Hemp is renowned for being one of the most environmentally friendly and versatile crops grown by man and has even been referred to as a carbon negative raw material.

It requires minimal or no pesticides or herbicides to grow, due to its antibacterial properties and needs little water, renewing soil with each growth cycle. Its long roots prevent erosion and help retain topsoil and it grows readily in most temperate regions. It requires as little as half the amount of water to grow as cotton, is easily sustainable year on year and requires absolutely no irrigation.

History

Hemp has been used to make paper in China since the early Western Han dynasty and China is still the world leader in industrial hemp farming. It was used to make rope and canvas sails for sailing ships. The word canvas can in fact trace its origins to the ancient Greek ‘cannabis’ and it has been a famously strong and versatile fibre since ancient times.

Versatility

Its seeds are used as animal feed and the oil can be used for cooking, in exactly the same way as you might use olive oil. In fact oil extracted from hemp seed contains vital amino acids and essential fatty acids, it’s verging on a super food! It’s even used by the world’s top car manufacturers (Including Audi, BMW, Porsche, Honda and Ford) to make composite panels for their cars!

All of this makes the use of hemp fibre industrially beneficial for everybody and everything involved.

But most interestingly for us it makes an amazingly comfortable fabric and indeed has been grown and woven by the people of Yunnan, China for centuries. It’s surprisingly soft and only gets softer with age. The hemp for our hemp products is sourced locally in Yunnan making the supply chain very ecologically sound.

Click here to see our current range of Hemp products.