'Try to picture that in the mind's eye: there is a day approaching soon when there will be a greater weight of concrete on Earth than every single tree in every forest, every fish in every sea, every farm animal in every field, and every person alive right now.'
- BBC
'“The recreational marijuana initiative is a very, very troubling initiative,” said Bob Warren, president of the contractors’ group. “The MCA board voted to fight this with all our strength and resources.
“We chose to support the Gianforte campaign because of his similar opposition.”'
- KTVH News
When humans decided to settle from their wandering hunter-gatherer ways thousands of years ago, one of the key problems they faced was that of shelters to protect them from heat, cold, rain, and potential threats from other animals. Natural shelters like caves gave way to human-made shelters. Wood and foliage was used to build these shelters as humans settled down to a life of agriculture. Slowly the use of mud and clay, along with the mixture of these materials with biomass, enabled humans to make more permanent structures that could be sculpted according to one's needs. These structures required reduced maintenance and were stronger and more durable, enabling humans to keep out the elements and threats from the animal world better. They enabled humans to stay warm in cold conditions, cool in hot conditions, and dry in wet conditions. They enabled humans to start building larger and more complex structures that could house more people, as the sizes of families grew with the shift to the agricultural economy and the increase in human life spans.
Slowly, humans innovated with the use of building materials and started creating even more stronger, durable, and larger structures using bricks and stone. Bricks were made by baking mud, thus making them much stronger. Stones were cut out from surrounding areas to form blocks using materials like laterite, sandstone, limestone, granite, etc. These bricks and stones could be stacked together, and one on top of the other, in interlocking fashion. This enabled the creation of even larger and complex structures such as large multi-storeyed homes, where once all homes had only one level. This also enabled the creation of community spaces, such as temples, meeting halls, and administrative buildings. The creation of cities, fortresses and castles were well underway with all this. Roofing continued to be made from wood, leaves or baked mud in the form of tiles. Gradually the sizes of the cities grew. But all this was still living in the lap of nature, taking from it what was essential for survival. The material used for our settlements were natural. They were damaging to the environment to the extent that stone was quarried and forests were cut down but the damage was something that the earth seemed to be able to cope with.
When we discovered the fossil fuel coal, we discovered that after we burned coal to generate electricity in our power stations, we were left with a byproduct, fly ash, that posed a challenge for us as it started taking up huge areas of land, besides polluting our air and water. One of the inventions we made to overcome this challenge was the creation of cement, and subsequently concrete - a mixture of cement and stone, with iron and steel added as we went along. We found that with cement and concrete we could solve the problem of disposing the huge amounts of ash produced from thermal power plants, as well as solve the problem of using natural materials to build our settlements.
We also discovered that we could create plastics from the byproducts of petrochemical fuels, thus solving another problem of waste disposal that was starting to worry us. Plastics, along with glass, could be used as building materials, and they worked well in conjunction with concrete.
In the 20th century, we saw a rapid shift in building materials - from wood, mud bricks, stones and foliage - to concrete, plastics, steel and glass. The traditional building materials were still used in rural communities but our cities started taking on a new form. As more and more people migrated from rural economies to cities, the cities began to grow exponentially to house the burgeoning human populations. Cities grew not just horizontally, but also vertically. The combination of concrete, glass and steel meant that we could now build structures with hundreds of floors, as against the traditional materials that could not support more than half a dozen levels at the maximum. While we reveled in our new found ingenuity, and went all out, in our consumption of fossil fuels for energy and its byproducts for buildings and settlements, the downsides of such an approach started to emerge.
Not only was the burning of fossil fuels for energy heating up our planet and polluting our air, land and water, even our concrete, steel and glass buildings were contributing to the heating up of the planet. These building materials were so strong that they lasted for decades. The weight of these buildings created pressure on the earth that supported them. The heating up of the buildings created micro weather systems around cities disrupting rainfall, and the natural flow of water and wind. Carbon emissions from these buildings started contributing significantly to global warming. The disposal of these new building materials when they had served their purpose posed great problems, and soon we found that where earlier fly ash from thermal power stations were being dumped we know had debris from these building materials taking their place.
This inter-connectedness of fossil fuels and our building materials, and our dependency on them has created the greatest challenge to humans, and to life on the planet itself. With nature now out of balance as a result of all this, we find scorching heat waves and drought in some places, flooding, hurricanes and cyclones in other places. Earthquakes, flooding, landslides and cyclones today, if they occur in urban places, is much more damaging than in the past, because our modern building materials amplify the damage that earthquakes can cause, unlike in the past where the building materials themselves contributed much less to the damage. That is also because we have completely disregarded the natural topography and behavior of our environment when we have gone overboard with our buildings.
In trying to estimate the weight of the concrete that humans have added to the earth, BBC reports that - ''However, Emily Elhacham of the Weizmann Institute of Science and colleagues recently attempted to give it a shot. Their goal was to better understand humanity's impact during the Anthropocene by totting up the weight of all inanimate human-made objects on Earth. As part of their calculations, they found that concrete accounts for around half of all human-made things – the single biggest category of anthropogenic material. And if its rate of growth continues, it will overtake the total weight of Earth's biomass sometime around 2040. Try to picture that in the mind's eye: there is a day approaching soon when there will be a greater weight of concrete on Earth than every single tree in every forest, every fish in every sea, every farm animal in every field, and every person alive right now.'
In terms of the contribution of the building industry to global carbon emissions, Lets Talk Hemp reports that - 'The built environment generates almost 40% of greenhouse gas emissions — more than any other sector of the economy, including transportation, agriculture and industry.' New Frontier Data reports that - 'The construction and operation of buildings is already responsible for roughly 10% of global CO2e emissions, and projected to more than double over the next half-century – the equivalent of building a new New York City each month. Fiberglass insulation, especially, possesses a substantial carbon footprint. To manufacture it, molten glass must be heated to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, and mixed with chemicals and minerals mined from the earth, an incredibly energy intensive process.'
Hemp as a solution to this problem that humans have created is something that we can ill afford to ignore now. There is increasing evidence that the use of hempcrete -a composite made of natural materials, lime and hemp - can solve the problems created by concrete, fiberglass and steel.
The lime component consists of air lime that is formulated to speed up
the setting process. The hurds are made using hemp stalks.
First, the raw material that goes into making hempcrete. Hemp is a sustainable, renewable crop that is healing for the planet just by growing it. It rejuvenates the soil, sequesters carbon, requires minimal or no chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and grows in diverse climatic conditions requiring minimal water for growing. It has short growth cycles and can be planted more than once a year. Hemp was once one of India's foremost agricultural crops, with its use being primarily in the areas of medicine and intoxication.
In the US, hemp was reported to be the six most valuable crop in 2022,
just three years after its reintroduction into the economy by its
legalization through the Farm Bill of 2018. Globally, besides the US, countries that are key producers of hemp are France and China. China uses its hemp primarily in the textile industry, whereas the main uses of hemp by France is not clear to me. Hemp can be grown locally, and used locally, for a particular geography's building needs. This greatly reduces the carbon footprint involved with moving steel, concrete and glass over large distances to the areas that need these materials for construction. MJBizDaily reports that - 'It became more difficult to procure insulation after temperatures plummeted in February in Texas, which is among the top producers and distributors of building materials nationwide. When the Suez Canal was blocked for six days in March after the grounding of the massive Ever Given container ship, all sorts of building materials became even more difficult to get. Wholesale steel prices, for example, rose 36% during the first six months of the year, according to federal data. Lumber prices in June were up 23% from January and 48% from June 2020'. For many nations that cannot afford the costs of building with concrete, steel and glass, and who worry about the impact that this will have on their environment, the use of locally grown hemp offers a significant solution. New Frontier Data reports that - 'Hemp-based construction materials are especially attractive both for African countries experiencing rapid population growth, and to accommodate the building boom required to house, employ, and entertain expanding populations. Construction projects on the continent exceeded $500 billion in 2019, and are accordingly expected to grow as countries continue to economically develop.'
Then we have the actual benefits of hempcrete as a building material.
The US Department of Energy (DoE) is funding efforts into the study of hemp as an insulating material for buildings to improve energy efficiency, heat retention and transfer. Marijuana Moment reports that - 'Specifically, DOE is interested in the company’s HempWool product, which is described as “the most sustainable, high performing insulation material on the planet.” Beyond being a non-toxic alternative to traditional insulation, the hemp-based product also has a strong thermal resistance and a low carbon footprint. “The Department of Energy is interested in the decarbonization potential of insulation and other building materials made from hemp fibers,” Gibbons told HempBuildMag.' MSN reports that - '"One of the properties of hemp is, it's inherently anti-microbial, antibacterial, so it will absorb smells," she said, adding it prevents mold.' The US DoE also reports that - 'Gibbons has developed hemp fiber insulation that is nontoxic, high-performing, and carbon-negative. The hemp-based product can drastically reduce a building’s carbon footprint while increasing the occupant’s health and comfort. The material also has the potential to achieve a high R-value, which denotes efficiency, and is fire resistant. Hemp-based insulation releases zero carbon and can be manufactured at a lower cost because the material can be sourced wholly in the U.S.' Architecture Daily reports that - 'The innovativeness of hemp concrete as a building material lies in its function as a multi-performance material. It can entirely replace mineral aggregates in conventional concretes, and historically it was added to concretes and mortars to avoid retractions in plaster or clay brick. When cured, it retains a large amount of air, with a density is equivalent to 15% of traditional concrete, making it an excellent thermal and acoustic insulator. An interesting feature of the material is that it is both a good thermal insulator and has high thermal inertia. That is, though light and porous, hempcrete can quickly store energy and release it gradually, making it effective for climates with high temperature variation between day and night. It also has good fire resistance, is non-toxic, and is naturally resistant to mold and insects. There are even surveys that point to hempcrete being a carbon-negative material, which in addition to compensating for the carbon emitted in production, actually stores additional carbon within the material itself.'
Building with hemp is similar to building with traditional materials in the simplicity of the process. It requires no sophisticated technology and large machinery to build with hemp. Individuals and small groups can build a small house by themselves. MSN reports that - 'Goodvin is hosting a workshop on Saturday and Sunday about the basics of using hempcrete as an infill, from framing to finish for code-approved builds. A tiny home will be framed and ready for the workshop. Participants will learn how to form, mix, and fill walls with hempcrete. "You can actually do this yourself if that's something you want to do, or you can get a crowd of friends together and do that, too," she said.' Besides the simplicity of it, hempcrete can be moulded to create wonderful aesthetic designs that the ugly concrete can never achieve.
Then comes the question of disposal of construction material when one wants to get rid of it. MSN reports that - '"Whatever falls on the ground, you can put that back into the next mix," Rogers said. This reduces the number of skip bins on site and ultimately reduces waste. There is also an element of sustainability that comes with hemp homes as they can store carbon. "When you finish with it [you can] push it back down into the earth," Rogers said. It makes no carbon because it's self composting, instead of using your brick, your concrete and everything else - that just becomes landfill. You can't get rid of that."'
Some of the key challenges facing the large scale introduction of hemp in building and construction materials lies in its approval by standards and certifying bodies that need to make the necessary changes to incorporate it. The biggest challenges, of course, are the opposition of the fossil fuel industry to the use of hemp in the construction industry. This opposition to hemp by the fossil fuel industry has ensured that hemp cultivation is banned and discouraged by governments world wide. The construction industry itself will post resistance to the adoption of hemp, and continue to use concrete for construction, due to the kickbacks and lobbying from the fossil fuel industry, and the huge revenues that large builders and construction companies make from the use of fossil fuel based building materials. KTHV News reports that '“The recreational marijuana initiative is a very, very troubling initiative,” said Bob Warren, president of the contractors’ group. “The MCA board voted to fight this with all our strength and resources. “We chose to support the Gianforte campaign because of his similar opposition.”'
It is only a grassroots level movement that can revolutionize the construction industry. More and more individuals, and small architecture companies, are pushing for the adoption of hempcrete as a manufacturing material. Yes, government organizations like the US Department of Energy are also showing support, and university research is increasing. But to make a significant and timely impact, the entire global construction industry needs to accept and acknowledge its role in global carbon emissions, primarily due to the use of fossil-fuel based construction material. The construction industry, working along with governments, needs to change the face of global construction, and make hemp a key pillar in building construction. It is not an impossible task. Concrete only entered the picture in the 20th century. It is time to take it out of the picture and bring in hemp. In the recent climate talks by global heads of state, COP28, there was unanimous agreement that the world needed to move away from fossil fuels. The adoption of hemp by the construction industry, in addition to its adoption by the bio-fuel, textiles, plastics and transportation industries, are key strategies in the eventual move from fossil fuels. Hemp needs to be made the central pillar of the construction of a new world that has a diminished role for fossil fuels and its by products.
Related Articles
The following articles are related to the above subject.
'Building with newly legalized hemp-based materials will give an added boost to the U.S. goals to reduce carbon emissions caused by the construction industry, new data shows.
Industrial hemp, the superstar carbon-sequestering plant, can help reduce the carbon output of the built environment through the construction concept of embodied carbon.
The built environment generates almost 40% of greenhouse gas emissions — more than any other sector of the economy, including transportation, agriculture and industry.'
https://www.letstalkhemp.com/hemp-reducing-embodied-carbon/
'Specifically, DOE is interested in the company’s HempWool product, which is described as “the most sustainable, high performing insulation material on the planet.”
Beyond being a non-toxic alternative to traditional insulation, the hemp-based product also has a strong thermal resistance and a low carbon footprint.
“The Department of Energy is interested in the decarbonization potential of insulation and other building materials made from hemp fibers,” Gibbons told HempBuildMag.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/feds-fund-research-into-hemp-fiber-insulation-as-environmentally-friendly-alternative/
'It became more difficult to procure insulation after temperatures plummeted in February in Texas, which is among the top producers and distributors of building materials nationwide.
When the Suez Canal was blocked for six days in March after the grounding of the massive Ever Given container ship, all sorts of building materials became even more difficult to get.
Wholesale steel prices, for example, rose 36% during the first six months of the year, according to federal data. Lumber prices in June were up 23% from January and 48% from June 2020'
https://mjbizdaily.com/cannabis-firms-face-surging-costs-for-building-materials/
'However, Emily Elhacham of the Weizmann Institute of Science and colleagues recently attempted to give it a shot. Their goal was to better understand humanity's impact during the Anthropocene by totting up the weight of all inanimate human-made objects on Earth. As part of their calculations, they found that concrete accounts for around half of all human-made things – the single biggest category of anthropogenic material. And if its rate of growth continues, it will overtake the total weight of Earth's biomass sometime around 2040.
Try to picture that in the mind's eye: there is a day approaching soon when there will be a greater weight of concrete on Earth than every single tree in every forest, every fish in every sea, every farm animal in every field, and every person alive right now.'
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210628-concrete-the-material-that-defines-our-age
'"One of the properties of hemp is, it's inherently anti-microbial, antibacterial, so it will absorb smells," she said, adding it prevents mold.
Goodvin is hosting a workshop on Saturday and Sunday about the basics of using hempcrete as an infill, from framing to finish for code-approved builds.
A tiny home will be framed and ready for the workshop. Participants will learn how to form, mix, and fill walls with hempcrete.
"You can actually do this yourself if that's something you want to do, or you can get a crowd of friends together and do that, too," she said. '
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/hempcrete-alberta-company-uses-hemp-to-build-tiny-homes/ar-AAKLgmX
'Tommy Gibbons, the BTO Innovation Crossroads fellow, will focus his project on energy-efficient, carbon-negative, bio-based insulation. Gibbons has developed hemp fiber insulation that is nontoxic, high-performing, and carbon-negative. The hemp-based product can drastically reduce a building’s carbon footprint while increasing the occupant’s health and comfort. The material also has the potential to achieve a high R-value, which denotes efficiency, and is fire resistant.
Hemp-based insulation releases zero carbon and can be manufactured at a lower cost because the material can be sourced wholly in the U.S. Gibbons holds an undergraduate degree in public policy from Princeton University and is a certificated green associate from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.'
https://www.energy.gov/eere/buildings/articles/bto-funds-first-lab-embedded-entrepreneurship-program-innovator-oak-ridge
'Insulation is necessary in the construction of every residential and commercial structure. In the U.S., it is a $11.4 billion industry, and is forecasted to continue growing over the next five years at a 2.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Growth in the insulation market is part of a thriving construction materials industry that is swelling with development. The immense scale of growth in the construction market represents a unique challenge in light of the industry’s outsized carbon footprint.
The construction and operation of buildings is already responsible for roughly 10% of global CO2e emissions, and projected to more than double over the next half-century – the equivalent of building a new New York City each month.
Fiberglass insulation, especially, possesses a substantial carbon footprint. To manufacture it, molten glass must be heated to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, and mixed with chemicals and minerals mined from the earth, an incredibly energy intensive process.'
https://newfrontierdata.com/cannabis-insights/insulation-with-hemp-makes-good-sense-if-not-yet-profits/
'Eliminating materials like concrete or plastic or replacing them with alternatives is not going to address the fundamental problem with human attitudes and our unparalleled appetite for more. This is exactly where materialism can seamlessly transform into a known unknown risk factor in global catastrophe. The myriad of ways in which it can turn this planet into a mundane world is something our civilisation has never experienced before.
In the absence of a fully secure evolutionary shield, we could depend on our intelligence to survive. Nevertheless, as Abraham Loeb, professor of science at Harvard University and an astronomer who is searching for dead cosmic civilisations puts it, "the mark of intelligence is the ability to promote a better future".'
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210520-could-humans-really-destroy-all-life-on-earth
'As seen in Europe, it is likely that products requiring the least amount of processing and calibration will prove to be the first to achieve market viability in the U.S. and Canada. High-volume, low-margin products include mulch, animal bedding, and animal litter, along with pulp and paper. As the industry matures, ever more lucrative fiber applications should become viable. A New Frontier Data poll of fiber processors found them anticipating the best five-year growth potential among segments to include construction materials, automotive parts, bioplastics, and nonwoven textiles, respectively.
Construction materials, particularly, have attracted significant attention from hemp stakeholders. Companies such as Hempitecture – which designs and builds homes using hemp construction materials – and HempWood – manufacturer of a hemp-based wood alternative – have taken early leads in popularizing the use of hemp in construction, but face uphill regulatory battles against notoriously cautious international standards organizations, and toward expanding municipal building codes.'
https://newfrontierdata.com/cannabis-insights/hemp-fiber-market-set-for-growth-but-end-markets-remain-uncertain/
'While the rapid industrialization is being welcomed by African governments for the attendant economic stimulus, it also draws concerns from environmental activists who fret that — should today’s developing countries undergo industrialization in the same manner that such unfolded in the West and Asia — it will prove catastrophic in the scope of global carbon emissions. Therefore, significant interests reside in the development of carbon-neutral replacements for traditional materials in industries such as construction, textile production, and plastics manufacturing. It is in those hemp products where hopes seek niches to decarbonize economies (or, better yet, avoid carbonizing altogether) without destroying them.
Hemp-based construction materials are especially attractive both for African countries experiencing rapid population growth, and to accommodate the building boom required to house, employ, and entertain expanding populations. Construction projects on the continent exceeded $500 billion in 2019, and are accordingly expected to grow as countries continue to economically develop.'
https://newfrontierdata.com/cannabis-insights/can-industrial-hemp-help-africa-make-the-quantum-leap-to-sustainability/
'When building hemp homes, Rogers doesn't use paint, reducing toxic smells that can linger with conventionally built homes. Better yet, the company uses 100% of the material.
"Whatever falls on the ground, you can put that back into the next mix," Rogers said. This reduces the number of skip bins on site and ultimately reduces waste.
There is also an element of sustainability that comes with hemp homes as they can store carbon. "When you when you finish with it [you can] push it back down into the earth," Rogers said. It makes no carbon because it's self composting, instead of using your brick, your concrete and everything else - that just becomes landfill. You can't get rid of that."'
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/just-get-over-the-marijuana-stigma-the-benefits-of-building-houses-with-hemp-according-to-experts/ar-BB1cWGVd
'UC Riverside will use a new approach to produce high quality, cellulose-rich hemp pulp that improves the strength and insulating properties of so called “hempcrete” building materials.
Hempcrete emits zero gaseous emissions and zero toxic waste products. The research team will now look to produce larger hempcrete blocks and perform field trials in partnership with private companies Hempire USA, Match Patch Pro, and The Hurd Co to explore adoption of this approach with respect to commercial products.'
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-awards-nearly-75000-uc-riverside-student-team-sustainable-materials-research
'The innovativeness of hemp concrete as a building material lies in its function as a multi-performance material. It can entirely replace mineral aggregates in conventional concretes, and historically it was added to concretes and mortars to avoid retractions in plaster or clay brick [3]. When cured, it retains a large amount of air, with a density is equivalent to 15% of traditional concrete, making it an excellent thermal and acoustic insulator. An interesting feature of the material is that it is both a good thermal insulator and has high thermal inertia [4]. That is, though light and porous, hempcrete can quickly store energy and release it gradually, making it effective for climates with high temperature variation between day and night. It also has good fire resistance, is non-toxic, and is naturally resistant to mold and insects. There are even surveys that point to hempcrete being a carbon-negative material, which in addition to compensating for the carbon emitted in production, actually stores additional carbon within the material itself.'
https://www.archdaily.com/944429/hemp-concrete-from-roman-bridges-to-a-possible-material-of-the-future
Wave 1 - Animal Bedding, Absorbents, Animal Litter, Mulch & Biochar, Wood Substitutes, Plastics Additives
Wave 2 - Paper & Pulp, Hempcrete, Particleboard, Nonwoven Geotextiles/Matting, Nonwoven Insulation, Fiberglass substitutes
Wave 3 - Industrial and Consumer Textiles, Bioplastics, Automotive Components, Cellulose, Supercapacitors
https://newfrontierdata.com/cannabis-insights/the-three-waves-of-hemp-fiber-production/
'Bob Escher said they are “working with the federal government to have hempcrete designated as a certified building material so that architects and builders can specify it with confidence that it will meet certain criteria.”
On their wish list is a loosening of restrictions – including eliminating testing requirements – for producers growing hemp for industrial purposes, though they recognize the challenges that would entail.
“I would like to see that if you’re growing hemp for fiber, you don’t have to test for delta-9 or anything else,” explained Alex Escher. “But that’s probably going to take a while for people and government agencies to accept.”'
https://newfrontierdata.com/cannabis-insights/hemp-construction-trade-group-aims-to-ease-usda-regulations-for-producers/
'The U.S. hemp-derived CBD market alone is projected to reach $450 million by 2020, and China's cannabis market could grow to 100 billion yuan by 2022 (approximately $14.5 billion). Hemp is already interwoven into the futures of the automotive, construction, energy, environmental mediation and technology industries. Once fully utilized and legal, this plant could impact the global economic positionings of North America, China and Africa.'
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/10/23/the-age-of-hemp-global-advanced-industrial-applications/
'Hemp fans often tout the crop as a miracle plant. At the NoCo Hemp Expo in Loveland, Colorado, in April, speakers pumped up the crowd with talk of hemp-based plastic, clothing, concrete, houses and animal feed, among another 25,000 possible uses. But it could be years before any of these products are commercially viable in the U.S. There are still significant legal barriers, for one. At the federal level, hemp remains classified as a Schedule 1 controlled substance, alongside drugs like heroin. That means that banks can’t loan money to hemp-based businesses or hold money earned from growing or selling hemp products. Farmers also can’t get crop insurance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to cover potential losses to drought or disease.'
https://www.hcn.org/issues/50.16/politics-agriculture-republicans-tout-hemps-potential
'What exactly is hemp used for? The better question is what can't it be used for. Hemp is a durable material that can be fashioned into everything from food and beer to clothing to beauty products. Hemp can also be used to make plastic, an alternative biofuel, cars, and an estimated 25,000 other products.
Is it difficult to grow? Nope, hemp is a farmer's best friend. It's good for the soil, helping to remove toxins. It grows well with little fertilizer, no pesticides, and less water than many other crops. It's also extremely dense, which means it takes less valuable farmland. It's relatively profitable (Canadian farmers are reporting $300 per/acre profits). And it grows fast—that's where the name weed came from.
So I've heard it's good for combating climate change. Why's that? While not a silver bullet for climate, hemp is one of many possible agricultural solutions for a variety of reasons. Hemp actually absorbs more CO2 than trees, needs less water than plants like cotton, and can also be used to make a sustainable biofuel.'
https://www.sierraclub.org/articles/2019/01/whats-fuss-about-hemp
'According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 16 states allow industrial hemp production for commercial purposes. Industrial hemp fibers could be used for products ranging from building materials and textiles to cosmetics and health food, for example, through processes that reduce safety and environmental hazards.'
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/illinois-lawmakers-pass-bill-legalizing-industrial-hemp/
'According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 16 states allow industrial hemp production for commercial purposes. Industrial hemp fibers could be used for products ranging from building materials and textiles to cosmetics and health food, for example, through processes that reduce safety and environmental hazards.'
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/illinois-lawmakers-pass-bill-legalizing-industrial-hemp/
'“The recreational marijuana initiative is a very, very troubling initiative,” said Bob Warren, president of the contractors’ group. “The MCA board voted to fight this with all our strength and resources.
“We chose to support the Gianforte campaign because of his similar opposition.”'
https://www.ktvh.com/news/election-2020/building-contractors-endorse-gianforte-for-his-opposition-to-marijuana-measure
