by Maria Koropecky
Zdorov! Magazine
spring 1997, pages 12-13
Guilty by association. The plight of hemp. In the olden days, hemp enjoyed a happy, productive existence all over the world. Then one day, hemp fell into disfavour in industrialized countries because of its tenuous relationship with its cousin, marijuana.
After years of leading the life of an outlaw, hunted by officials, reviled by the misinformed, and shunned by the business community because of its association with the "Demon Weed," hemp is making a come back of sorts in Canada. On July 20th, 1996, the Canadian federal government passed Bill C-8 making the commercial production of hemp legal. Once again farmers are starting to grow the plant that served many of the needs of early Ukrainian settlers in Canada.
The industrial hemp that is harvested today should not be directly associated with marijuana because the seeds grown have been developed to contain extremely low levels of THC (delta-9-tetrahydro-cannabinol). THC is the active ingredient in those funny cigarettes that Bill Clinton had trouble inhaling. You can smoke hemp till the cows come home and you won't feel any narcotic effects.
The modern world is finally clueing into what the old world knew for thousands of years.
Juliana Shostak emigrated to Canada before the start of World War II, but remembers her family growing hemp sixty years ago on their farm in the province of Volyn in Ukraine.
It was an ideal plant to grow for her family because it served many purposes. "Everything was made from hemp. Everything."
The family didn"t have to devote much of their land to hemp. The plant matures quite fast and chokes out other weeds. It "grows better in the shade. In the sun, they don't grow as tall," she says.
Harvesting the hemp and preparing it for use wasn"t easy in those days. "There are two parts to the plant," says Shostak, "the part with the seeds and the part without. The seeds you pick one by one and the stocks you harvest all at once," she said.
"First we would take the leaves and place them into a dugout full of water. We had to cover them with soil because they float. After three weeks we had to rinse them and really clean them but we couldn"t wash them where there were fish because the fish would die."
Once the stocks and leaves were dry, "we beat them to take the skin off. It is going to be like hair. It turns into something like a horse's tail — it's the best way I can describe it."
"You make a very coarse string (like twine) first and then you use a machine to weave it into cloth." The cloth wasn't died. "We bleached it in the sun."
After all the prepping, the hemp was ready to be made into a host of useful household items. "We made cloth, (table cloths and towels) sacs, bed covers, and heavy horses' blankets. We made things in the wintertime. My mother used to wake up early in the morning and stay up well into the night to work with the hemp."
Shostak encourages the farming of industrial hemp. "I don't see why not, unless the kids try to smoke the leaves. But it's not like marijuana. I never smoked it."
The geese on the other hand were much more interested in the poppy seeds than the hemp. "If the geese ate them, they were going to sit in the field for the whole afternoon. They loved it. They just loved it."
If in the good old days hemp came in handy around the farmstead, today its applications have taken on a much more industrial aspect.
David Betke, founder of the Alternative Fibres Industry Association, promotes hemp as an alternative, environmental product and informs Alberta farmers on the industrial uses of hemp.
"(There are) fifty thousand uses," for the plant and its seed, says an enthusiastic Betke. "A Korean company is making a patented leather substitute. It's like vinyl. It also has been substituted for asbestos in Eastern Europe. It is extremely fire retardant." Even some plastics are now reinforced using hemp fibres. Betke is optimistic that hemp will once again become a popular agricultural and commercial industry.
"You can make almost a tofu out of it. Also a diesel fuel," Betke adds. "I imagine they probably taste the same."
Hemp is perhaps best known as a fibre that replaces trees in the manufacturing of paper. It has been used a a source for making paper for hundreds of years and "there are still sources of 1000-year-old hemp paper," he said.
According to Betke, there are several advantages to using hemp over trees. "An old growth tree take 1,000 years to grow, while hemp grows a 16-foot fibre in 120 days." He also says that, "One acre of hemp can produce as much as 4 acres of trees growing for 20 years. Hemp produces twelve time the amount of fibre that trees do."
Additionally, hemp is a more efficient source of pulp since hemp paper can be recycled "up to seven times" while paper made from tree pulp "can only be recyled three times," Betke said.
Although hemp answers many environmental questions, it still has not won universal respect. Hemp is having trouble in the mainstream because "there's a huge flake factor," trying to legalize recreational marijuana on the same ticket. Betke's association is avoiding that path by refusing memberships to people who "promote hemp's bad cousin."
Diesel fuel and fire retardants may be noble applications of hemp, but most of us are more likely to run into it at the retail level for the time being. Stores hawking all manner of hemp products have begun to sping up across North America.
Anatol Naymchuk has gotten into the game early, selling cosmetics, hats, t-shirts and food all made out of hemp. As the owner of the Global Hemp Company, he sells his products at a flea market booth near Airport and Steeles Roads outside of Toronto. His goal is to open a retail store in Toronto's Bloor West Village or in nearby Brampton, Ontario. Prices range from $2.00 to $200 depending on what you want and business is good. "A lot of people are interested in hemp products."
Interest has been "growing" since he started up late last year, he says.
Customers range from 19 to 70 years old. "But people don't go too public" about being interested in hemp. The customers seem curious but leery. "They really want to known about it and once you have a good conversation with someone, they come around."
The cops don't interfere. "They pass by. They look in sometimes. They don't mind," he said.
Naymchuk imports hemp from Europe. "Ukraine is a big exporter. I'm trying to set up an import-export deal with Ukraine. I'm going to Ukraine in a couple of months to check out the possibilities." However, he says that most hemp now comes through California.
Hemp treats are a popular product at Naymchuk's booth. "They taste almost like Rice Krispy squares but they're made from hemp seeds. They're really good for you. I like making things out of the seeds like organic beef patties. They give you a lot of energy. They're also a detoxifier."
All kinds of people are wearing clothing made out of hemp. "We're working on making jeans out of hemp but they're expensive to make — about $100 a pair. Hemp clothing is ten times stronger than cotton. It's the strongest natural soft fibre on the earth." In fact, it is so strong that according to Naymchuk, Levi's stopped making their jeans out of hemp because they weren't wearing out fast enough.
Naymchuk also mentioned another interesting fact in hemp's colourful history. "Everything before 1883 was written on hemp paper — even the American Declaration of Independence."
To him, hemp has proven itself as a valuable plant. "There's an environmental advantage. You can replicate petroleum products, save trees. The government could make lots of money. There's an answer out there."
He feels so strongly that he challenges the world to present him a logical case against harvesting hemp. "They have no proof to make it illegal. I would really like to hear a good argument to convinve me hemp is a bad thing. I have never heard one."
Although Naymchuk is twenty-one and got his "foot in the door through his uncle that does exporting to Ukraine," he certainly has some solid ideas and great sense of entrepreneurship. Currently, he put in about 16 hours a week into his hemp busines. He also keeps another job so he has more money to invest in his company.
"I would really like to go all out in it as much as I can," he said.
