Get Hip...to Hemp!
By John Persinos
There are countless rock and roll anthems to marijuana and psychedelics, but I have yet to hear a rock star rhapsodize about hemp.
Hemp doesn't occupy center stage like its more glamorous cousin marijuana. The performers at Woodstock didn't urge the crowd to grow hemp. But unsung hemp is becoming big business.
The environmental movement is emerging as a key driver of demand for hemp. According to a recent report released by the research firm New Frontier, governments around the world are showing greater interest in hemp as a way to reduce carbon emissions and combat global warming.
More than 30% of total carbon emissions around the world are generated from the manufacture of physical products and materials such as cement, steel, aluminum, and plastic. Sturdy bio-based materials such as hemp are increasingly deployed among a wide range of industries as a way of reducing their carbon footprints.
The Biden administration is putting eco-friendly policies back to the front of the agenda, especially in regard to alleviating climate change. Government spending on renewable resources, in the U.S. and around the world, is poised to soar this year and beyond.
President Biden's infrastructure plan contains several ambitious initiatives to foster green energy, including biomass industries.
Biomass fuels produce less carbon dioxide than fossil fuels such as petroleum. Biomaterials take carbon out of the atmosphere via photosynthesis, and convert it into useful products.
Hemp fiber conveys significant potential in this realm. The following chart depicts the projected wholesale value of hemp into next year (the years 2024 and 2025 are estimated):
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