by Bryan Nelson ecoworldly
Published: Tue, April 14, 2009 - 10:30 am CST
Houses built out of hemp instead of traditional building materials leave a ‘better than zero carbon’ footprint, according to new research out of the UK.Aside from helping to combat global warming, building homes from the cannabis plant could also give a boost to struggling rural economies. That’s good news almost everywhere except for within the U.S., where industrialized hemp is still illegal to grow under federal law.
The process for constructing the carbon neutral building material is a unique one which uses lime-based adhesive to bind together hemp fibers. Homes built from the hemp-lime material can reach carbon neutrality in large part due to the remarkable efficiency by which the fast growing hemp plant can store carbon as it grows. The lime adhesive is also important due to its powerful insulating properties.
A consortium has been established out of the University of Bath, where the research was initiated, to collect the necessary engineering data so that British homes can start being built from the new material as soon as possible. A spokesperson for the project stated: “We will be measuring the properties of lime-hemp materials, such as their strength and durability, as well as the energy efficiency of buildings made of these materials.”
This news should also add fuel to the fire of a heated legalization debate in the United States, which remains the only industrialized country in the world that still outlaws the production of hemp. Unlike elsewhere, U.S. law fails to make a distinction between hemp and marijuana, and so growing industrialized hemp can bring the same penalties as growing marijuana.
Technically speaking, hemp is the common name for plants of the entire Cannabis genus, although the term is more typically used to refer only to strains of industrialized varieties which are not cultivated for drug use. Because industrialized hemp grows so quickly, requires almost no pesticides or herbicides, controls topsoil erosion and is a significant carbon sink, many environmentalists have been touting the plant as an eco-friendly miracle crop for decades. Furthermore, hemp can serve as a green-minded replacement for many other raw materials which aren’t good for the environment, such as tree paper, plastics and certain clothing fibers. Hemp seeds are also edible, and hemp seed oils offer healthy alternatives to other cooking oils.
Now house-building materials can also be added to the long list of cannabis’ benefits.
Although several U.S. states have defied the federal government and legalized growing hemp, it still isn’t being grown anywhere due to resistence from the Drug Enforcement Agency. If you’re interested in helping to legalize the plant in the U.S., a nonprofit advocacy organization called Vote Hemp is currently calling upon voters to sign a petition for HR 1866, or the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009. They could use your signature.
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