A tectonic shift is taking place as previously underground drugs are thrust into the mainstream. As I’ve covered alcohol, tobacco and cannabis for Bloomberg News, a common theme has emerged: Mental-health care is ripe for disruption, and yesterday’s party drugs are tomorrow’s cures.
With the Dose, you’ll get a weekly chronicle of the biggest news about the companies and personalities that are shaping this change.
Pot Porsches and Hempcrete are here From stalled legislation to falling stock prices, cannabis didn’t have the greatest year. But investors are finding something to be optimistic about heading into 2022: industrial hemp. Demand is poised to rise for hemp — the staid sister to the mood-altering forms of cannabis — as it’s increasingly adopted for a wide range of uses, including concrete blocks, clothing and even car parts. The shift is driven by environmental incentives such as carbon caps and single-use plastic bans, which are making some natural materials preferable to those made from petrochemicals.
“Industrial hemp is the biggest opportunity in the cannabis sector as a whole,” said Mina Mishrikey, a partner at Merida Capital Partners. His firm has invested around 90% to 95% of its $500 million in assets under management in cannabis businesses centered around THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, but aims to make more investments in industrial hemp, Mishrikey told me.
Hemp could use the boost after the market struggled to capitalize on the hype following the 2018 farm bill, which legalized hemp and led to over-planting when not enough companies were ready to create end products. In 2021, the number of acres of hemp planted fell to 33,844 from 70,530 a year earlier and 465,787 in 2019 according to New Frontier Data.
Adding to the challenges, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently refused to regulate one of hemp’s best-known products — CBD, or cannabidiol — as a dietary ingredient, casting a specter of uncertainty over the otherwise booming market for creams, tinctures and gummies.
As a material, hemp remains more expensive than alternatives that come from petrochemicals. But India, Canada, Germany and South Africa are among the countries cracking down on plastics in 2022, making alternatives more economical. Meanwhile, pressure to shift from oil and gas to renewable industries is increasing and carbon credits are becoming more valuable — and that’s an area where hemp has an advantage.
Mishrikey sees the plant’s ability to capture carbon while it’s growing, and its ability to use less water than cotton, as key factors that help it disrupt a range of products. Just one category of industrial hemp alone — precast concrete — is worth around $20 billion, roughly the same size as the current U.S. legal marijuana market, he pointed out.
His fund’s investments include Canadian Rockies Hemp Corp., based in Bruderheim, Alberta, which processes hemp for use in textiles, pulp and paper, animal bedding, rope, composites and automobile components, according to its website. Another is Bast Fibre Technologies Inc., based in Victoria, British Columbia, which has a processing technology to make nonwoven fabrics with natural fibers including hemp. That could be helpful for the booming market in wipes, which are ripe for disruption due to the sewer-clogging gobs known as fatbergs.
Hemp could play a role in many categories: plastics, textiles, papers, building materials, protein for humans and animals, and concrete of all forms. Some of the more innovative applications include hempcrete, where hemp fibers are infused in the mortar, and a Porsche car with some components made of hemp. Some see hemp as a viable alternative to almost anything made from petrochemicals, due to the properties of its cellulose fibers.
The U.S. will have some catching up to do: China is the leading grower of hemp and is tiptoeing into the CBD market, starting with Hong Kong. The plants also require different agricultural and processing techniques compared to other forms of cannabis, meaning the supply chain will have to be built out from scratch. Processing the plant’s tough fibers, called decortication, is an arduous practice that takes heavy machinery and has created something of a bottleneck.
That bottleneck is about to get some help from a $500 million impact fund by rePlant Hemp Advisors, launched in early November by Geoff Whaling, co-founder of Collective Growth Corp., and others including Michael Woods, former chief executive officer and chief operating officer of Rothschild & Co. Asset Management U.S. The fund plans to help develop U.S. infrastructure to process hemp and improve the supply chain, focusing on hemp for food and fiber. “I probably have a dozen companies call me a week” about using hemp in their products, Whaling said, citing brands like Chobani, Wrangler jeans and Tesla.
“They all want to know where they can get 100 tons of fiber a year, and the answer, at this point, is nowhere,” he said. “No major manufacturer will sign unless there’s a two-year supply in a warehouse.” But slowly, that’s changing.
“We’re seeing more countries advancing and mandating use of sustainable fibers, more auto companies adopting natural fiber solutions,” Whaling said. “It really is an industrial hemp revolution.”
Number of the week 16.6% The compound annual growth rate of the legal U.S. cannabis market from 2020 to 2025, as estimated by New Frontier Data in their 2021 Year in Review report.
Follow the money and you’ll find the deeper mysteries of what’s going on. In this case, we’re following the practically of what needs to happen for us to sustain our self. It’s apparent our environment, our economics and our Industrial evolution, is in dire straights. Hemp Is leading the way to a New Industrial Revolution
Money seekers are hot on this ‘new trail’ of Industrial Hemp and beginning to ask, what about the rest of the Hemp Plant. Beyond CBD there’s a multi-Billion Dollar industry slowly pirculating, ready to become full brew. Many of us have know this for years… Including the leaders like Thomas Jefferson ‘Hemp is the necessity to the wealth and protection of this country!’
Hemp: The Next Step or Pivot for Investors in Future Green Wave Stocks
The continued maturation of the cannabis industry, and subsequent recent sell-off of recreational marijuana stocks is leading companies to reevaluate new opportunities to expand into.
Industrial hemp is a logical choice as it promises blue sky potential in product development that recreational marijuana never could. This assumption is based on both the multiple health benefits associated to CBD content, but also the industrial applications that the entire hemp plant could provide.
The industrial hemp market space is an exciting new area of product development and research. The next few years will bring us new and exciting choices when it comes to the blended clothing we wear, the raw materials that encompass the cars we drive, the paper we write on, the recognized and healthful food we eat, the natural medicinal alternatives we are prescribed and the wellness products we use.
Industrial hemp has thousands of applications, with many more yet to be discovered now that the plant is available to scientists for research.
According to a 1938 article in Popular Mechanics, at that time, there were over 25,000 uses for the hemp plant. With the increase in technology, knowledge, manufacturing, etc., experts now estimate that with whole plant utilization, the hemp plant actually could have around 50,000 uses![1]
Industrial hemp can be used for textiles, car parts, pet supplies, biofuel, food, construction materials, and biodegradable plastic.
We are quite literally on the forefront of discovering what this extraordinary plant can do. The possibilities are just beginning to be known, which means there is unrealized potential for forward thinking investors positioned in the industrial hemp market.
Many of the products that can be produced from hemp are still in the R&D phase. In my opinion, in the next few years, we could see an explosion of hemp-related manufacturing processes and products that will be available to multiple industries and ultimately the end consumer.
Check out this company – Hemp Black
Sign-up now and stay tuned to FNN updates as this story continues to develop!
Editor’s Note – We are not encouraging buying of any stocks – Encouraging you to keep your eyes open on the Hemp Industrial Revolution! If you happen to know of viable Industrial Hemp Stocks, feel free to reach out and share.
Hemp advocate Amy Ansel says the Hemp plant — marijuana’s sober cousin — is poised to revolutionize industries by taking the place of more toxic materials and putting us on a path to a cleaner, more sustainable world.
The Earth’s resources must be used at a rate at which they can be replenished. However, there is now clear scientific evidence that humanity is living in an unsustainable fashion, and that an unprecedented collective effort is needed to return human use of natural resources to within sustainable limits. Therefor the Environmental Importance for HEMP and Climate Change is crucial!
In 1989, the World Commission on Environment and Development articulated what has now become a widely accepted definition of sustainability: “to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” –Wikipedia
Crucial facts for CLIMATE CHANGE
HEMP IS THE ANSWER! Crucial facts for CLIMATE CHANGE
Hemp converts the sun’s energy via photosynthesis into multi-beneficial cellulose faster than any other plant. Hemp is at least four times richer in cellulose potential than the already legal sources, such as cornstalk and sugarcane, traditionally used for biomass production. Further, hemp is so low-moisture and woody that little to no energy is required to dry the crop prior to biomass conversion, which is not the case for other sources like sugarcane and maize.
According to the IPCC, while fossil-fuel combustion is the primary cause of greenhouse-gas emissions generated by humans (57 percent), deforestation comes in second, contributing almost one-fifth of climate-altering emissions in the form of increased CO2.
According to the Environmental Defense Fund, 32 million acres of tropical rainforest have been cut down every year since 2000. The EDF notes that any realistic plan to reduce global warming has to preserve these rainforests, which absorb CO2 in the air and replace it with oxygen — just as cannabis does. If these rainforests are the lungs of the planet, then hemp can be seen as Earth’s oxygen tank.
Hemp is a suitable replacement for the wood derived from these forests because its fiber is more durable and can be recycled more frequently than wood fiber. Also, the plant’s roots penetrate a foot into the soil during the first six weeks of growth — and can ultimately extend down to eight feet — allowing the plant to withstand flooding. Hemp can also survive intermittent frosts reaching as low as 12°F. Hemp doesn’t require fertilizer or herbicides, and it enriches rather than depletes the soil via aeration through its deep roots.
The hardy and versatile hemp plant would naturally assimilate in forests and tree plantations, although this process would result in initial start-up costs for making the transition. But like every other front in the fight against global warming, it comes down to prioritizing the long-term sustainability of the planet over a shortsighted bottom line.
The various processes for converting hemp biomass into fuel are too numerous to be discussed in this article, but the most promising appears to be hydrolysis, because it can potentially yield 100 gallons per ton by converting cellulose into fermentable glucose. This means a single acre of hemp can theoretically produce ten tons — or 1,000 gallons of fuel — per growing season.
Hale the PLANTS!
The US Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency are all on record declaring the production of biodiesel and bioethanol as essential for addressing the environmental crisis caused by fossil fuels.
This is especially true since, one way or another, the days of fossil fuels are numbered. There will come a point in time when all fossil fuels have been depleted, despite being technically “renewable” because plant and animal materials create such fuels. Since the process takes millions of years, we are depleting known fossil-fuel reserves at a much faster rate than new ones are able to form, which means that workable alternative sources of energy must eventually be harnessed if we are to maintain our present car culture.
It replaces trees as the source of raw material for wood and paper, thereby conserving forests. Trees take years to grow, while a crop of hemp can be grown in a few months. One acre of hemp produces as much paper annually as 4 acres of trees.
When burning hemp as a fuel, carbon dioxide is released into the air, but this is absorbed by the next crop, which can be harvested 120 days after planting. This quick growth avoids the build-up of carbon dioxide. Also, hemp is a very leafy plant and thus contributes a high level of oxygen to the atmosphere during its growth; between 20 and 40%. This makes up for the loss of oxygen when it is burnt as a fuel, which in turn, reduces unwanted effects of global warming, acid rain and the depletion in the ozone layer on the environment.
Air pollution is reduced since hemp is naturally resistant to pests and does not need pesticides and herbicides to be sprayed. Very little fertilizers are required, since it’s abundant leaves fall into the soil and release the required nutrients and minerals, thereby creating better soil tilth. Cotton and flax are known to consume 50% of all pesticides; hemp replaces cotton as a raw material in the manufacturing of paper and cloth, and flax fiber or seed for animal feed, animal bedding and paper.
Soil enrichment: The hemp crop grows dense and vigorously. Sunlight cannot penetrate the plants to reach the ground, and this means the crop is normally free of weeds. Its deep roots use groundwater and reduce its salinity. Also, erosion of topsoil is limited, thereby reducing water pollution. The roots give nitrogen and other nutrients to the soil. After the harvest, this soil makes excellent compost amendments for other plants, and hemp cultivation can follow the rotation of agriculture with wheat or soybean. In fact, the same soil can be used to grow hemp for many years, without losing its high quality. The hemp plant absorbs toxic metals emitted by nuclear plants into the soil, such as copper, cadmium, lead and mercury.
Fabrics made of hemp do not have any chemical residue, and is therefore safe for consumers. Even if the fabric contains only 50% hemp, it can keep the UV rays of the sun from harming the skin underneath.
Hemp products can be recycled, reused and are 100% biodegradable. The growth speed of the plant is fast enough to meet the increasing industrial and commercial demand for these products. Switching to hemp products will help save the environment, leaving a cleaner and greener planet for the next generation.
The current state of Hemp does not seem to be focused on fiber. why?
Colorado is more closely associated with cannabis production, but it is also the leading producer of hemp. On the state level, hemp was legalized in Colorado back in 2012, so producers have had a huge headstart on the competition.
Kentucky has retaken its place as a major producer of hemp since the crop was legalized by state legislators in 2013. Before the change in federal law, there were over 200 licensed hemp growers in the state as well as 43 processors.
Oregon, North Dakota, Minnesota and New York are other major producers of hemp. These states benefited from their legislators legalizing hemp years before the federal law changed.
Other agricultural states are almost certain to embrace hemp as a crop now that the crop is legal on the federal level.
For the first time in our life, we as a country and a society can have hope for a sustainable thriving future. We now have the ability to utilize our natural resources of HEMP, especially hemp for fiber. Side note here, Hemp fiber is used for industry so the level of THC is non-existent, it’s a non-issue. No one’s going to smoke a shoe, a house, even a piece of paper or hemp plastic. This is a big benefit to this industry, the regulation change, there’s no ingestion of the plant on any level. So again the question is why not grow hemp fiber?
While there’s been a big push toward going green — why are big companies still focusing on trees for their products?
Why not Hemp? Do you think businesses don’t know about Hemp’s benefits, or don’t know how to step away from the petrochemical industrial complex? Are they really in the dark, or are they simply choosing to avoid Hemp’s multi-billion dollar future, no matter what the cost to our environment? Climate change and the resultant economic fallout is happening now, and we need to move back to the hemp as a resource.
Here’s one good reason: Crops of hemp fiber can be grown in 12 to 14 weeks.
Jack Herer said it perfectly: “Why use up a forest which was centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?”
Why is it, as we move into 2021, that Hemp is not a major solution for many of the answers we seek? I cannot be the only one who stands in complete awe about why Hemp is not a primary economic movement in our country and throughout the world. Actually, we do know why, and I wonder what “We the People” of this planet are going to do about it. How will we turn things around?
How is it that big companies are doing everything they can to go green but aren’t moving toward Hemp? How is it possible that these major companies don’t know about the power of Hemp? How can we go forward in this country with absolutely no plan for this wonder plant being included as part of our economy and the environment? Why do major companies such as Coca-Cola make a move from plastic bottles to paper bottles — made from wood — when they could have used Hemp plastic instead? What am I missing here?
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, scientists estimate that eight million metric tons of plastic — the approximate weight of 90 aircraft carriers — find their way into our oceans every year. The Paper Bottle Company (Paboco) wants to help manufacturers and distributors reduce their single-use plastic waste by creating bottles made from degradable plant sugars rather than fossil fuels.
BillerudKorsnäs, a paper packaging developer, first started this initiative in 2013 and has been joined by research companies and industry leaders like Avantium and ALPLA. The project proudly announced in October 2019 that Coca-Cola, L’Oreal, and Absolut had joined their efforts.
The historic brewery, Carlsberg, has been a long-time partner of the Paper Bottle Project and explained in a press release, “We are working on developing the world’s first ‘paper’ beer bottle made from sustainably-sourced wood fibers that is both 100% bio-based and fully recyclable.” Shortly after, the brewing company unveiled its first paper bottle for their Pilsner beer as proof of concept on their social media sites. These paper bottles, made out of a plant-based polymer called “PEF,” are expected to be fully recyclable and naturally degrade within a year, unlike their plastic counterparts. The sustainability company which creates these bottles hopes to have them ready for consumer use by 2023.
Paboco Technical Director Christina Carlsen says, “Being part of this journey from the beginning, inventing the technology and building the first machine for the paper bottle with my bare hands is my chance to make a difference. A difference towards a sustainable world for future generations. What we are doing is not just a new bottle; we are making a difference.”
This push towards eliminating single-use plastics comes off of last year’s momentum to reduce plastic straw use in many countries and corporations around the globe. Similarly, entire countries are trying their hardest to positively contribute to sustainability initiatives like China’s plan to ban plastic bags in all of its major cities by the end of 2020. Through these projects, we can see that the global community is taking responsibility for the growing environmental waste problem and uses innovation and human ingenuity to help ensure we have a clean, healthy Earth for many centuries to come.
Companies like Coca-Cola, Carlsberg, and Absolut support The Paper Bottle Company’s efforts to create sustainable, recyclable bottles.
While I applaud the efforts of these companies, who are making paper bottles to help mitigate the severe plastic pollution problem we face, I need to ask: Is this really their best solution? My big (and ongoing) question is: Why not hemp?
How do we reach these big corporations and educate them on the powers of Hemp? How do we bring Hemp Fiber awareness to industrialist that could use it to turn our failing industries around? Decorticators exist! Farmers and farmland are plentiful and Hemp fiber has zero THC. It can be made into hundreds of products we use daily — from plastic, paper, biofuel, building material, clothing, super-capacitors — and the list goes on. Does this not sound insane? No-one is talking about industrial hemp for our sustainable future.
I may be preaching to the choir here, or just maybe I’m just all alone, but someone, please, let me know how we turn this situation around. Hemp is standing by to save the world, and it needs your help.
We need to bring Hemp awareness to our world in every way we can. Remember – Hemp is not CBD, it’s our economic, industrial and environmental saving grace.
What can you do to help? Who do you know that can make a difference? Who can we highlight here at HempingtonPost.com to ensure that Hemp becomes the game changer we’ve all been waiting for?
