pretty bomber and only cost me $50.
So not all hemp stuff is that expensive.

[DoWork]

let me be the first in this thread to state:

hemp ≠ marijuana

you can have one without ever paying attention to the other.

Wait, so I can take bong hits all day and never have to wear hemp clothing??? Thank God.

[Brock Landers]

Costs a lot of money to look like a smelly, telemarking, treehugger

[toast2266]

cause it's illegal to grow in the us.

So its more expensive because they have to manufacture it in Asia?

[Phineas]

if hemp is such a magical happy resource for fabric making, how come it is always priced at 2 -3 times higher than other fabrics and mostly worn by pretentious hippy dipshits?

hemp is more durable so it lasts longer. but the cost was pretty much the same.. so actually it is a better bargain in the long run. plus the more hemp clothes people buy the more demand for hemp farms..

hippies wear clothes??

[skimasterflex]

So its more expensive because they have to manufacture it in Asia?

No, it's more expensive because there is much less of it grown than cotton. Same goes for Bamboo thread, bamboo is more renewable/sustainable and grows faster than cotton but the infrastructure/industry costs a lot to implement and cotton has a big head start in the natural fibers sector.

Not to mention the head start it got in its implementation, from slavery. In fact anyone who wears cotton supports slavery.

Hippyness > Slavery Support

[Phineas]

^^^^^ what he said!

actually some of the shirts I got were hemp/bamboo!

I'd dont mind paying more for something and long as it lasts... kinda the opposite of the Walmart "Buy more for less", but visit our big box more frequently option..

trying to do my part in protecting our winter!!

[ImSearchingforPowder]

^^^^^ what he said!

actually some of the shirts I got were hemp/bamboo!

I'd dont mind paying more for something and long as it lasts... kinda the opposite of the Walmart "Buy more for less", but visit our big box more frequently option..

trying to do my part in protecting our winter!!

yea, because if everybody wears hemp, Alta will recieve 150" more snow every winter. This has to be the gayest thread since the VT gay marriage thread.

[Phineas]

yea, because if everybody wears hemp, Alta will recieve 150" more snow every winter. This has to be the gayest thread since the VT gay marriage thread.

what would be wrong w/ 150 inches more snow a year?

[karpiel]

This has to be the gayest thread since the VT gay marriage thread.

But, you can make shirts from it!!!!!!!!

[Patches]

So, is hemp really more environmentally friendly than cotton? Or is it just about sticking it to The Man?

[f2f]

^ that's a good question. i don't know the answer about hemp (it grows as a weed in most temperate parts of europe, so i don't imagine it would be very environmentally unfriendly, except perhaps in the manufacturing process), but cotton, and its mismanagement by stalinist russia, is the reason for one of the worst environmental disasters in asia...

one article i could find at short notice:

http://unimaps.com/aral-sea/index.html

From the 1930s, the former Soviet Union started building large scale diversion canals to irrigate vast cotton fields in a grand plan to make cotton a great export earner. This was achieved, and even today Uzbekistan is still a large exporter of cotton. But the cost in ecological and human terms have been astronomical.

By 1960, 25 to 50 cubic kilometres of river water was being diverted annually for irrigation, and naturally enough, the shoreline began to recede. The mean sea level dropped 20cm (8") per year for 10 years, then the drop rate accelerated to 60cm/year in the 70s, then to almost a metre per year in the 80s.

[Phineas]

So, is hemp really more environmentally friendly than cotton? Or is it just about sticking it to The Man?

yes it is better for enviroment and anything better for environment is better for society..

Got deadline to meet but will post background after the weekend. sking this weekend in my new hemp gear!

[OSECS]

yes it is better for enviroment and anything better for environment is better for society..

Got deadline to meet but will post background after the weekend. sking this weekend in my new hemp gear!

Cotton plants are exceedingly hard on the soil. They deplete soil nutrients pretty badly, from what I recall hearing and reading.

Question is both have been around for a long while, why has cotton historically been the fiber of choice (way before marijuana issues, I'm assuming) ??

[f2f]

Question is both have been around for a long while, why has cotton historically been the fiber of choice (way before marijuana issues, I'm assuming) ??

hemp has apparently been around longer than cotton, in fact it is claimed that it is one of the first domesticated plants since it is found to grow (perhaps as a weed, at first) near early human settlements.

this paper claims that hemp fell out of fashion when its relatives were classified in the US in the 20's and 30's, confining growth to india and eastern europe.

same paper discusses use of hemp in textiles (which is the area that perhaps you're referring to when you say "fiber of choice". in short, cotton is just softer and finer...

long version reprinted verbatim:

3.1 Textiles

The history of textile production is rich and varied, with some 2,000 plant species having been processed into fibre at one time or other (Graham 1995). Today, based on world production of fibre in 1999, 54.5% was synthetic (of which 60% was polyester), 42.9% was plant-based (of which 79% was cotton), and 2.6% was wool (Karus 2000, cited Small and Marcus 2002). In terms of plant fibre production other than cotton, flax is the only significant plant fibre crop and held 2.7% of the world plant fibre market. Only 0.3% of the world plant fibre production was derived from industrial hemp in 1999

For industrial hemp, the most desirable long fibres for textiles are found in the stem near the phloem tissue in the bast. Industrial hemp long fibre requires retting for preparation of high quality spinnable fibres for the production of fine textiles. Steam explosion is a technology that has been experimentally applied to industrial hemp (Garcia-Jaldon et al. 1998). Using this technology, decorticated crude fibre is subjected to pressurised steam at high temperature to explode (separate) the fibres, resulting in hemp fibres that are thinner than those obtained from water retting. Small and Marcus (2002) viewed the refinement of equipment and new technologies as offering one possibility of making fine textile production from industrial hemp in developed countries, but noted that at present, China controls this market, and probably will remain dominant for the foreseeable future. Indeed, in the absence of the development of new technologies, Small and Marcus (2002) considered that the concentration of spinning facilities and extraction technology in China, in addition to cheap labour, were major impediments for the production of industrial hemp fabrics outside of that country.

by the way, my wife uses a hemp hand cream (she buys it at Body Shop) and swears that it's one of the best she's ever used. i have a pair of hemp canvas skate shoes. while i don't necessarily believe in buying stuff for the "feel good" factor or care much about drug laws being repealed, if hemp is better at something than other stuff (i.e., lasts longer, for example) i'll gladly pay a bit more for it.

[smalls]

In fact anyone who wears cotton supports slavery.

really?
like, really?

[cantunamunch]

Cotton plants are exceedingly hard on the soil. They deplete soil nutrients pretty badly, from what I recall hearing and reading.

Cotton gets you 800 lbs of fiber per acre for 50-70lbs of nitrogen per acre.


http://www.nass.usda.gov/Charts_and_...ps/cotnyld.asp


obviously, the usda doesn't run hemp numbers, but 'fact sheets' like this one:
http://www.norml.org.nz/Hemp/Hemp_Fact_Sheet.htm

don't really leave me excited for hemp yield:

# Hemp produces between three and five tons per acre.
# A total yield of 3.5 tons/acre with a 25% fibre content yields 1750 lbs of fibre and tow.
# Between 25 - 50% of this (440 - 875 lbs) can actually be spun into a textile-grade yarn.

or this one

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/sb/sb681/

In addition to deep soils and adequate moisture, hemp requires substantial available nutrients to produce high biomass yields. Even the earliest investigators in the United States and Europe noted that only soils maintained in a high state of fertility produced good crops of hemp (Anon.,1890; Dewey, 1901 and 1913; Dempsey, 1975; Van der Werf, 1991). When rapid expansion of hemp production became necessary in the United States during World War II, very little information existed on the use of fertilizers on the crop, and several researchers began trials to determine the optimum fertilizer management in the Midwest. Hemp showed a good response to nitrogen, some response to phosphorus, and minimal or negative response to potassium in Iowa (Black and Vessel, 1945). Moderate yield increases from increased nitrogen levels were reported in Illinois and Wisconsin, but fiber quality was poor and increased nitrogen rates resulted in decreased fiber strength (Howard et al., 1946). In Illinois, nitrogen fertilizers increased stem and retted fiber yield, but produced coarse, weak fiber (Hessler, 1947). These trials have led to the popular belief that no fertilizer is required for hemp production, however, these trials were carried out on highly productive soils in the U.S. corn belt and did not account for nutrients available in the soil. Adequate nitrogen should be supplied to allow rapid growth of hemp while avoiding excessive levels which seriously affect fiber quality.

Research on fertilizer requirements of hemp have continued for years in many countries, and a summary of fertilization rates used in various countries is presented in Table 3 (Dempsey, 1975; Van der Werf, 1991 and 1992; Kozlowski et al., 1995; Low, 1995a). Over a wide range of soil and environmental conditions, hemp has been shown to require liberal fertilization for maximum production. Although nutrient uptake by hemp is high, a substantial portion of withdrawn nutrients are returned to the soil as leaves and roots, since only the stems are removed from the field. If the crop is retted in the field, nearly all soluble nutrients are washed into the soil during retting (Dewey, 1913).

120 kg N/ha is approximately 106 lbs Nitrogen per acre.

Hemp = good for environment = bullshit.

[f2f]

how about some more recent numbers from europe and australia, mate?

from the paper i linked to above (for conversion purposes: 1 tonne/hectare = 892 lbs/acre)

8.1 Fibre

Yields of dry stems harvested in trials at Biloela, Queensland, have typically ranged from 8 to 11 tonnes/ hectare. The dry weight of stems of industrial hemp plants grown during the 2003 season in trials in the Mackay district ranged from 7.5 to 9.1 tonnes/ hectare, depending on variety and locality (pers. comm. Raylene Hansen, DPI&F). It is hoped that higher yields than these will be attained through breeding and biotechnology. Gaining access to germplasm from around the world will be essential to maintain a competitive edge and enhance new product development. An average crop of industrial hemp grown in France was reported by Fitzgerald (1995) to produce 6 to 8 tonnes stem (16% moisture)/ hectare. This yield would equate to a bast fibre yield of 2.1 to 2.8 tonnes/ hectare, assuming an average 35% to 40% bast in each stem.

According to Nowland (2002), 40 trials of industrial hemp in NSW produced an average yield of 5 tonnes dry stems/ hectare, although a yield of 12 tonnes dry stems/ hectare was reported for irrigated plants grown in trials in the central west of that State (Spurway and Trounce 2003). In 2001 and 2002, an average yield of dry hemp stalks of 5.4 to 6.2 tonnes/ hectare was produced in the European Union by companies aligned with the European Industrial Hemp Association from a cultivated area of 10,400 hectares (EIHA 2003).

also, this paper, dated 1999, has the following to say about hemp growth and fertilizers:

[advres]

man, it smells like shit in here.