• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Why not hemp?

Understood. Actually, I know more than a few guys like that, and have even driven a few miles with them. It can be genuinely scary when you do; almost like something from Hunter Thompson.

But, like you, I know too many folks who will occasionally indulge. Sadly, they get the bad rap, and wind up being tarred because of the actions of a pathetic minority.
 
manny said:
Shera, where are the hemp fields? As you note, hemp products are not banned in the US, just the hemp itself. We're a global economy now -- most of our clothing is already made overseas. Even that most American of apparel, blue jeans, are now made overseas. There's literally no barrier at all to China or Brazil or other clothing manufacturing centers to make clothes out of hemp instead of cotton or nylon or orlon and shipping them here or to other markets.
Click to expand...

In Brazil we have shoes, handbags and clothing made out of hemp. There is a Congressman who proudly shows off his hemp shoes, he's also known for fighting for the legalization of marijuana. I own a beach bag made of hemp: it is resistant and easy to clean the sand off.

In the beginning there was a lot of curiosity regarding it and fashion people would capitalize on that. Lots of models in catwalks wearing hemp dressess, pants, etc. "Oh, it's made of hemp", nowadays, ceased to be interesting.

Those products are still seriously overpriced. First, for novelty, and second, more recently, probably because there isn't enough scale. Also, it is likely that other countries impose restrictions to it, thus making exports not a viable possibility.

Another aspect is that some people are prejudiced against it - if I wear it, people will think I'm a pothead! In many cases it is likely people would not notice it was made of hemp unless advertised, but there is still the higher price.
 
Luciana Nery said:
In Brazil we have shoes, handbags and clothing made out of hemp. ...
Click to expand...

Its funny, when I wrote my post yesterday I was originally going to say that after very recently learning about how common ethanol is in Brazil when I had always thought it was never used anywhere (as discussed in the current thread on Iraq Oil ) -- I was just not prepared to assume that hemp products were not at least somewhat more commonly availble elsewhere in the world.

But then I did a quick search on the topic and nothing came up and I usually keep up with the news so I thought -- what were the chances?

I should have gone with my original hunch and I really have to start reading more international web sites. Only reading USA web sites obviously isn't enough.

Thanks for posting Luciana, both in this thread and the Iraqian Oil one -- I learned a lot.
 
username said:
I really am not sure about there being any market for hemp on a wide scale even if all obstacles were removed. There is a lot of infrastructure invested in the materials currently being used. To switch would require hemp being more efficient (in most cases efficient=less expensive) than existing materials and I am not sure if that would be the case any time soon.
Click to expand...
It's already been demonstrated by Canadian farmers that hemp cultivation and preparation is less resource-intensive than cotton or flax; thereby cheaper. The only thing that is keeping the price up now is simply economy of scale, due to lack of sufficient market size, due to interference by the US federal government. Once current draconian restrictions are eliminated, the market would likely scale up very quickly.

Of course, one could claim that the mainstream fashion market would still prefer to avoid hemp, since cotton wears out quicker, thus ensuring a greater turnover of products. If one was prone to that sort of conspiracy theorizing....
 
Shera said:
I should have gone with my original hunch and I really have to start reading more international web sites. Only reading USA web sites obviously isn't enough.
Thanks for posting Luciana, both in this thread and the Iraqian Oil one -- I learned a lot.
Click to expand...

You're welcome.

[ digression ]
Just today I was reading a book about a guy who claims that the international press only reports negative aspects of Latin American countries. If the news is positive, it is considered to be a glitch or, at the very least, a model not to be followed, regardless of what it truly is. If it is negative, it reinforces prejudices, which is always comforting. He wrote that in 1905! I wonder how much has changed. Not that I believe there's a conspiracy theory behind it... it is just that Latin America is taken for granted. Not strange or threatening enough to get any attention. [ /digression]
 
manny said:
Shera, where are the hemp fields? As you note, hemp products are not banned in the US, just the hemp itself. We're a global economy now -- most of our clothing is already made overseas. Even that most American of apparel, blue jeans, are now made overseas. There's literally no barrier at all to China or Brazil or other clothing manufacturing centers to make clothes out of hemp instead of cotton or nylon or orlon and shipping them here or to other markets. Why, if hemp is so great for fabric, haven't hemp jeans made huge inroads into denim's market share, if not here than at least in Europe? If hemp were half as competitive product as guys like us say it is, why isn't it being used for paper in foreign markets, putting the US at a huge economic competitive disadvantage?
Click to expand...
According to a friend of mine, if you travel by train through the hill-country of Yunnan (south-west China) you will pass mile after mile of hemp fields. He was somewhat startled at first sight, not having come across cannabis-use amongst the locals - and this is a guy who could walk into the Pentagon and within ten minutes he'd be chatting with a fellow doper. It's used for clothing, rope and paper. Masses of it. Since before forever. It's the best cash-crop for the terrain, and the seeds are good for animal-feed.

In my youth I worked in the pulp-yard of a paper-mill, and was told that pulp from Mexico and Canada contained a fair amount of hemp to fit the specification. Suspicious that my plonker was being pulled I checked with the paper-makers, and sho' nuff it was so. (Or the plonker-pulling was a conspiracy, which I doubt. The yard-crew - Union men - didn't mix much with the paper-makers - Guildsmen.)
 
pgwenthold said:
This goes back to my original point. If it were the textile industry claiming that they could make better clothes with hemp, or the paper industry claiming it would be a better approach for making paper, it would be one thing. When it is the pro-pot community, it's really hard to care about it, because you realize what they _really_ want to use hemp for has nothing to do with paper or clothes.

As I said, their real goal couldn't be any more obvious if you spotted them the p and the t.
Click to expand...
I agree that the stoners' interest in hemp starts from the smoking end, and that non-stoners are less likely to be interested. That doesn't invalidate the arguments in favour of hemp.

When you use the term "textile industry", do you mean the global textile industry (which is huge)? Globally, much hemp is used in textiles. particularly in East and South-East Asia (where most people live and wear clothes). Or do you mean the Western textile industry, which has far more important things - such as maintaining import quotas for Asian competition - on its mind than arguing the benefits of hemp vis-a-vis cotton in a drug-obsessed political scene. US cotton production isn't subsidised because the producers have no influence.

Let's all think outside the box, m'kay? Let's consider all the reasons why an industry might not call for something marginal to their core interests.

luchog has it dead right, IMO :
It's already been demonstrated by Canadian farmers that hemp cultivation and preparation is less resource-intensive than cotton or flax; thereby cheaper. The only thing that is keeping the price up now is simply economy of scale, due to lack of sufficient market size, due to interference by the US federal government. Once current draconian restrictions are eliminated, the market would likely scale up very quickly.
Click to expand...
Even if the market is influenced by the association of dope and hemp, dopers are still a market. And there are lots of dopers and ex-dopers. Many of them college-educated with attractive disposable incomes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom