house of hemp

You can smoke it, you can wear it, you can make oil and cosmetic products from it, and many people swear by its medicinal properties. South Africa's own House of Hemp sells it in just about any (legal) form you can imagine. (Their first retail outlet was opened in Johannesburg in 2001.) But dude, this stuff is way cool for another reason.

The House of Hemp and the CSIR have been working with the South African Department of Trade and Industry in setting up pilot projects for hemp production in the Eastern Cape. Cannabis has been a huge industry there for decades, but of course it's illegal, and I understand the Department of Health hasn't approved anything other than pilot farms under "drug testing licence", despite DTI involvement. If this is true, a big opportunity is being missed - and this is not just about legalising rural jobs: it's also about climate change.

The CSIR have carried out research on using hemp fibre in composite materials, along with other natural fibres. The benefits of using hemp in the construction industry could be immense, in part because of the size of the harvest. It's not called "weed" for nothing. Hemp grows quickly and easily in the Eastern Cape (with no irrigation or fertilizer), and growing and harvesting it is labour-intensive, so as a building material it would create thousands of jobs.

It's already big business in Lesotho, and is grown in Transkei and other parts of South Africa. According to studies by the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority:

...the commercial cultivation of cannabis in Lesotho increased considerably from the mid-1980s onward. The LHDA's estimates suggest that households in the Mohale dam zone currently draw 39% of their annual income from agricultural activities. Nearly 50% of that agricultural income (personal consumption included) comes from the sale of cannabis.

Incidentally, the large Mohale hydroelectric dam (in Maseru and Thaba-Tseka districts), which was planned produce electricity for Lesotho and provide water to six South African provinces, was identified as a significant threat to farmers' livelihoods at the time these studies were carried out. And the Lesotho marijuana industry is not new: it's been grown there since the sixteenth century.

The climate benefit of hemp in construction is two-fold. First, the growing process uses the sun's energy, so replacing other manufactured materials with hemp will reduce energy used in construction - and since most of South Africa's energy comes from coal, emissions will be reduced. Second, the growing process takes carbon dioxide out of the air and "fixes" it in the plant fibre, where it remains in solid form. So a house that is literally built of hemp will have a reduced carbon impact on the environment.

But instead, South Africa's illegal hemp crop goes up in smoke, returning the carbon to the atmosphere. What doesn't get sold and smoked, gets burned by the police. It doesn't have to be this way. The housing policy of the Provincial Government of the Western Cape already supports the idea of using natural building materials, but until hemp can be legally grown on a commercial scale, it's effectively excluded as an option. The other obstacle is lack of awareness among building professionals.

Awareness would increase with the inclusion of hemp in the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) technical standards, but that may require more engineering research into product strengths and other properties.The NHBRC is a non-profit organisation protecting housing consumers through home warranty schemes, regulating the home building industry through the registration of builders, and setting ethical and technical standards for the residential building industry. No loan for the construction of a house will be authorised by a bank without the assignment of a building contractor approved by the NHBRC.

Meanwhile, other countries are forging ahead with commercial hemp production. Work is under way in Suffolk (UK) on what is set to become the biggest hemp factory in the world, capable of processing 50,000 tonnes a year. (Will Lesotho one day be exporting hemp legally to the UK?) The LHOIST group provides a product called hemp lime for the construction industry (used in plasters, renders and masonry) under the trade name Tradical. Technical specifications are provided on their web site.

And for all you DIY fundis out there, AfriCAN HOUSEit provides step-by-step instructions (in two languages!) on how to build a cannabis home with your very own cannabricks. Fundisa abanye.

One fibre, many solutions.

[Thanks to Peta Brom of MDL Architects for background information and links.]

Comments

[Lin]

Hemp is a great plant. What you don't make clear here is it is NOT the same plant as Marijuana (though related) You can try to smoke hemp and all you'll get is a headache from trying for hours. You grow Hemp differently and you harvest it at a different time. Interpollination results in a weakend Marijuana plant and no 'weed' smokers would want that so they'd keep their 'production' well away from commercially grown hemp.

[Hayley Gigg]

I hope that the authorities approve the legal growing&manufacturing of industrial hemp before it is too late. I not sure if people are just not aware on the impact we are having on the environment or if money is clouding every ones vision as to move away from how we have been treating this world. All the money in the world will not be worth the devastation we are about to leave our children's children hope we can start looking beyond profits and start understanding that in some strange way we are all connected to each other and the nature around us.
Thank you for website very interesting