RE: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Unfolding Universe (discovery channel)

[Jonathan King <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Thu, 6 Jun 2002, "(8?»" wrote:

> Sorry I missed the first opportunity to reply. First, your joke
> Matt, only helps add to the ignorance surrounding the "evil"
> hemp.
> 
> But to get back to the first question/statement. Paper/textiles
> may be the best uses for hemp, but it is far from the only use.
> Du Pont has many products that could be made from hemp.

>From my pine, it looks like you may have had an embedded link in
there at "products" that, alas, has sprung from the fabric of your
post.  As it were.  Again, I'd be happy to see more information on 
this that is based on the economics of the situation rather than 
nostalgia.

Now, the information I have may be dated, but I have read that when
you price out the products that are achievable from large scale hemp
production (which includes not only fiber, but also seeds and oil),
that you would generally expect to find real competitive advantages
only for the fiber.  This isn't because there is necessarily any one
plant that is as versatile as hemp, but because more specialized
crops like cotton, soybeans, and rapeseed (aka "canola") often
provide similar or superior products at a greater net profit.
In about 3 seconds, I came up with this link:

    http://www.uky.edu/Ag/AgEcon/abs_hemp.html

Now I also found the following link, which makes one of those nerdy 
direct comparisons that we academics think are a blast to read:

    http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1996/v3-384.html

If you scroll down to the tables, you can see evidence for the 
superiority of hemp for some papermaking purposes (writing paper in 
particular, where high brightness isn't required), but disadvantages 
in others (as far as I can tell, you wouldn't want to make 
corrugated cardboard out of the stuff).

jking

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