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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Canada: High Hoes For Hemp Sportswear
Canadian Press The Guardian (Canada)
Tuesday 25 May 2004 VANCOUVER (CP) - Hemptown Clothing Inc. has enlisted the in its war on cotton. The Vancouver-headquartered company - which says producing a cotton T-shirt deposits more than one-eighth of a kilogram of chemicals in the environment and consumes 6,500 litres of water - bills itself as the world's largest brand of T-shirts made from hemp, whose leaves yield marijuana. Hemptown is collaborating with the NRC to develop a patentable enzyme technology process "that may see hemp fibres replace cotton worldwide." The aim is to produce hemp clothing fabric that would match cotton in price, while eliminating cotton's heavy consumption of irrigation water and agricultural chemicals. "This ground-breaking fibre technology is expected to be delivered into the market within the next three years," Hemptown says. "Hemptown was identified as an ideal partner for NRC," stated Scott Ferguson, the business development officer at the research council's Institute for Biological Sciences. "We are excited about the prospects for this collaboration, which could ultimately revolutionize the apparel industry as well as many other industrial applications," Ferguson said. Some hemp facts, according to the California-headquartered Hemp Industries Association: - Hemp is among the oldest industries, going back more than 10,000 years to the beginnings of pottery. - U.S. presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp, and the American government subsidized hemp during the Second World War to produce rope. - Hemp seed contains more essential fatty acids than any other vegetable source, is second only to soybeans in complete protein, is high in B-vitamins and is 35 per cent dietary fibre. On the other hand, it is not psychoactive. - The bark of the hemp stalk contains some of the world's longest natural soft fibres and are rich in cellulose. Hemp stalk also doesn't make you high. - Hemp grows enthusiastically without herbicides, fungicides or pesticides - hey, it's a weed! - while cotton consumes almost half the chemicals applied to American crops. - Hemp produces more pulp per acre than timber on a sustainable basis, and can be used for every quality of paper, with reduced need for chlorine bleaching. - Experimental hemp fibreboard is twice as strong as wood-based fibreboard.
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